When comparing Spotify vs Fantastical, the Slant community recommends Spotify for most people. In the question“What are the most useful Android phone apps?” Spotify is ranked 15th while Fantastical is ranked 19th. The most important reason people chose Spotify is:
Spotify has over 20 million songs and arguably the largest collection out of its competitors and usually has the fastest access to new music. The Spotify desktop client allows local music files to be imported with the option of syncing with a mobile device which largely mitigates the issue of missing artists.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Huge collection of music and fast access to newly released songs
Spotify has over 20 million songs and arguably the largest collection out of its competitors and usually has the fastest access to new music.
The Spotify desktop client allows local music files to be imported with the option of syncing with a mobile device which largely mitigates the issue of missing artists.
Pro Related artists
Helps to find new authors based on your previous picks
Pro Client's functionality can be extended via third-party apps
Spotify desktop client allows for third-party apps. They extend the functionality of Spotify and many of them offer new ways of discovering music. Noteworthy apps include Moodagent, Last.fm, Swarm.fm, ShareMyPlaylists, The Hype Machine, We Are Hunted, Shuffler.fm.
Pro Curated playlists
Public playlists on Spotify created by other people are great for finding new music.
Pro Has a free version
A free, ad-supported account allows streaming from an extensive library of music.
Pro Weekly Discover playlist uses a great algorithm
A playlist generated by Spotify based on your listening habits and released every Monday. The algorithm used by this playlist is great and stands out from its competitors.
Pro Supports multiple calendar platforms
If you're locked into using an Exchange account, Google Calendar won't work without 3rd party syncing options. Fantastical works flawlessly with Exchange and with Google Accounts so you can have both. It also supports iCloud, Office365, Yahoo, and Facebook calendars.
Pro Fantastical can comprehend natural language
You can copy and paste a line from a meeting note and Fantastical can copy down and present the relevant information
Pro Beautiful and highly polished design
Cons
Con Free account have lots of ads
If you hate commercials, you would buy Premium or go on using something else.
Con Discovery is terrible
The discovery algorithm is poor and does not learn fast enough. Not obvious how to train it.
Con Poor audio quality
There's a high range of bitrates and most of vary from average to bad.
Con Expensive for a single utility app
Fantastical on OS X costs $49.99 and an additional $4.99 if you want to use it on iOS.
Con Only supports iOS and OSX
Fantastical doesn't support web, Windows or Android.