Bracket vs calcurse
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted calendar & contacts options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Not the right match-up?
Bracket
Flexible tournament system to build a tournament setup, add teams,
VS
calcurse
Text-based calendar and scheduling application
| Feature | Bracket | calcurse |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Calendar & Contacts | Calendar & Contacts |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | BSD-2-Clause |
| Language | TypeScript | C |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 16 MB |
| Deployment | docker | binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,709 | ★ 1,301 |
| First released | 2025 | 2004 |
| Replaces | — | Google Calendar |
Why pick each one
Choose Bracket if…
- Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (1.7k GitHub stars)
- Written in TypeScript
Choose calcurse if…
- Released under the BSD-2-Clause license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- Active community (1.3k GitHub stars)
- Written in C
Frequently asked questions
Is Bracket or calcurse better?
Neither is universally better. Bracket has the larger community, while calcurse is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Bracket and calcurse free and open-source?
Yes. Bracket is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and calcurse under BSD-2-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Bracket and calcurse with Docker?
Bracket: yes. calcurse: check the project docs for container support.