I’d really recommend QuickCal if, like me, you also:

• Use iCal regularly
• Don’t like to keep it running as it just sits there most of the time
• Like the idea of using plain english to add stuff to iCal
• Would like to have a quick and simple way to add and view events

After setting it up, now I can quickly press:

• “Shift + Cmd + C” to add a new event in plain english (love the feedback from the different fields that get filled in as you type)
• “Shift + Cmd + X” to get an overview of your days appointments

I had been reading about Fantastical the past few days, but I think it’s a bit overdone design wise. Feels “bulky”. And it costs more than 15 times the price of QuickCal ($0.99).

Update: Quickcal does not support caldav sync, which means you need to keep iCal running all the time otherwise the events you create will not be synced (until you run iCal). This might be a problem for some (like myself).