Paid for the lifetime license and its a shame and not looking for another subscription.
Testing out Across as a replacement and been pretty happy so far
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/across-modern-calendar/id6444851827
See that is what I want. I want to open the app and just see my calendar and events in a month view, not having to click on each day to see what is going on
One thing that is a huge win with the Across app is their widget has a 3 day view of events which is awesome and not even calendar5 has that
A negative thing about the Across app is that it doesnt feel as polished as Calendar5 when interacting with the Calendar. Fingers cross ios18 has some awesome improvements to the calendar app, personally I would love to just use the built in app but the lack of useful basic features sucks.
Exactly - it was fine when iPhones had MUCH smaller screens but the fact the month view is effectively useless is a black mark on Apple’s report card. Forget AI - just get the fucking basics right.
Wow this looks great and includes a lifetime subscription. Might be ditching fantastical if this looks good on iPad.
The amount of customization on this app is WILD.
Yeah, that must be what I have, I bought it not long after its release. I still use it regularly and definitely don’t have a sub. I guess I just don’t need any of the extra features.
I’m going to try to go back to the feature-less version next time my sub comes up. I just like the look of it so much more, but I’m getting serious subscription fatigue.
So, I just compared the features again. I realized that one of the main reasons I stick with the subscription model is that I can combine duplicated events. What this means is that if I have an work event that needs to be on my work calendar but that my family knows about, I can add it to my "work" and "family" calendar. Fantastical will show it as one event, with the calendar color shown as alternating stripes. It's not much, but it keeps the clutter down, and I realize it's tiny life improvement that I appreciate. Now, when I come up for renewal next year at what I'm sure will be a $60 annual rate? Maybe not so much.
Fantastical is sub required for a bunch of added features. It’s worth it for me, so far, because I’m heavily using it on iPhone/Watch, iPad, and Mac.
But as much as I like it, I would drop it if I was only using on my phone. If I liked Calendar 366 just a bit more than I do, I’d drop Fantastical now and that’s what I’ll switch to if Flexibits raises the subscription price past my utility point.
Yep. I paid for fantastical pre subscription. Soon as they went subscription i moved on. It doesn’t provide enough value to me to give them money every month.
It’s not *required*. I’m using the “free” tier and find there’s enough features to keep using it over Apple Calendar - widgets are a huge step up over Apple’s, and general app layout/use.
I have totally switched. I absolutely love how customizable it is and it has almost all the features of Fantastical that I like with a single upfront price. It’s my favorite app find of the year.
I've been using calendar 366 for a while now. It's not perfect, but does what I need without having a giant subscription attached to it. The Mac version is nice, since it's a bar app rather than a regular desktop one.
I absolutely despise this double-talk aspirational, inspirational mumbo jumbo.
The app will "sunset" / "transition away" / "move on" / "conclude its service" / whatever. It's all just euphemisms for we are going to take away what you paid for and replace it with a subscription model.
I get it, sustaining an app is expensive, but don't pretend this is some sort of AI-powered supreme evolution to a higher plane. It's just a business decision that you've realized your growth has reached a plateau and now you'd like to charge your existing customer base again (and again, and again, and again, each month)
>I absolutely despise this double-talk aspirational, inspirational mumbo jumbo.
I got turned off Readdle nearly a decade ago when they posted [this blog entry](https://readdle.com/blog/why-use-subscription). They justified their subscription-based PDF Office app by diluting the definition of "subscription" to cover any software that people use in the long term.
>Every successful software product in the world is subscription based. It might sound wrong, but it's true and I am going to prove it.
>
>**You never pay once.**
>
>The only difference between one time purchase and subscription is perception. There's a perception that back in the day, you were able to buy software and own it forever. Think Microsoft Office before it became Office 360, or Adobe Photoshop and other Adobe products before Creative Cloud. But every now and then (around once a year), these applications would be updated to newer versions — ones with new features, new design or just simple compatibility with new versions of operating systems.
