Hi everybody !
While I really like the simple and sleek google calendar web GUI and functionalities, I’m more and more concerned about my data and privacy. Even if I have nothing to hide, I don’t agree anymore to sell freely and consciously my data to any GAFAM.
Has anyone any alternative to google calendar?
- Free and if possible, open source? It can have some discret sponsors/ads. As long as it isn’t to intrusive.
- Todoist integration
- Sync between devices
- GUI doesn’t have to be PERFECT, but a bare minimum for my candy eyes !
- Can be API, Web… doesn’t matter as long as it syncs between devices (android, mac, windows, linux)
I already searched through the web, but couldn’t find any conclusive alternative, maybe someone knows some hidden gem :)
Thank you !
EDIT: The solution and compromise: nextcloud. It took me some times (2days) to set it up correctly and make it work as intended.
- Android calendar sync with DAVx5
- Calendar notification on android’s native calendar app
- 2way sync between Android calendar and nextcloud calendar
- push notification on nextcloud web browser
A few things too keep in mind:
1 — if you build your nextcloud instance with docker-compose:
- cron jobs don’t work out of the box and documentation is not straightforward
2 — Android permissions to sync with your calendar
- DAVx5 mentions how to allow syncing seemingly
- It’s different for every android phone
- Battery power mode
- Work in the background
- …
3 — It won’t work with todoist
- Todoist is proprietary and won’t work with DAVx5 and next cloud
- alternative: jtx board! (build by the same devs as DAVx5 seems to work similarly)
Conclusion: Nextcloud isn’t as good as the cloud sync provided by google/todoist and every other GAFAM cloud instance. It has his quirks and need some attention to make it work as intended. It take some times, reading and tinkering but those are compromises I’m willing to take :)
Ok, so this is a ”how many colors of the rainbow there are”
If you go balls to the wall, all out retardation: Nextcloud, the CalDAV is basically just a bonus, I’ve replaced google.com at home with Nextcloud
Some middle ground: SoGo, sogo.nu
If you just want to solve this specific problem: Radicale, https://radicale.org and Baikal, https://sabre.io/baikal/
I found nextcloud easier to set up than many other services, plus it comes with cloud file storage and other goodies as a bonus.
It is even easy on such obscure platforms as NetBSD in an nvmm-backed qemu virtual machine runnning on a NetBSD host.
(EDIT: well, it wasn’t really trivial, the database (PostgreSQL in my case) setup and connection is not necessarily obvious to someone who hasn’t done it before, but the fact that it works without real complications on very diverse platforms is a testament to its clean code.)
If you’re not confident in database management, there is always the Snap version. I know Snap gets a lot of hate, and you do lose some ability to tinker with Nextcloud configuration, but its been pretty solid for me.
Hey :) Wasn’t that easy even with docker compose or specially with docker? IDK. But the cronjobs took me some time to figured it out… And the documentation wasn’t that obvious with docker… Thankfully, I wasn’t alone xD Docker issue github
Just going to +1 for Nextcloud, it’s literally the hub of my whole life including PC and CalyxOS phone syncs.
Second +1 for Nextcloud.
It’s a CalDAV server and web client, you can use DavX5 on Android to sync with your mobile device. Any CalDAV client on desktop can connect natively.
Nextcloud also has an app called “Tasks” which can likely replace Todoist. DavX5 can also sync tasks from Nextcloud and OpenTasks is an Android app which will let you work with them and handle notifications.
Thank you for your insight :) I tried OpenTasks, but yeah… didn’t liked it ! But DAVx5 comes with jtx board who seems to fit better to my workflow and also syncs with nextcloud and Android ! Thank you.
But DAVx5 comes with jtx board who seems to fit better to my workflow and also syncs with nextcloud and Android
I did not know that. lol. Thanks for your insight, and I’m going to check that out. That may be new, and I’ve been using OpenTasks for years and have just settled.
