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Calendaring Server Software
Posted by Bob Jonkman on 12th October 2012
I’m looking for a free/libre calendar server to run on a GNU/Linux server.
It needs to have CalDAV connectivity, so that I can use Evolution, Sunbird or Thunderbird/Lightning as my only client. Ideally, it will also have a Web interface for both administration and calendar viewing, exports to iCal (.ics) files, supports iMIP, and offers Atom/RSS feeds of calendar items.
Here’s what I’ve found so far. If you know of others, please leave a comment.
There’s also a list at CalConnect’s CalDAV Servers
| Name | WebUI | Export iCal (.ics) | CalDAV | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Admin | View | Edit | iCal (.ics) | iMip | Atom/RSS | ||
| Kolab | |||||||
| DAViCal | |||||||
| phpGroupWare | No | No | |||||
| Chandler Project | |||||||
| Bedework | |||||||
| Zimbra | Yes, but.. | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Outlook only | |
| EGroupware Community Version | |||||||
| WebCalendar | No | ||||||
| Darwin Calendar Server | |||||||
| Tryton Calendar | |||||||
| ownCloud | Yes | Yes, but not Public, Read-only | Yes | No | No | No | Yes |
| Citadel | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Baikal | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Horde | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Maybe | Yes |
WordPress Plugins
The other calendars I’ve been trying are WordPress plugins. There is much promise in their description blurbs, but so far I’ve rejected most:
| Name | Export iCal (.ics) | CalDAV | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| iCal (.ics) | iMip | Atom/RSS | |||
| Calendar JCM | Rejected: no longer supported | ||||
| Event Calendar / Scheduler | Rejected: missing .php modules when running | ||||
| The Events Calendar | Rejected | ||||
| WP Events Calendar | Yes, with iCal for Events Calendar plugin | No | No | Works | |
| My Calendar | Only lists current month | Partial | |||
| CalPress Pro | ? | ? | ? | ? | This is a commercial plugin; |
| All-in-One Event Calendar by Timely | By tweaking the “Add to Google” URL | ? | ? | WebCal | Possible privacy concern |
- 11 January 2011
Originally posted - 26 March 2011
Added Linuxaria’s suggestions - 16 April 2011
Added WordPress plugin info; added CalDAV column; filled in some attributes - 11 October 2012
Updated feature list for Zimbra
I’ll be writing a review of Zimbra Open Source Edition soon, detailing some of my experiences (eg. requires Flash for the administrative Web interface) - 12 October 2012: Put WordPress calendars in table format, added My Calendar
- 5 November 2012: Added Dosch’s suggestions
- 16 November 2012: @Encyclomundist dents about Citadel.org
- 26 September 2013: I’ve started to use ownCloud 5.0 as a calendar repository accessed with Lightning using WebCal. ownCloud doesn’t publish an iCal feed or have a public read-only view, but since it’s Free Software constantly under improvement I’ll stick with it for a while.
- 9 November 2013: I think @postblue turned me on to Baikal: Using #Baikal to sync tasks, contacts and calendars…
- 9 November 2013: I’m now using Timely All-In-One on some blogs, will be upgrading others. It’s not the perfect iCal plugin, but the best one yet.
- 9 November 2013: @McScx and @lxw37 both introduce me to Horde.
- 13 August 2015: Just discovered Blaise Alleyne’s post on Degooglifying (Part IV): Calendar. This is pretty much the same solution I’ve settled on; ownCloud + Thunderbird and Lightning. I’m not quite as advanced as Blaise on the mobile front, though.
This is a “living” post, so it will float back to the top of the blog as I update it.
–Bob.
Tags: All-in-One, Atom/RSS, Baikal, Bedework, CalConnect, CalDAV, calendar, Calendar JCM, Chandler, Citadel, Darwin, DAViCal, EGroupware, Event Calendar/Scheduler, Events Calendar, Evolution, Horde, iCal, icalendar, ics, iMIP, Kolab, Kronolith, Lightning, My Calendar, ownCloud, phpGroupWare, plugin, Sunbird, Thunderbird, Timely, Tryton, WebCalendar, WordPress, WP Events Calendar, Zimbra
Posted in Calendars and Schedules | 11 Comments »