Cal.diy vs Indico
| Tagline | Open-source online appointment scheduling built on Cal.com | CERN's open-source event and conference management platform |
| Category | Scheduling & Booking | Scheduling & Booking |
| Replaces | Calendly, Acuity Scheduling | Calendly, Acuity Scheduling |
| GitHub stars | 46k | 1.8k |
| Language | Nodejs | Python |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Self-host difficulty | 3/5 Moderate | 4/5 Involved |
| Deploy options | Docker Docker Compose Manual | Docker Docker Compose Manual |
| Managed hosting | ||
| Last updated | 5 days ago | 2 months 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.diy
- Self-hosted setup requires configuring PostgreSQL, email/SMTP, and OAuth providers
- Enterprise features (SAML SSO, workflows at scale, analytics) are cloud-only or require an enterprise license
- Payment collection integrations need additional third-party setup
- Admin UI for multi-tenant management is less polished than Calendly's hosted offering
Indico
- Overpowered for simple one-on-one appointment booking
- Setup involves multiple services (Redis, PostgreSQL, Celery) and is complex
- UI design is functional but dated compared to modern booking tools
Bottom line
Choose Cal.diy if you want the lower-effort setup; choose Cal.diy for the larger community and ecosystem. Cal.diy has seen more recent development. Open each guide below for deploy steps and the full feature gap.