calcurse vs Manage My Damn Life
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
Manage My Damn Life
Manage my Damn Life (MMDL) is a self-hosted front end for managing
| Feature | calcurse | Manage My Damn Life |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Calendar & Contacts | Calendar & Contacts |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | C | JavaScript |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 16 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | binary, source | docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,301 | ★ 620 |
| First released | 2004 | 2026 |
| Replaces | 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 Manage My Damn Life if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in JavaScript
- Lightweight — runs in 512 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is calcurse or Manage My Damn Life better?
calcurse is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider Manage My Damn Life if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are calcurse and Manage My Damn Life free and open-source?
Yes. calcurse is licensed under BSD-2-Clause and Manage My Damn Life under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run calcurse and Manage My Damn Life with Docker?
calcurse: check the project docs for container support. Manage My Damn Life: yes.