Don’t worry, if you read the following on f-droid
Use DAVx5 to synchronize your entries with the CalDAV-server of your choice (coming soon)!Its already working and syncs with your nextcloud calendar and task app.It won’t show up in the native Android calendar and I don’t know about third party’s. Have fun !
Ah, gotcha. I haven’t looked at the docs/release notes for DAVx5 in years. It’s just been a standard app I load on my phone to sync my contacts/calendar/tasks. The last time I looked at the docs for it, it was still called DAVDroid.
Thank you :) This was the best of the 2 worlds. I was a bit reluctant because of the name (nextcloud) but after 2 days of hard searching, docker tinkering, cronjobbing and a few lost hairs It fits quite good. Except it doesn’t work with todoist but jtx board seems promising and is not proprietary, so maybe I will make the switch :).
I edited my post accordingly, for other users stumbling on the post (also making lemmy more active 🌤 )
I don’t know if it matches all your needs, but I use nextcloud with its calendar module.
Nextcloud owncloud and some others. It looks like homechart and Baikal are options too. I don’t know much about them though
As others have pointed out
- Nextcloud (in addition to calendar and contacts, has document sync, office suite, photo gallery…) I use this.
- SoGo - I’ve never used
- Radical - I believe just calendars and contacts
- Baikal - calendars and contacts. Simple and light weight. I used this until I moved to Nextcloud.
Which ever you choose, your mobile will require another app, like DavX (android). This allows the phone to sync with the calDav server. Desktop clients should be able to sync directly with the server.
I am not familiar with Todoist.
Sounds like you’re looking to set up a CalDAV server. Stuff like Nextcloud has that built in, as does Synology and probably TrueNAS and a bunch of other server packages.
Proton Calendar?
I don’t like nextcloud very much but its calendar impelementation is more than good enough. I could use a separate caldav server but outside of nextcloud I couldn’t find any functional web frontends. Nextcloud has both and it generally just works. Works just fine with android (calendar sync & todo).
Thank you :) At first I tried a separate caldav server, but was a bit out of my league :// As you said
Nextcloud has both and it generally just works.
I’m using Etebase as a self-hosted backend for this purpose. It is zero-knowledge, so not even your own server knows about your calerdar, to-do list, and contacts (but it does know when have you edited entries, I think).
There’s an android app for synchronization, and on the desktop, you can run a daemon to expose a standard CalDAV/CardDAV interface for e.g., Thunderbird. The alternative is the Flutter-based client, either on the web or as a desktop app, I think, but I much rather prefer Thunderbird (I have other accounts from work to synchronize, too, and TB lets me look at them in one place).
I’m not sure about the Todoist integration, though. That sounds like it would compromise privacy.
+1 for EteBase. Great software, with actual client side encryption. I’ve been using it for a few years and it’s solid!
There’s also a GNOME integration via evolution.
Thank you :) I tried with Etebase at first, but was overwhelmed by it… Right now it’s probably out of my league ! Nextcloud just works, so I will stick to it by now. When I get a bit more confident in all this, I will probably switch to a selfhosed backend :)
CalDav server (Baikal or anything similar, even Synology DSM has an app for it if you have a NAS), plus Davx5 if you’re on Android, plus Simple Calendar.
Nextcloud with CalDavw
Check out etebase + etesync-web (self-hosted, althought you can use their own frontend and change the backend, this is not good for privacy) + etesync-dav (for other integrations), on mobile I use Simple Calendar Pro on F-Droid, on web I just use etesync-web for a quick glance.
One I’ve been using fo a while, less for calendar though it has that but tasks/shopping/recipies and others is home chart. Dev is super responsive and open to feedback too. Option to self host, webapp compatible and has a single time lifetime purchase option which is great since I hate maintaining subscriptions.
I’m pretty curious about Bloben, but development seems slow. Did anyone try it out yet? https://bloben.com/
+1 for Nextcloud, plenty of integrations for all kind of platforms