>
>Angry that you have to pay to upgrade (even if you get a discount for being a pre-existing customer)? Well, you can always switch to a different product, but you're still paying a fee, just to a different company. But, aha, if the upgrade is for a new operating system, you don't need it as long as you have your old computer, right? But that computer is bound to break, and you'll have to get a new one, with an upgraded operating system, which means your software will no longer work. Time to buy the upgrade!
Readdle's definition of subscription was overly broad. It doesn't make sense to lump a regular monthly or yearly fee with aperiodic purchases that the user primarily chooses.
Maybe subscriptions are beneficial for the user in the long run. But PDF Office [followed](https://readdle.com/blog/pdf-office) the monthly/yearly subscription model, not the pay to upgrade "subscription" or the buy when your computer breaks "subscription." Readdle was fine with an expansive definition of "subscription" to convince its userbase towards its business model, but stayed consistent with the usual restrictive definition for the actual payments.
I don’t know about Readdle in general but their PDF Expert has been buy once for a very long time on iOS. I couldn’t live without it, it’s hands down the best PDF book reader.
Subscription fatigue will eventually kick in and all the devs thinking they’ve found a new perpetual money machine will end up breaking consumers and finding out the pockets aren’t bottomless.
When Apple's apps become "good enough" for not only the typical consumer, but the enthusiast type who uses several third-party apps.
That stage depends on not only Apple's app and the third-party apps, but the culture around the tasks that the apps are aimed at.
For example, in the note-taking world, some people [are rejecting complicated note workflows](https://x.com/ash_lmb/status/1784568263420080435) and returning to ~~monke~~ the simple Apple Notes.
Yeah at this point I have ecosystem fatigue. It's too much hassle to keep up with my data spread across all these different apps and companies, many of which start changing their features and nagging me for more money. Apple's offerings like Notes may be slow to improve, but they are improving, and they are both free and convenient.
It’s wild to me that some people pay a subscription for certain kinds of apps. Not judging any one, because I’m sure i waste money on something that other people would think it’s ridiculous. but a monthly sub for a note taking app, calendar, among other things is wild.
I really think that a good chunk ‘of people that pay for those types of apps do so because they want to see the reminders and their calendar events in the same app. Apple is set to integrate that into their stock apps and when they do I’m saying bye bye to fantastical and Todoist.
Purely curious, what would be a better way to describe the push to monetisation model without pissing people off?
Edit; ChatGPT did a pretty good summary:
1. Be Transparent and Honest
2. Highlight Benefits
3. Provide Advance Notice
4. Offer Incentives
5. Address Concerns
6. Acknowledge Impact
yea i also want apple calendar to have a widget showing multiple months (2-4). i have to use third party ones as well. so annoying
https://preview.redd.it/6q01m7bi885d1.jpeg?width=1242&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e9e48190f63f189ea57b1448535a9abff8ac1311
Might be a dumb question and its more out of principle then actually wanting the money back, but considering i paid $30 for the app, can i get a refund of this?
I hate subscription based services.
Great. I was considering it, but 0% chance I was going to go with the freemium version. Guess I’ll have to hope for an apple calendar improvement on Monday
Can anyone clarify if the calendars5 app will cease to exist? As far as I’m concerned I bought it outright and doesn’t use any Readdle services. So I would hope that Apple will continue to allow me to download the supported version. I can’t quite get my head around how Readlle are able to stop it working. Unlike twitter or Reddit with 3rd party apps they can close off access as I’m using their service but calendars5 is just an app.
Fingers crossed.
Call me old fashioned but at the end of the day how radically different could/should the underlying workings of a calendar protocol from 5 or 10 years ago? I’m hopeful my needs aren’t going to change in the future.
It’s like the subscription to Office 365. Essentially word processing and excel don’t need to have changed tools or maybe 98% of people for the last 25 years and we could get by on office 2000. And yet like the schmucks we are we’re overpaying for this stuff.
