Donetick vs Taskwarrior
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
Taskwarrior
Command-line task management done right
| Feature | Donetick | Taskwarrior |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 86 · Excellent | 90 · Excellent |
| Category | Project Management & Tasks | Project Management & Tasks |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | Go | C++ |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 2,582 | ★ 6,084 |
| First released | 2024 | 2008 |
| Replaces | Todoist, Tody | Todoist, Things |
What are Donetick and Taskwarrior?
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
Taskwarrior
Taskwarrior is a flexible command-line task management tool. It manages a personal to-do list with priorities, projects, tags, dependencies, and powerful filtering.
- Powerful CLI task filtering
- Projects, tags, and dependencies
- Sync via Taskchampion server
- Scriptable and extensible
Donetick vs Taskwarrior: key differences
Donetick is written in Go, while Taskwarrior is built with C++. Licensing differs — AGPL-3.0 for Donetick versus MIT for Taskwarrior. Taskwarrior is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 128 MB for Donetick. Taskwarrior is the more established project (first released 2008), while Donetick arrived in 2024. Taskwarrior has the considerably larger community, at 6,084 GitHub stars versus 2,582. Donetick lists first-class Docker deployment; Taskwarrior does not.
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 Taskwarrior if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- Mature project with 6.1k GitHub stars
- Written in C++
Frequently asked questions
Is Donetick or Taskwarrior better?
Neither is universally better. Taskwarrior has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Donetick and Taskwarrior free and open-source?
Yes. Donetick is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Taskwarrior under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Donetick and Taskwarrior with Docker?
Donetick: yes. Taskwarrior: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Donetick or Taskwarrior?
Taskwarrior has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 128 MB for Donetick. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.