Donetick vs Habitica Self-Hosted
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted project management & tasks options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Donetick
Shared chore and task management for households and teams
VS
Habitica Self-Hosted
Gamified task and habit manager for personal productivity
| Feature | Donetick | Habitica Self-Hosted |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 86 · Excellent | 94 · Excellent |
| Category | Project Management & Tasks | Project Management & Tasks |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | Go | JavaScript |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 2,582 | ★ 14,173 |
| First released | 2024 | 2013 |
| Replaces | Todoist, Tody | Todoist, Habitica |
What are Donetick and Habitica Self-Hosted?
Donetick
Donetick is an open-source app for managing tasks and chores with assignment rotations and reminders. It is ideal for households and small teams sharing responsibilities.
- Chore assignment rotations
- Recurring task scheduling
- Reminders and notifications
- Single lightweight binary
Habitica Self-Hosted
A gamified task, habit, and to-do manager that turns personal productivity into a role-playing game with rewards and parties. The full stack can be self-hosted for private use.
- Gamified habits and tasks
- Rewards and avatars
- Parties and challenges
- Mobile apps
Donetick vs Habitica Self-Hosted: key differences
Donetick is written in Go, while Habitica Self-Hosted is built with JavaScript. Licensing differs — AGPL-3.0 for Donetick versus GPL-3.0 for Habitica Self-Hosted. Donetick is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 1,024 MB for Habitica Self-Hosted. Habitica Self-Hosted is the more established project (first released 2013), while Donetick arrived in 2024. Habitica Self-Hosted has the considerably larger community, at 14,173 GitHub stars versus 2,582.
Why pick each one
Choose Donetick if…
- Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (2.6k GitHub stars)
Choose Habitica Self-Hosted if…
- Motivating gameplay
- Active community
Watch out for
- Heavy to self-host
- Setup is involved
Frequently asked questions
Is Donetick or Habitica Self-Hosted better?
Neither is universally better. Habitica Self-Hosted has the larger community, while Donetick is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Donetick and Habitica Self-Hosted free and open-source?
Yes. Donetick is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Habitica Self-Hosted under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Donetick and Habitica Self-Hosted with Docker?
Donetick: yes. Habitica Self-Hosted: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Donetick or Habitica Self-Hosted?
Donetick has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 1,024 MB for Habitica Self-Hosted. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.