calcurse vs OpnForm
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
OpnForm
Beautiful open-source form builder
| Feature | calcurse | OpnForm |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Calendar & Contacts | Calendar & Contacts |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | C | PHP |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 16 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | binary, source | docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,301 | ★ 3,545 |
| 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 OpnForm if…
- Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (3.5k GitHub stars)
- Written in PHP
Frequently asked questions
Is calcurse or OpnForm better?
Neither is universally better. OpnForm 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 OpnForm free and open-source?
Yes. calcurse is licensed under BSD-2-Clause and OpnForm under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run calcurse and OpnForm with Docker?
calcurse: check the project docs for container support. OpnForm: yes.