BusyCal vs Calendar 366
Both are bought outright, both sit in email & tasks, and both are bought by people leaving Fantastical Premium, Calendars by Readdle, Vimcal. Here is what actually differs — including what each price does not buy.
The short answer
- BusyCal has the cleaner licence: own it, pay for major upgrades, against lifetime plan available for Calendar 366.
Side by side
 BusyCal$49.99Paid upgrades |  Calendar 366$49.99Lifetime tier | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | power-user Mac calendar that never went subscription | full calendar app with a $49.99 one-time unlock |
| Price | $49.99 | $49.99 |
| Licence | Own it, pay for major upgrades | Lifetime plan available |
| What you get | One payment, and the developer charges for major versions on a stated cadence. | Normally sold as a subscription, but a genuine one-time lifetime option exists. |
| The catch | The licence never expires but includes only 18 months of updates | The $49.99 unlock is an in-app purchase, and separate iOS-only unlocks are sold alongside it |
| Macs per licence | 5 | not established |
| Account required | no | no |
| Works offline | yes | yes |
| Apple Silicon | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | Yes |
| On Setapp | No | No |
| Minimum macOS | not established | macOS 14.6 |
| App Store rating | not established | 3.4 from 41 |
| Last updated | not established | 2026-09-22 |
| Price checked | 2026-09-22 | 2026-09-22 |
Apple’s public API reports a rating for only a small minority of Mac apps, and returns zero for most of the rest even when the store page plainly shows reviews. A blank here means we could not read a number, never that an app is unrated or disliked.
In their own right
BusyCal
A native Mac calendar with a scrolling list view, travel time, weather and to-dos alongside events, working across iCloud, Google, Exchange and plain CalDAV. Sold as a one-time licence that comes with an 18-month update window.
Calendar 366
A Mac calendar app that keeps its menu bar dropdown alongside a full window, handling events and Apple Reminders together. Free download with either a yearly or a one-time unlock.