calcurse vs EteSync
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?
calcurse
Text-based calendar and scheduling application
VS
EteSync
End-to-end encrypted sync for contacts and calendars
| Feature | calcurse | EteSync |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Calendar & Contacts | Calendar & Contacts |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | C | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 16 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | binary, source | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,301 | ★ 1,765 |
| First released | 2004 | 2017 |
| Replaces | Google Calendar | Google Calendar, iCloud |
Why pick each one
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
Choose EteSync if…
- Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (1.8k GitHub stars)
- Written in Python
Frequently asked questions
Is calcurse or EteSync better?
Neither is universally better. EteSync 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 calcurse and EteSync free and open-source?
Yes. calcurse is licensed under BSD-2-Clause and EteSync under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run calcurse and EteSync with Docker?
calcurse: check the project docs for container support. EteSync: yes.