Best Fantastical Alternatives in 2024

Why Look For A Fantastical Alternative?

It has a steep learning curve

It’s expensive at scale

The 5 Best Fantastical Alternatives in 2024

1. beams

• See daily meeting overview on top of your screen: Stay organized by having a quick glance at your schedule without needing to open your calendar app. Never miss a meeting again with unobtrusive meeting reminders.

• Get rid of distractions with Focus Mode: Facing a critical deadline? With one click you can enter Focus Mode, which starts a 30-minute timer, silences notifications, and blocks time in your calendar, ensuring you stay focused on important tasks without interruption.

• Join meetings with a single click: Never miss a meeting again with beams. With a single keyboard shortcut, you can join meetings on your schedule.

• Check your calendar health and set goals: Get insights into your calendar usage and overall calendar health. You can set specific productivity goals and track your progress to ensure you're meeting your objectives.

• Track your team’s productivity with team stats: Monitor your team’s performance with detailed team statistics. This feature allows you to assess productivity levels and identify areas for improvement, promoting better team management and efficiency.

• Only integrates with Mac OS: This limits its accessibility to users with Windows or Linux operating systems. Users on these platforms will need to seek alternative solutions or use a Mac-compatible device.

2. MeetingBar

• Shows your calendar events in the status bar: MeetingBar displays your upcoming events directly in the menu bar, allowing you to see your schedule at a glance without needing to open a calendar app.

• Create and join meetings with one click: With MeetingBar, you can quickly create new meetings or join existing ones with a single click.

• No Slack integration: MeetingBar does not integrate with Slack, so you cannot automatically silence Slack notifications during meetings. This can be a drawback for users who rely heavily on Slack for communication.

• No calendar insights or goal tracking: MeetingBar is focused solely on meeting management and does not provide insights into your calendar health or track your productivity goals. Users looking for more comprehensive calendar management tools will need to supplement with other apps.

3. Notion Calendar

• Task and calendar integration: Combine tasks and events within the Notion workspace for streamlined planning and execution.

• Collaboration tools: Share calendars with your team and collaborate on tasks, ensuring everyone stays on the same page.

• Free version comes with limited functionality: The extensive features and customization options are only available for the paid version. The free version comes with a 7 day page history, which limits the long-term benefits of the tool.

• Feature overload and complexity: Notion Calendar can be overwhelming for new users. A learning curve is required to utilize Notion Calendar effectively. If you’re looking for a calendar companion app, this tool probably has more features than you need.

4. Meeter

• Join scheduled calls: Meeter allows you to easily join scheduled calls by simply opening the menu bar and clicking the join call button. This feature makes it quick and convenient to connect to your meetings.

• Initiate 1:1 audio calls: Meeter also enables you to initiate 1:1 audio calls with your FaceTime contacts, facilitating easy communication without needing to navigate through different apps.

• Lacks advanced features: While Meeter simplifies the process of joining calls, it lacks many advanced features found in other productivity tools. Users who need detailed analytics, task management, or extensive collaboration capabilities will find Meeter inadequate.

• Limited platform compatibility: Meeter is primarily designed for Mac users, which can be a significant limitation for individuals who use Windows or other operating systems.

5. Superpowered

• Calendar Integration: Seamlessly syncs with your calendar to show upcoming events and enable one-click join for meetings.

• Focus Tools: Provides features like focus time and automatic Slack status updates to minimize distractions.

• Subscription Required for Advanced Features: Some features, such as detailed calendar insights and AI-generated notes, are available only in the premium version.

• Occasional bugs: Users have reported bugs with some features, such as AI notes.

How beams can help you work smarter

• A Simplified, User-Friendly Interface: Ensuring ease of use and a minimal learning curve, beams helps you stay organized by providing a daily meeting overview on top of your screen, allowing you to glance at your schedule without needing to open your calendar app.

• Individualized Insights: Allowing you to tailor the tool to fit your unique needs. You can check your calendar health and set specific productivity goals, tracking your progress to ensure you're meeting your objectives.

• Nudges: beams periodically encourages you to silence notifications with focus mode and helps you determine when an upcoming meeting may be non-value-add.

• Keyboard shortcuts: Join meetings with a single click using a keyboard shortcut, ensuring you never miss a meeting again.

• For team leaders, beams offers detailed team statistics, enabling you to monitor your team’s performance, assess productivity levels, and identify areas for improvement, promoting better team management and efficiency.