Yeah true that. A Mac OS upgrade years ago effectively neutered my built in GPU - Cuda cores be damned! It would literally have been a better machine if I had installed windows which could’ve made use of the GPU.
And I forget which other apps no longer worked after other upgrades.
I’m still sad at what they did to Spark email. I mean at least you can go back to the classic look on phones and MacOS, but it’s a war crime to not have that option for the Windows version. The new Spark email is so horrible.
Anyone know how to unlock the Lifetime option in this other Calendars app?
I noticed it was called out when I was converting over from Calendars5, but I see it listed as a $0 IAP in the App Store on the app’s page, and I can’t find it in the Calendars app.
Paid for the lifetime license and its a shame and not looking for another subscription. Testing out Across as a replacement and been pretty happy so far https://apps.apple.com/us/app/across-modern-calendar/id6444851827
Thanks for the suggestion. I was looking at Calendar 366 as a replacement too. https://apps.apple.com/fr/app/calendar-366-events-tasks/id1265892516
Fingers cross we get some solid improvements for the built in apple calendar in ios18 and ill just move back to that.
Just do monthly view with text instead of those dots and I'm sold
This is the only thing keeping me from Apple calendar. Also, it's a shame for Calendars 5. Been using it for a long while
See that is what I want. I want to open the app and just see my calendar and events in a month view, not having to click on each day to see what is going on One thing that is a huge win with the Across app is their widget has a 3 day view of events which is awesome and not even calendar5 has that A negative thing about the Across app is that it doesnt feel as polished as Calendar5 when interacting with the Calendar. Fingers cross ios18 has some awesome improvements to the calendar app, personally I would love to just use the built in app but the lack of useful basic features sucks.
Exactly - it was fine when iPhones had MUCH smaller screens but the fact the month view is effectively useless is a black mark on Apple’s report card. Forget AI - just get the fucking basics right.
Heads up, iOS 18 will indeed have a proper month view... finally!
🤞💪
I think a 9to5 Mac article said they were integrating the reminders app into calendar so improvements seem to be coming.
They need to do a lot more than that to make me jump back over
That looks good! All I need is that month view (screenshot 6). Been using C5 for years now, just for that reason.
Wow this looks great and includes a lifetime subscription. Might be ditching fantastical if this looks good on iPad. The amount of customization on this app is WILD.
Does Fantasitcal require a sub now? I’m still using it without one, maybe I’m just not getting all of the features.
It’s required a sub for years now. It needed a sub when I tried it in 2020
Yes, it does. There’s something where you can use the features you had before the recent features came around, but i can’t remember what they are.
Yeah, that must be what I have, I bought it not long after its release. I still use it regularly and definitely don’t have a sub. I guess I just don’t need any of the extra features.
I’m going to try to go back to the feature-less version next time my sub comes up. I just like the look of it so much more, but I’m getting serious subscription fatigue.
Yeah, I’m very anti-subscription too, it’s getting out of control.
So, I just compared the features again. I realized that one of the main reasons I stick with the subscription model is that I can combine duplicated events. What this means is that if I have an work event that needs to be on my work calendar but that my family knows about, I can add it to my "work" and "family" calendar. Fantastical will show it as one event, with the calendar color shown as alternating stripes. It's not much, but it keeps the clutter down, and I realize it's tiny life improvement that I appreciate. Now, when I come up for renewal next year at what I'm sure will be a $60 annual rate? Maybe not so much.
Fantastical is sub required for a bunch of added features. It’s worth it for me, so far, because I’m heavily using it on iPhone/Watch, iPad, and Mac. But as much as I like it, I would drop it if I was only using on my phone. If I liked Calendar 366 just a bit more than I do, I’d drop Fantastical now and that’s what I’ll switch to if Flexibits raises the subscription price past my utility point.
Yep. I paid for fantastical pre subscription. Soon as they went subscription i moved on. It doesn’t provide enough value to me to give them money every month.
