Chime vs Fantastical

Honest comparison to help you choose the right meeting app

Last updated: November 6, 2025

Chime

Never miss a meeting with full-screen alerts

$4.99/mo, $29.99/yr, or $49.99 lifetime
Try Chime Free

Fantastical

Premium calendar app with natural language input

$40/year or $4.75/month

What is Chime?

Chime is a macOS meeting reminder app that shows full-screen alerts before your meetings start. It's designed for people who've missed important meetings because they overlooked calendar notifications. With customizable alert timing (5-15 minutes before meetings) and support for Google Calendar, Outlook, and iCloud, Chime ensures you never miss a meeting again.

What is Fantastical?

Fantastical is a feature-rich calendar app for macOS, iOS, and Apple Watch with natural language parsing, beautiful design, and advanced calendar management features.

Feature Comparison

Alert System

Feature
Chime
Fantastical
Full-screen meeting alerts ⓘ
✓
✗
Customizable alert timing
5-15 min before
Standard alerts
Sound notifications
✓
✓

Calendar Features

Feature
Chime
Fantastical
Natural language input ⓘ
✗
✓
Multiple calendar views
✗
✓
Weather integration
✗
✓
Task management
✗
✓
Calendar sets
✗
✓

Calendar Integration

Feature
Chime
Fantastical
Google Calendar
✓
✓
Outlook Calendar
✓
✓
iCloud Calendar
✓
✓
Exchange support
✓
✓

Meeting Features

Feature
Chime
Fantastical
One-click meeting join
✓
✓
Zoom, Teams, Meet support
✓
✓
Meeting link detection
✓
✓

Cross-Platform

Feature
Chime
Fantastical
macOS app
✓
✓
iOS/iPadOS app
✗
✓
Apple Watch app
✗
✓

Pricing & Business

Feature
Chime
Fantastical
One-time purchase
✓
✗
Free tier
✗
Limited
Price per year
$29.99/year
$40/year

Chime Strengths

  • 26% cheaper annually ($29.99 vs $40) - or pay $49.99 ONCE for lifetime access while Fantastical bleeds you $40 every single year
  • Full-screen alerts that ACTUALLY prevent missed meetings - Fantastical's fancy UI is worthless if you miss the meeting
  • Todoist and Apple Reminders integration - Fantastical forces you to use their inferior built-in task system
  • Meeting Link Manager saves recurring links - Fantastical makes you hunt through events every time
  • ADHD-friendly design built for real humans who get distracted - Fantastical is designed for robots who stare at calendars all day
  • Stats tracking shows if you're actually improving - Fantastical gives you zero accountability
  • Solves ONE problem perfectly instead of solving ten problems poorly
  • Lifetime option means NO recurring fees - own it forever, not rent it

Fantastical Strengths

  • Natural language input (cute party trick, doesn't help when you miss the meeting)
  • Endless calendar features you'll never use (weather? really? that's why you missed your client call?)
  • Works on iPhone/iPad (where you'll ALSO miss notifications because they're still just standard alerts)
  • Costs $40/year forever (in 5 years you've paid $200 vs Chime's $49.99 one-time)
  • Beautiful UI (shame you won't see it when you're explaining to your boss why you missed the meeting)

Choose Chime if...

  • You've ever missed a meeting and felt that sinking feeling of embarrassment and lost opportunity
  • You want to spend $49.99 once instead of $40/year until the end of time
  • You already use Google Calendar/Outlook/iCloud and don't need to replace them - you just need ALERTS THAT WORK
  • You prefer tools that solve your actual problem (missing meetings) over tools that look impressive in screenshots
  • You use Todoist or Apple Reminders and want one unified alert system
  • You value reliability over features you'll never touch
  • You want to track your meeting attendance and hold yourself accountable
  • You're done wasting money on subscriptions for features you don't need

Choose Fantastical if...

  • You love typing 'coffee with Sarah next Tuesday at 3pm' instead of just clicking a button
  • You want to pay $200 over 5 years for the privilege of checking the weather in your calendar app
  • You're happy missing meetings as long as your calendar has a gorgeous UI
  • You need task management but inexplicably refuse to use actual task apps like Todoist
  • You enjoy paying ongoing subscriptions for software that should be a one-time purchase
  • You think more features = better product (hint: it doesn't)

Frequently Asked Questions

Why doesn't Fantastical's $40/year price include full-screen alerts?

Great question. Fantastical charges premium pricing ($40/year) but uses the same standard macOS notifications as the free Calendar app. They focused on making the calendar UI beautiful instead of making the alerts unmissable. Chime costs 26% less annually ($29.99) or $49.99 once for lifetime, and actually solves the 'missing meetings' problem with full-screen alerts. You're paying more for Fantastical to get LESS of what actually matters.

Is natural language input worth $40/year?

Let's be real: typing 'meeting with Bob on Tuesday at 2pm' vs clicking a few dropdowns saves you maybe 5 seconds. Over a year, that's a few minutes saved for $40. Meanwhile, missing ONE client meeting because you didn't see Fantastical's standard notification could cost you thousands in lost business. Chime's full-screen alerts ensure you never miss meetings, costs less ($29.99/year or $49.99 one-time), and includes Todoist/Reminders integration. You decide what's actually valuable.

Can I afford to NOT use Chime if I already pay for Fantastical?

Here's the math: You're already paying $40/year for Fantastical. Add Chime's lifetime option ($49.99 one-time) and you've spent $90 in year one, then $40/year after. Or switch to Chime entirely for $49.99 once and never pay again. But the real cost is opportunity cost - how much does missing one important meeting cost you? Your reputation? A client? A job? Chime's full-screen alerts guarantee you never miss meetings. Fantastical's pretty interface doesn't.

What if I need both calendar features AND reliable alerts?

Use your existing Google Calendar, Outlook, or iCloud Calendar (which you're already paying for or get free) plus Chime ($49.99 lifetime). Total cost: $50 once. Fantastical costs $40/year forever AND still won't prevent you from missing meetings with its weak notification system. You don't need to replace your entire calendar to solve the alerts problem.

Does Fantastical work better because it costs more?

No. Higher price doesn't equal better alerts. Fantastical is expensive because it tries to be a complete calendar suite with dozens of features most people never use. Chime costs less because it focuses on ONE critical problem: making sure you never miss meetings. Would you rather pay more for features you don't need, or pay less for alerts that actually work?

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