DAViCal

Self-hosted calendar sharing, honestly reviewed. What you get when you replace Google Calendar’s backend with software from 2007.

TL;DR

• What it is: A CalDAV protocol server for sharing calendars across devices and users. It stores iCalendar data in PostgreSQL and speaks the protocol that Apple Calendar, iOS, Thunderbird, and Evolution use natively [website].
• Who it’s for: Sysadmins and homelabbers who want a bare-bones CalDAV backend they control, and who are comfortable setting up PostgreSQL and PHP on a Linux box [website][2].
• Cost savings: Google Workspace Calendar starts at $6/user/month. Apple iCloud+ is $0.99–$2.99/month. A self-hosted DAViCal instance on a $5 VPS costs essentially $0 for the software (LGPL-2.1) plus whatever the server costs [website].
• Key strength: It does exactly one thing — serves CalDAV. No bloat, no dashboards, no SaaS vendor to raise prices. Clients that speak CalDAV just work with it [website].
• Key warning: The website’s copyright runs 2007–2014. The project moved to community support in Spring 2014. It requires PHP 5 in its documented prerequisites — a version of PHP that reached end-of-life in December 2018. This is a serious maintenance signal you need to evaluate before deploying it [website].

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What is DAViCal

DAViCal is a CalDAV server. That’s not shorthand for a calendar app — it’s a protocol server. It doesn’t show you a calendar in a browser by default. It receives, stores, and serves iCalendar-formatted events over HTTP so that calendar clients — iOS Calendar, Apple Calendar, Thunderbird Lightning, GNOME Evolution — can sync against it.

The CalDAV protocol (RFC 4791) is the standard that replaced proprietary calendar sync solutions. Most modern calendar apps support it. Google Calendar supports it. Apple Calendar is built on it. That means if you run your own CalDAV server, every serious calendar client on every platform can connect to it without special apps or vendor lock-in [website].

DAViCal stores everything in a PostgreSQL database. There is no MySQL or SQLite option — PostgreSQL is a hard dependency. The PHP application sits in front of the database, handles CalDAV requests, and manages user permissions. It also supports WebDAV access for backward compatibility, though the project itself labels this “not recommended” [website].

The project was written by Andrew McMillan and launched around 2007. Multiple contributors added features over the years — LDAP integration, scheduling, RSS feeds, CSS improvements. Since Spring 2014 the project has been community-supported with no active commercial backer [website].

With 106 GitHub stars, this is not a mainstream tool. It occupies a specific niche: people who want a self-hosted CalDAV backend and nothing else, who are comfortable with the fact that they’re running software whose primary author handed off maintenance a decade ago.

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Why people choose it

The available third-party sources for DAViCal are thin, which is itself a data point. This is not a tool people write enthusiastic review posts about. The use cases that surface in the wild are narrow but consistent.

Calendar privacy without a monolith. The strongest argument for self-hosted calendar software is data sensitivity, not cost. A calendar reveals your location, your health appointments, your business meetings, your sleep schedule, your social graph. Roman Zipp’s homelab post [2] makes this point directly: “Your calendar says more about you than you probably think. Apart from your full identity it can also give away information about regular contacts, family, coworkers, confidential business meetings, your health information such as medical appointments.” Even Apple’s Advanced Data Protection, Zipp notes, does not end-to-end encrypt calendar data [2].

If privacy is the actual driver, a lightweight CalDAV server is the minimal tool for the job. You don’t need Nextcloud’s 50MB container and full office suite just to stop Google from reading your medical appointments.

Protocol purity. CalDAV is an open, IETF-standardized protocol. DAViCal is an implementation of that standard with no vendor additions, no proprietary extensions, no app you have to install. A Freelancer job post from 2016 [3] shows someone running DAViCal on Ubuntu 14.04 and pairing it with InfCloud (a web frontend) for a complete calendar sharing setup — $10–30 worth of setup help for a fully functional self-hosted calendar stack.

