Cal.com vs Croodle
| Tagline | Scheduling infrastructure for everyone, the open-source Calendly alternative | End-to-end encrypted scheduling and polling tool with no database required |
| Category | Scheduling & Booking | Scheduling & Booking |
| Replaces | Calendly, Acuity Scheduling | Calendly |
| GitHub stars | 48k | 213 |
| Language | TypeScript | JavaScript |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Self-host difficulty | 3/5 Moderate | 4/5 Involved |
| Deploy options | One-Click Docker Docker Compose Manual | Docker Manual |
| Managed hosting | ||
| Last updated | yesterday | 5 days ago |
| View repo | View repo |
Where each falls short
The honest trade-offs — what you give up with each, versus the proprietary tools they replace.
Cal.com
- Some enterprise features (e.g. SAML SSO, advanced admin/insights, certain platform features) are gated behind a commercial/EE license even when self-hosting.
- Self-hosting requires PostgreSQL plus configuring numerous environment variables and OAuth credentials for calendar integrations.
- The core code is AGPL-3.0, which imposes copyleft obligations on modified network deployments.
- Upgrades between major versions occasionally require manual database migration work.
Croodle
- Development is largely stalled (last release in 2023), so it is effectively in maintenance mode.
- Poll/date-finding only; it is not a personal booking system and has no calendar sync.
- No payments, reminders, or team features.
- Setup requires deploying the static front end plus the PHP backend and writable storage; documentation is sparse.
Bottom line
Choose Cal.com if you want the lower-effort setup; choose Cal.com for the larger community and ecosystem. Cal.com has seen more recent development. Open each guide below for deploy steps and the full feature gap.