GNOME Calendar vs Horde Kronolith
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted calendar & contacts options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | GNOME Calendar | Horde Kronolith |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Category | Calendar & Contacts | Calendar & Contacts |
| License | GPL-3.0 | GPL-2.0 |
| Language | C | PHP |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | binary, source | bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 300 | ★ 10 |
| First released | 2015 | 2003 |
| Replaces | Google Calendar | Google Calendar, Exchange |
What are GNOME Calendar and Horde Kronolith?
GNOME Calendar
GNOME Calendar is a clean and uncluttered desktop calendar application that integrates with GNOME Online Accounts and can connect to self-hosted CalDAV servers for synchronizing events.
- Clean desktop calendar
- CalDAV server support
- GNOME Online Accounts integration
Horde Kronolith
Kronolith is the calendar component of the Horde groupware framework. It provides shared calendars, event management, and supports CalDAV synchronization with desktop and mobile clients.
- Part of Horde groupware
- Shared calendar support
- CalDAV synchronization
GNOME Calendar vs Horde Kronolith: key differences
GNOME Calendar is written in C, while Horde Kronolith is built with PHP. Licensing differs — GPL-3.0 for GNOME Calendar versus GPL-2.0 for Horde Kronolith. Horde Kronolith is the more established project (first released 2003), while GNOME Calendar arrived in 2015. GNOME Calendar has the considerably larger community, at 300 GitHub stars versus 10.
Why pick each one
Choose GNOME Calendar if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- Written in C
- Tiny footprint — runs in 256 MB RAM
Choose Horde Kronolith if…
- Released under the GPL-2.0 license
- Written in PHP
- Tiny footprint — runs in 256 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is GNOME Calendar or Horde Kronolith better?
GNOME Calendar is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider Horde Kronolith if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are GNOME Calendar and Horde Kronolith free and open-source?
Yes. GNOME Calendar is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Horde Kronolith under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run GNOME Calendar and Horde Kronolith with Docker?
GNOME Calendar: check the project docs for container support. Horde Kronolith: check the project docs for container support.