Cal.diy 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?
Cal.diy
Online appointment scheduling system
VS
calcurse
Text-based calendar and scheduling application
| Feature | Cal.diy | calcurse |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Calendar & Contacts | Calendar & Contacts |
| License | MIT | BSD-2-Clause |
| Language | TypeScript | C |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 16 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal | binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 47,334 | ★ 1,301 |
| First released | 2026 | 2004 |
| Replaces | — | Google Calendar |
Why pick each one
Choose Cal.diy if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Mature project with 47.3k GitHub stars
- Written in TypeScript
- Lightweight — runs in 512 MB RAM
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 Cal.diy or calcurse better?
Neither is universally better. Cal.diy 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 Cal.diy and calcurse free and open-source?
Yes. Cal.diy is licensed under MIT and calcurse under BSD-2-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Cal.diy and calcurse with Docker?
Cal.diy: check the project docs for container support. calcurse: check the project docs for container support.