Comparison

Fantastical Calendar vs SyncCal

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Fantastical Calendar

This powerful calendar and task management app offers intuitive natural language input for event creation, multiple calendar views, and robust task integration. It provides weather forecasts and advanced features like meeting polls and video conferencing integration for premium users.

Highlights
  • Natural language event and task creation
  • Multiple calendar views (day, week, month, year)
  • Integrated task management (Todoist, Google Tasks)
  • Weather forecasts
  • Meeting scheduling and polls
  • Video conferencing integration
Features
Read full description

Fantastical is the award-winning calendar app with powerful features including intuitive natural language text parsing, beautiful full calendar day, week, month, quarter and year views, tasks, time zone support, and much, much more. TRY FANTASTICAL FOR FREE • Beautiful, clean, and easy to use calendar app allowing you to manage basic events • The DayTicker and calendar makes your schedule look the nicest it ever has • Full screen day, week, month, quarter, and year views • Full task support including Todoist and Google Tasks • 3 day weather forecast (powered by AccuWeather) • 14 day free trial for Flexibits Premium UPGRADE TO FLEXIBITS PREMIUM FOR EVEN MORE (requires subscription) • Includes Fantastical on all devices: Mac, iPhone, Apple Watch, and iPad • Openings: Schedule events based on your availability • Proposals: Create meeting polls • Add Zoom, Google Meet, Webex, and Microsoft Teams calls • Extended 10 day weather forecast with RealFeel and MinuteCast up-to-the-minute weather data (powered by AccuWeather) • Browse and instantly subscribe to interesting calendars, including sports, TV shows, holidays, and much more (powered by SchedJoules) • Calendar sets - quickly toggle multiple calendars on or off with a simple click or automatically when you leave or arrive, based on location • Event and task templates • Sync calendar sets and templates across devices • Apple Watch app with Up Next and Weather (and works over LTE) • Parser autocomplete recommendations for invitees, locations, and calendars/task lists • Propose multiple times to easily ask people when they can meet • Combine duplicate events across multiple calendars • Invitees and availability lookups • Respond to event invitations • Default alerts • Time zone override • Favorite time zones • Push updates for Google and Exchange • Set event travel time and receive time to leave notifications • Custom event colors • Custom home screen icons • Custom alert sounds • Hide events without deleting them • Add attachments to events on iCloud, Google, and Exchange • Priority email support ADDING NEW EVENTS OR TASKS IS FAST AND FUN • The easiest and fastest way to add new events or tasks • Type in your details or use dictation and watch your words magically turn into an actual event or task! • Powerful parser features, including: - Create tasks by starting your sentence with “task” ”reminder", "todo", or "remind me to" - Powerful and expressive repeating events such as third Thursday of every month, every weekend, last weekday of the month, and more - Create alerts with phrases like "remind me tomorrow at 3PM", "alert 1 hour before", or "alarm 3PM" THE BEST TASKS APP, TOO • See your events and dated tasks together in the main list • Add tasks directly from the Tasks list or new event screen - just flip the switch to toggle between events and tasks • Set dates, times, and geofences (when I arrive/when I leave) • Support for iCloud Reminders, Todoist, and Google Tasks WORKS THE WAY YOU DO • Connects to your favorite calendar services including iCloud, Google, Exchange, Office 365, Todoist, and more • Automatically add alarms to your new events • Fantastical is fully localized in English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, and Portuguese • Start typing your event or task in any of these languages and Fantastical will automagically understand! EVEN MORE FANTASTICAL • Lots and lots of iOS and iPadOS widgets • Background app updating enables events, tasks, and alerts to be pushed to Fantastical even if you don't launch the app often • Birthdays and Anniversaries - see your contact’s details or send a quick birthday or anniverary greeting • Handoff support between Fantastical for Mac, iPhone, and iPad • Time zone support including floating time zone support • Dark and light themes • Stickers • Accessibility support • And much, much more!

About

SyncCal

Easily share your iOS calendars, including iCloud and Exchange, with others via Google Calendar. You can choose to share full event details or just the times by syncing empty events. The app automates synchronization and can even trigger updates when you leave a specific location.