InfCloud as a web frontend. DAViCal ships no calendar UI of its own. InfCloud fills that gap — it’s a browser-based CalDAV/CardDAV client that connects to any CalDAV server including DAViCal [3][4]. If you want to access your calendar from a browser without installing a client app, InfCloud + DAViCal is the combination that appears in setup guides.

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Features

What DAViCal does, based on its website documentation:

CalDAV server core:

• Stores calendar data (iCalendar format) in PostgreSQL [website]
• Supports multiple users and multiple calendars per user [website]
• Read/write access for all major CalDAV clients: Apple Calendar, iOS, Mozilla Lightning/Thunderbird, Evolution, Mulberry, Chandler [website]
• Backward-compatible WebDAV access (read-only or read-write, explicitly not recommended by the project) [website]
• Committed to CalDAV interoperability across client software [website]

Sharing and scheduling:

• Delegation of read/write access between calendar users [website]
• Multiple users or clients reading and writing the same calendar entries simultaneously [website]
• Meeting scheduling with free/busy time display [website]

Administration:

• LDAP integration for user directory sync (contributed by Maxime Delorme and Rob Ostenson) [website]
• PostgreSQL-backed data storage — the same database does authentication, data, and permissions [website]
• PHP-based web server interface [website]

What it does not include:

• No native web calendar UI (you need InfCloud or a standalone client) [website][4]
• No CardDAV support natively (DAViCal focuses on calendaring, not contacts — InfCloud’s CardDAV support connects to a separate server) [4]
• No mobile apps, no desktop apps — DAViCal is a backend, not a product [website]
• No built-in SSL — you handle TLS at the web server or reverse proxy layer [3]

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Pricing: SaaS vs self-hosted math

DAViCal is LGPL-2.1 licensed. The software costs nothing.

What you pay instead:

• A VPS: $5–10/month on Hetzner or Contabo covers a machine that can comfortably run PostgreSQL, PHP, and a web server
• A domain name if you want calendar access from outside your LAN: ~$10–15/year
• Your time: setup, maintenance, upgrades

What the SaaS alternatives cost:

• Google Workspace: $6/user/month (Business Starter). Includes Calendar, Drive, Gmail, Meet. Calendar is not sold separately.
• Fastmail: $5/user/month. Includes email, calendar, contacts. CalDAV and CardDAV compatible.
• iCloud+: $0.99–$9.99/month depending on storage tier. Calendar and contacts included. CalDAV-compatible.
• Proton Calendar: included with Proton Mail plans from $3.99/month. End-to-end encrypted.
• Nextcloud (self-hosted): AGPL-3.0, free software. Ships a full calendar application with a web UI, mobile apps, and file sync. Runs on the same Linux/PHP/PostgreSQL stack as DAViCal but does substantially more.

The honest math:

If you’re currently paying for Google Workspace at $6/user/month, self-hosting a CalDAV server saves you $72/user/year in software costs. A two-person team saves $144/year. A five-person team saves $360/year. On a $5 VPS shared with other services (which is the realistic homelab scenario), the marginal cost of running DAViCal approaches zero.

But: Google Workspace includes email, Drive, Meet, and Docs. You’re not comparing equivalent products. If the driver is calendar privacy specifically, a cheaper alternative is Fastmail ($5/user/month) which is CalDAV-compatible and has a European data residency option. If you’re already running a server, Nextcloud gives you a full calendar application (including web UI and mobile apps) on the same infrastructure DAViCal would use.

The cost argument for DAViCal specifically is strongest if you already have a Linux server running and want to add CalDAV to it with minimal footprint.

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Deployment reality check

The documented prerequisites: a PostgreSQL database server and a web server running PHP 5 [website].

PHP 5 is a serious problem. PHP 5 reached end-of-life in December 2018. Its last release was 5.6.40 in December 2018. No modern Linux distribution ships PHP 5 as a current package. Ubuntu 22.04 LTS defaults to PHP 8.1. If the documentation still says PHP 5, one of three things is true: the software was updated to support newer PHP versions without updating the docs, the software hasn’t been updated and you’ll hit compatibility issues on any modern stack, or the wiki (which the website repeatedly links as the authoritative source) contains more current information than the homepage.

