calcurse vs GNOME Calendar
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
GNOME Calendar
Simple desktop calendar with CalDAV support
| Feature | calcurse | GNOME Calendar |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Calendar & Contacts | Calendar & Contacts |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | C | C |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 16 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | binary, source | binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,301 | ★ 300 |
| First released | 2004 | 2015 |
| Replaces | Google Calendar | Google Calendar |
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 GNOME Calendar if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- Written in C
- Tiny footprint — runs in 256 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is calcurse or GNOME Calendar better?
Neither is universally better. calcurse has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are calcurse and GNOME Calendar free and open-source?
Yes. calcurse is licensed under BSD-2-Clause and GNOME Calendar under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run calcurse and GNOME Calendar with Docker?
calcurse: check the project docs for container support. GNOME Calendar: check the project docs for container support.