Highlights
  • Sync iCloud and Exchange calendars
  • Share via Google Calendar
  • Option to sync empty events
  • Automatic background refresh
  • Push notifications for updates
  • Location-based sync triggers
Features
Read full description

SyncCal allows you to share your iOS calendars (e.g. iCloud and Exchange calendars) via Google Calendar with other people. E.g. if you would like to share your work calendar with your family, you can do it this way. And if you (or your employer) doesn't want the events' details to be uploaded to Google Calendar, you can only upload empty events instead, so that your family knows at least the times of your events. Just install SyncCal, enter your Google Calendar account, select which calendars should be synced and tap "Start". Afterward it will copy the selected calendars into new calendars in Google Calendar. It will also automatically keep them up-to-date by using background refresh and push notifications. It can also be configured to automatically sync when you leave your workplace. Just turn "Sync when leaving this place" on when you are at work. SyncCal will save the location and afterward it will automatically sync every time you leave your workplace. iOS' birthday calendar can also be synced into a Google calendar this way. You can find further information on http://synccal.calengoo.com . If you have any problems please contact synccal@calengoo.com .

Screenshots

Fantastical Calendar4 screens
SyncCal4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Fantastical Calendar at Free against SyncCal's $0.99. Fantastical Calendar also leads on rating (4.2 vs 3.5) and ratings volume (25K vs 22). SyncCal's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 10) and review sentiment (76% vs 47%). On ads and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Fantastical Calendar is free to download; SyncCal costs $0.99 up front. Fantastical Calendar sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $6.99 per month. SyncCal asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Fantastical Calendar holds the better App Store score, 4.2 against 3.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Fantastical Calendar has 25K ratings behind it against 22, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 47% of Fantastical Calendar's written reviews are positive against 76% of SyncCal's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Fantastical Calendar ships an update every 3 weeks, SyncCal every 3 months. Both last shipped on October 16, 2026.

Scorecard9 real differences · 2 level
Fantastical Calendar versus SyncCal: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterFantastical CalendarSyncCal
PriceFree — better$0.99
Rating4.2 (25K ratings) — better3.5 (22 ratings)
Positive reviews46.8% of reviews75.7% of reviews — better
Number of ratings25K — better22
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeks — betterEvery 3 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFreemium — betterPaid
Best chart rank#136 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Vision Pro — betteriPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS17.68.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size185 MB7 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperFlexibits Inc.Dominique Andr Gunia

Customer experience

Fantastical Calendar

All ratings24,537 ratings
Positive80.0%
Neutral3.4%
Negative16.6%
Written reviews947 reviews
Positive46.8%
Neutral11.7%
Negative41.5%

SyncCal

All ratings22 ratings
Positive68.2%
Neutral0.0%
Negative31.8%
Written reviews37 reviews
Positive75.7%
Neutral8.1%
Negative16.2%

Bugs and requests

Fantastical Calendar

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Apple Watch sync problems
  • Events disappearing or changing unexpectedly
  • Freezing and crashing on certain user actions

Requested features

4 requests
  • Option to disable predictive input features
  • Improved calendar set management
  • Enhanced integration with third-party apps and services
  • Ability to customize app icons and themes

SyncCal

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

10 purchases

Fantastical Calendar

Subscriptions10
  • Premium (2020 Upgrade)$6.991 Month
  • Flexibits Premium14 Days trial$6.991 Month
  • Premium (2020 Upgrade)3 Months trial$6.991 Month
Show 7 more
  • Premium for Families14 Days trial$10.491 Month
  • Premium Family (2020 Upgrade)$10.491 Month
  • Premium (2020 Upgrade)$56.991 Year
  • Flexibits Premium14 Days trial$56.991 Year
  • Premium (2020 Upgrade)3 Months trial$56.991 Year
  • Premium for Families14 Days trial$89.991 Year
  • Premium Family (2020 Upgrade)$89.991 Year
None

SyncCal

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Fantastical Calendar free?
Fantastical Calendar is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is SyncCal free?
SyncCal costs $0.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Fantastical Calendar or SyncCal?
Fantastical Calendar is rated higher. Fantastical Calendar averages 4.2 out of 5 from 25K ratings, while SyncCal averages 3.5 from 22 ratings.
Do Fantastical Calendar or SyncCal have ads?
Neither Fantastical Calendar nor SyncCal shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Fantastical Calendar or SyncCal?
Fantastical Calendar ships an update every 3 weeks, and SyncCal every 3 months. Most recently, Fantastical Calendar was updated on October 16, 2026 and SyncCal on October 16, 2026.

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