The website’s copyright ends at 2014 [website]. The “community support model” adopted in Spring 2014 is now over a decade old. There is no evidence from the available sources that the project has had active development since then.

What a working setup requires:

• A Linux server (Debian recommended by the project itself, though Ubuntu, FreeBSD, and macOS are documented as viable) [website]
• PostgreSQL (any modern version should work for the data layer)
• A web server (Apache is the traditional choice for PHP apps of this era) with PHP support
• SSL via Let’s Encrypt and your web server — not handled by DAViCal [3]
• InfCloud if you want any browser-accessible calendar UI [3][4]

The Freelancer job [3] from 2016 puts a realistic setup (DAViCal + InfCloud + SSL on Ubuntu 14.04) at $10–50 in freelancer rates — meaning it’s not a deeply complex install, but it does require someone who knows what they’re doing. The bids ranged from $49 to $111, settling around $50 [3].

GitLab is the canonical source. The DAViCal website links to GitLab as the current project home, not GitHub. The 106-star count cited in the profile is the GitHub mirror or an older reference. Check the GitLab repository for actual current activity before committing to this tool.

Realistic time estimate for a technically comfortable user: 2–4 hours for a fresh install including PostgreSQL setup, web server configuration, SSL, and a test CalDAV connection from a client. An extra hour or two to add InfCloud for browser access. For someone new to PHP application deployment: budget a full day and expect Google to fill in gaps the documentation leaves.

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Pros and Cons

Pros

• Free and open source (LGPL-2.1). You can inspect the code, self-host without usage limits, and there is no commercial tier to upsell you to [website].
• Protocol-correct CalDAV. It implements the CalDAV standard without proprietary extensions, which means any compliant client works [website].
• Minimal resource footprint. PostgreSQL + PHP + Apache on a shared VPS. No Electron apps, no Node.js runtime, no microservices. [website].
• Genuine data sovereignty. Your calendar data lives in your PostgreSQL database on your server. No company can read your appointment metadata [2].
• Multi-user with proper delegation. Not just personal calendar sync — it handles shared calendars, delegation, and free/busy queries across users [website].
• LDAP integration. Enterprise directories work if you need centralized user management [website].

Cons

• Maintenance status is unclear at best. Project entered community support in 2014. Documentation references PHP 5 (EOL 2018). Website copyright ends at 2014. Without reading the actual GitLab activity, you cannot know if this software is actively maintained [website].
• No web UI included. You get a protocol server. Adding InfCloud gives you a browser interface but that’s a second project to deploy and maintain [3][4].
• PHP stack requires expertise to secure. PHP applications have a long history of vulnerabilities. Running a PHP app exposed to the internet requires keeping PHP, the web server, and the application updated — and it’s unclear if DAViCal receives security patches [website].
• PostgreSQL-only. Not a complaint if you prefer Postgres, but it rules out SQLite-based minimal setups and MySQL users [website].
• Very small community. 106 stars, IRC channel for support, a mailing list. If you hit a weird edge case, you may be alone with the source code [website].
• Documentation appears unmaintained. The homepage repeatedly defers to the wiki for current information, which is a common pattern in projects where the main docs have drifted from reality [website].
• No CardDAV. If you want contact sync alongside calendar sync, you need a separate server [4].

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Who should use this / who shouldn’t

Use DAViCal if:

• You’re a homelab operator who already runs PostgreSQL for other services and wants to add CalDAV with minimal overhead.
• You need a lightweight CalDAV backend to test CalDAV client software against a standard-compliant server.
• You understand PHP application deployment and can evaluate whether the project is actively maintained before committing.
• Self-hosting your calendar data is a hard requirement, not just a preference, and you want the smallest possible footprint.

