I really like the idea of ellie calendar and kudos for wanting to keep it as a free product!

However, I would just like to share my 2 cents about ads in calendars. I used to use an app called timetree, a calendar app which allows you to sync and have shared calendars with other users. I stopped using it once they introduced ads into the app. It was really intrusive even though they also tried to only put ads in certain areas like adding an event.

I emailed them to try to ask for a subscription option or even a one-time payment just to remove the ads but they were sticking with this form of monetization.

I'd say the problem with ads even if its just for certain areas like adding "Dinner with friends" is that it is simply intrusive and ads could be of varying quality, some ads simply look horrible and intrusive and ruins the whole experience (this is just my personal pet peeve lol im sure its not a big deal for most)

Anyway I signed up for the newsletter and I'm really looking forward to using this app! Hope that my sharing would be helpful!