This post reviews one the best alternative calendar apps for iPhone and iPod Touch: Fantastical.

The stock Calendar app in iOS is good, but it hasn’t changed much since the first version of the operating system. Fantastical by Flexibits is a great alternative calendar app that adds useful functionality combined with great design that is both helpful and appealing. So much so, in fact, that Fantastical has replaced the stock Calendar app on my iPhone’s home screen.

The most obvious visual difference between Fantastical and the stock Calendar app is its Dayticker feature. Dayticker is an at-a-glance, five-day overview of your calendars packaged in an intuitive scrolling banner. With today’s date circled in red, events appear either as color-coded dots that indicate the approximate time of the event or as bars indicating all-day events. By flicking left or right on the Dayticker you can scroll forward or backward in time. Pulling down slightly on the Dayticker reveals a search box you can use to locate calendar events.

Beneath the Dayticker, Fantastical presents you with a helpful detail view of your upcoming events, much like the list view in the stock Calendar app. Since the Dayticker and event list are connected, scrolling either of them causes the other to move as well. The combination of the Dayticker and the list view provides an amazingly intuitive overview of your calendars and makes it easy to find what you’re looking for.

Miss the month view? Fantastical has you covered. Pull down on the Dayticker to reveal a compact month view complete with dots indicating the number of events on a particular date. Since Fantastical’s month view is more compact that the stock Calendar app’s, it leaves more room to see your upcoming events in the list view below. This can be particularly useful if viewing your calendar on the iPhone 4S or earlier’s smaller screen. Simply pull down on the month view to switch back to the Dayticker.

The other way that Fantastical really shines is when creating new calendar events. Tapping the “+” symbol in the top right of the screen will reveal a New Event page. Fantastical features a built-in natural language engine. All you need to do to create an event is type, or speak using dictation*, your event using everyday language rather than having to navigate complex menus. For example, you might type, “Lunch with Jared at Chipotle at 12pm on Friday” or you might use iOS’ built in dictation feature to say, “Staff meeting every other Wednesday from 9am to 12pm at work.” As you type or speak, Fantastical will visually build your event so that all you have to do is tap Add to create it. The app is great at intuiting the meaning of your words and crafting events for you. If you need to fine-tune your event after typing or speaking it, there is a Show Details option to access a more traditional menu.

Fantastical links up automatically with the calendars you’ve added in the Settings app. Furthermore, events created using Siri or the stock Calendar app appear in Fantastical immediately. Unfortunately, there isn’t currently a native version of Fantastical for iPad, though the app does work well in the iPad’s 2x mode.

Fantastical makes adding, managing, and viewing calendar appointments on your iPhone much more easy, intuitive, and beautiful. Try it out. If you do, I predict it will soon replace the stock Calendar app on your home screen as well.

Fantastical for iPhone and iPod Touch is available on the app store for $4.99. Click or tap here for a direct link to the Fantastical in the App Store: Fantastical App.

Also, check out Flexibits’s website for more info on Fantastical for Mac: http://flexibits.com/

* Dictation requires an iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, or iPod touch (5th generation or later) and Internet access.