Skip it and use Nextcloud if:

• You want a web calendar UI included out of the box without bolting on a second project.
• You also need contact sync (CardDAV), file storage, or any of the other things Nextcloud provides.
• You want active development, documented security updates, and a large support community.
• You’re new to self-hosting and want something that has maintained documentation and a clear install path in 2026.

Skip it and use Radicale or Baikal if:

• You want a simple CalDAV/CardDAV server with a lighter stack (Radicale is Python with no database required; Baikal is PHP but more actively maintained with a proper admin UI).
• You want something with evidence of recent releases and security maintenance.

Skip it and stay on Google Workspace / Fastmail if:

• Calendar privacy is a preference but not a hard requirement.
• You don’t have an existing Linux server to add this to.
• You value knowing the software you’re running is getting security patches.

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Alternatives worth considering

• Radicale — Python-based CalDAV + CardDAV server. Minimal, file-backed (no PostgreSQL required), actively maintained, single-file config. Better choice for a simple personal setup in 2026.
• Baikal — PHP + SQLite/MySQL CalDAV + CardDAV server with an admin web UI. More actively maintained than DAViCal with a cleaner install path.
• Nextcloud — Full-stack: calendar, contacts, files, notes, video calls. AGPL-3.0. Significantly more resource-heavy than DAViCal but includes everything in one deploy. The realistic alternative for anyone who wants “Google Workspace, but mine.”
• SOGo — Enterprise-grade groupware: CalDAV, CardDAV, email, web UI. More complex to deploy but actively maintained and used in corporate environments. Better choice if you’re setting this up for more than 5–10 users.
• FastMail ($5/user/month) — Not self-hosted, but CalDAV-compatible, European data centers, and substantially easier than self-hosting if your goal is escaping Google rather than eliminating SaaS entirely.
• Proton Calendar (included with Proton Mail plans) — End-to-end encrypted, which DAViCal and most self-hosted solutions do not provide. If encryption at rest matters more than running your own server, Proton beats self-hosting.

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Bottom line

DAViCal solves a real problem: running your own CalDAV server so calendar clients connect to your infrastructure instead of Google’s or Apple’s. It did this well enough that a community formed around it, and it may still work fine on a modern PHP stack despite the documentation’s age.

But it comes with a caveat that belongs in the first sentence of any honest recommendation: the project entered community maintenance mode in 2014, its documentation still references PHP 5 (end-of-life since 2018), and the website hasn’t been updated in over a decade. Before deploying this in 2026, read the GitLab commit history. If it shows active maintenance, it may be a perfectly reasonable choice. If the last commit was years ago, you’re adopting an unmaintained PHP application exposed to the internet — and that’s a security problem, not a preference.

For most people reading this who want self-hosted CalDAV, Radicale or Baikal are better starting points today: simpler stacks, current documentation, evidence of recent maintenance. For anyone who wants calendar sharing as part of a broader self-hosted suite, Nextcloud is the obvious answer. DAViCal’s niche in 2026 is narrow: operators who have a specific reason to prefer it over the alternatives and the technical depth to evaluate whether the codebase is still safe to run.

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Sources

1. CalConnect — Current Events (CalConnect standards body news). https://www.calconnect.org/news/current-events/
2. Roman Zipp — “Why Self-host?” (romanzipp.com, Oct 9 2025). https://romanzipp.com/blog/why-a-homelab-why-self-host
3. Freelancer — “I want InfCloud installed on top of DAViCal with an SSL Certificate” (project listing, 2016). https://www.freelancer.com/projects/Script-Install/want-InfCloud-installed-top-DAViCal
4. AlternativeTo — InfCloud (software listing referencing DAViCal as alternative). https://alternativeto.net/software/infcloud/about/

Primary sources:

• Official website: https://www.davical.org
• DAViCal GitLab repository (linked from official website): https://gitlab.com/davical-project/davical
• DAViCal Wiki (primary support documentation): linked from https://www.davical.org