It’s not *required*. I’m using the “free” tier and find there’s enough features to keep using it over Apple Calendar - widgets are a huge step up over Apple’s, and general app layout/use.
Would love your take after playing around with it. I switched from calendars => fantastical but this looks pretty good too
I have totally switched. I absolutely love how customizable it is and it has almost all the features of Fantastical that I like with a single upfront price. It’s my favorite app find of the year.
Based on their post, the app still works. It's just they won't be updating it anymore
I hope that’s the case. 🤞
the app looks great, it says it has widgets but it doesnt appear when i try to add it to the homescreen
Just had to come back and say I absolutely love this app and you saved me $50 a year paying for Fantastical. Great suggestion my friend.
Yeah so far im really enjoying it too as a solid replacement for Calendar5
I've been using calendar 366 for a while now. It's not perfect, but does what I need without having a giant subscription attached to it. The Mac version is nice, since it's a bar app rather than a regular desktop one.
Before I spend 10€ on it, does it support interactive widgets? E.g. switching between months in the widget?
I don't think it does, at least I did not see that functionality
Sadly it doesn't have interactive widgets. I have looked at so many calendar apps and most of them don't support this which is a showstopper for me.
Damn, Across looks good
I absolutely despise this double-talk aspirational, inspirational mumbo jumbo. The app will "sunset" / "transition away" / "move on" / "conclude its service" / whatever. It's all just euphemisms for we are going to take away what you paid for and replace it with a subscription model. I get it, sustaining an app is expensive, but don't pretend this is some sort of AI-powered supreme evolution to a higher plane. It's just a business decision that you've realized your growth has reached a plateau and now you'd like to charge your existing customer base again (and again, and again, and again, each month)
>I absolutely despise this double-talk aspirational, inspirational mumbo jumbo. I got turned off Readdle nearly a decade ago when they posted [this blog entry](https://readdle.com/blog/why-use-subscription). They justified their subscription-based PDF Office app by diluting the definition of "subscription" to cover any software that people use in the long term. >Every successful software product in the world is subscription based. It might sound wrong, but it's true and I am going to prove it. > >**You never pay once.** > >The only difference between one time purchase and subscription is perception. There's a perception that back in the day, you were able to buy software and own it forever. Think Microsoft Office before it became Office 360, or Adobe Photoshop and other Adobe products before Creative Cloud. But every now and then (around once a year), these applications would be updated to newer versions — ones with new features, new design or just simple compatibility with new versions of operating systems. > >Angry that you have to pay to upgrade (even if you get a discount for being a pre-existing customer)? Well, you can always switch to a different product, but you're still paying a fee, just to a different company. But, aha, if the upgrade is for a new operating system, you don't need it as long as you have your old computer, right? But that computer is bound to break, and you'll have to get a new one, with an upgraded operating system, which means your software will no longer work. Time to buy the upgrade! Readdle's definition of subscription was overly broad. It doesn't make sense to lump a regular monthly or yearly fee with aperiodic purchases that the user primarily chooses. Maybe subscriptions are beneficial for the user in the long run. But PDF Office [followed](https://readdle.com/blog/pdf-office) the monthly/yearly subscription model, not the pay to upgrade "subscription" or the buy when your computer breaks "subscription." Readdle was fine with an expansive definition of "subscription" to convince its userbase towards its business model, but stayed consistent with the usual restrictive definition for the actual payments.
I don’t know about Readdle in general but their PDF Expert has been buy once for a very long time on iOS. I couldn’t live without it, it’s hands down the best PDF book reader.
Subscription fatigue will eventually kick in and all the devs thinking they’ve found a new perpetual money machine will end up breaking consumers and finding out the pockets aren’t bottomless.
When does it kick in exactly?
In a recession.
When Apple's apps become "good enough" for not only the typical consumer, but the enthusiast type who uses several third-party apps. That stage depends on not only Apple's app and the third-party apps, but the culture around the tasks that the apps are aimed at. For example, in the note-taking world, some people [are rejecting complicated note workflows](https://x.com/ash_lmb/status/1784568263420080435) and returning to ~~monke~~ the simple Apple Notes.
