Fantastical Alternatives for iPhone

Who wrote this: Kalend is our own app and it is the first of the 9 entries below. We list it first deliberately, because it is what we would use, and you should read it with that in mind. It is judged on the same fields as everything else and carries its own stated drawbacks, including that it is iPhone only and still in development rather than on the App Store. There are no affiliate links on this page.

Kalend is our own app and we have listed it first, so you know that before you read a word of it. Everything below Kalend is made by someone else, and every claim about those apps is taken from the App Store listing or the company's own documentation, with the link recorded in each entry. Kalend is measured against the same questions as the rest of the list, and its real limits are set out in the same place as everybody else's.

There are three questions worth asking when a Fantastical renewal is due, and this comparison runs on those alone. Which accounts can the app actually read: iCloud, Google, Exchange, Microsoft 365, CalDAV? Do tasks sit beside events, or does the app only draw the calendar and leave your list somewhere else? And which parts of the app are behind the subscription, since in most of these apps the calendar itself is free and the paid tier holds meeting scheduling, extra views or weather.

Answer those three for the way you actually work and the renewal decision usually settles itself. If your week is one iCloud account, a Google account and a work Exchange login, several free apps read all three. If you are paying for booking links, proposals and conference-call insertion and you use them weekly, the subscription is doing something a free app is not. Read the trade-off on each entry before the feature list; that is where the real answer is.

At a glance

The apps in detail

What is still missing

Almost every app here is a front end for accounts you already own, which means the calendar drawing itself is rarely what you are paying for. Look at what the subscriptions actually gate and a pattern shows up: meeting scheduling and booking links, extra views, weather, templates, conference-call insertion. Those are worth money to somebody who schedules with strangers all week and worth nothing to somebody whose calendar is a school run and two standing meetings. The category sells the whole app when the paid part is a handful of features, and none of these listings make it easy to work out in thirty seconds which side of that line you are on.

Tasks beside events remain uneven and account-shaped. Apple now shows scheduled reminders inside Calendar and lets you create one from the plus button. Google shows Google Tasks. Outlook's listing describes mail and scheduling and does not describe a task list beside events at all. Timepage puts the combined view in Moleskine's separate Actions app. Readdle and Week Calendar each keep their own to-do handling, and Week Calendar puts the reminders view behind Pro. So the honest answer to "can I see my list next to my day" is that it depends which list you already keep, and switching calendar app can quietly mean switching task system too — which is a much bigger move than changing a calendar.

Kalend sits on the other side of this question, and that is a limitation as much as a design choice. It keeps its own tasks, habits, journal entries and events in your iCloud rather than acting as a front end for several calendar accounts, and it is free with no tier to unlock. It is also Apple-only, with no Android, web or Mac version; it has no sharing or collaboration of any kind because everything syncs through your personal iCloud; and it is not on the App Store yet. If the reason you subscribed to Fantastical was a shared work calendar across Mac and iPhone, Kalend is not the replacement — one of the account front ends above is.

Common questions

How do I cancel a Fantastical subscription on my iPhone?

Subscriptions bought inside an app are cancelled through Apple, not the developer. Open Settings, tap your name, tap Subscriptions, tap the subscription, then tap Cancel Subscription; Apple notes that if there is no Cancel button, the subscription is already cancelled. Flexibits' FAQ says features from Fantastical 2 remain available without a Flexibits Premium subscription for existing Fantastical 2 customers, so cancelling does not necessarily leave those users with nothing.

Which Fantastical alternatives on iPhone support natural language event entry?

Calendars by Readdle is explicit about it: its App Store description says you can add events or to-do items using natural language. Several other apps in this list do not describe a parser on their listing at all, and since we only report what an app publishes about itself, treat silence as unknown rather than as a no. If typing "lunch with Sam Thursday 1pm" is the habit you are protecting, test it during a trial before you cancel anything.

Which account types can these apps read — iCloud, Google, Exchange and CalDAV?

Apple Calendar covers iCloud, Google, Microsoft Exchange and Yahoo per Apple's guide. Timepage says it works with any calendar already on your iPhone, listing iCloud, Google, Outlook, Exchange, Facebook, Yahoo and CalDAV. Week Calendar names iCloud, Exchange/Outlook, Yahoo, Google, iCal and CalDAV. Microsoft Outlook supports Exchange, Office 365, Outlook.com, Gmail, Yahoo Mail and iCloud. Notion Calendar covers Google, Outlook and iCloud. Vimcal names Google Calendar and Microsoft Outlook Calendar only.

Is there a free Fantastical alternative for iPhone?

Apple Calendar is included with iOS. Google Calendar and Notion Calendar are both free to download, with Google's paid tiers being account plans rather than calendar features. Vimcal publishes a free plan that is iOS only. Kalend, which is ours, is free with no paid tier at all, but it is Apple-only, has no sharing and is not on the App Store yet.

Do any of these show my tasks next to my events?

Apple Calendar shows scheduled reminders in the calendar from iOS 18 onward and lets you create one from the plus button. Google Calendar creates and manages tasks alongside events. Calendars by Readdle handles events and to-dos together, and Week Calendar has a dedicated Reminders view as part of Pro. Timepage leaves tasks to Moleskine's separate Actions app, which shows the calendar's events alongside the to-do items. Microsoft Outlook's listing does not describe a task list beside events.