calcurse vs Radicale
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted apps from related categories — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Not the right match-up?
calcurse
Text-based calendar and scheduling application
VS
Radicale
Simple, lightweight CalDAV and CardDAV server
| Feature | calcurse | Radicale |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Calendar & Contacts | Groupware |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | C | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 16 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | binary, source | docker, bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,301 | ★ 4,877 |
| First released | 2004 | 2008 |
| 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
Frequently asked questions
Is calcurse or Radicale better?
Neither is universally better. Radicale has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are calcurse and Radicale free and open-source?
Yes. calcurse is licensed under BSD-2-Clause and Radicale under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run calcurse and Radicale with Docker?
calcurse: check the project docs for container support. Radicale: yes.