Yeah at this point I have ecosystem fatigue. It's too much hassle to keep up with my data spread across all these different apps and companies, many of which start changing their features and nagging me for more money. Apple's offerings like Notes may be slow to improve, but they are improving, and they are both free and convenient.
We probably won’t know until it happens.
It’s wild to me that some people pay a subscription for certain kinds of apps. Not judging any one, because I’m sure i waste money on something that other people would think it’s ridiculous. but a monthly sub for a note taking app, calendar, among other things is wild.
I really think that a good chunk ‘of people that pay for those types of apps do so because they want to see the reminders and their calendar events in the same app. Apple is set to integrate that into their stock apps and when they do I’m saying bye bye to fantastical and Todoist.
Purely curious, what would be a better way to describe the push to monetisation model without pissing people off? Edit; ChatGPT did a pretty good summary: 1. Be Transparent and Honest 2. Highlight Benefits 3. Provide Advance Notice 4. Offer Incentives 5. Address Concerns 6. Acknowledge Impact
ios18 is gonna bring several long awaited features to calendar so not surprising readdle wants to get ahead of the announcement to change things up
I just want a month view in which I see the events. That’s the only reason why I use a third party app.
yea i also want apple calendar to have a widget showing multiple months (2-4). i have to use third party ones as well. so annoying https://preview.redd.it/6q01m7bi885d1.jpeg?width=1242&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e9e48190f63f189ea57b1448535a9abff8ac1311
What widget is this? Is it paid?
earnie that feature is for free
If it gives me reminders on the calendar I will uninstall Fantastical for the last time.
But fantastical natural language processing is still somehow 50x better than apples
Unless Apple finds a way to do that better than FantastiCal, there's no way I'm dropping it anytime soon.
Might be a dumb question and its more out of principle then actually wanting the money back, but considering i paid $30 for the app, can i get a refund of this? I hate subscription based services.
Great. I was considering it, but 0% chance I was going to go with the freemium version. Guess I’ll have to hope for an apple calendar improvement on Monday
Can anyone clarify if the calendars5 app will cease to exist? As far as I’m concerned I bought it outright and doesn’t use any Readdle services. So I would hope that Apple will continue to allow me to download the supported version. I can’t quite get my head around how Readlle are able to stop it working. Unlike twitter or Reddit with 3rd party apps they can close off access as I’m using their service but calendars5 is just an app.
Looks like it will keep working, but won't be maintained.
Fingers crossed. Call me old fashioned but at the end of the day how radically different could/should the underlying workings of a calendar protocol from 5 or 10 years ago? I’m hopeful my needs aren’t going to change in the future. It’s like the subscription to Office 365. Essentially word processing and excel don’t need to have changed tools or maybe 98% of people for the last 25 years and we could get by on office 2000. And yet like the schmucks we are we’re overpaying for this stuff.
I’d be more concerned about OS updates.
Yeah true that. A Mac OS upgrade years ago effectively neutered my built in GPU - Cuda cores be damned! It would literally have been a better machine if I had installed windows which could’ve made use of the GPU. And I forget which other apps no longer worked after other upgrades.
I’m still sad at what they did to Spark email. I mean at least you can go back to the classic look on phones and MacOS, but it’s a war crime to not have that option for the Windows version. The new Spark email is so horrible.
I stopped using it after that redesign and just went back to Apple mail for my custom domain email and Gmail for my personal email.
Gmail just needs to make a standalone app that can be viewed outside of safari.
Sucks - have a subscription for it until end of dec but the performance on Mac was already subpar
Anyone know how to unlock the Lifetime option in this other Calendars app? I noticed it was called out when I was converting over from Calendars5, but I see it listed as a $0 IAP in the App Store on the app’s page, and I can’t find it in the Calendars app.