Caffeinated Calendar vs Tasks.org

Tasks.org is a very good app. It was the only viable open-source Android task app I could find that speaks CalDAV VTODO properly, it synced cleanly with my self-hosted Radicale server for a year, and it never lost data. If you want a FOSS, privacy-respecting task app on Android, it is the answer, and I recommend it without hesitation.

I still moved off it, and the honest framing matters here because the data did not change at all. Tasks.org and Caffeinated Calendar are both CalDAV clients. My to-dos live on my Radicale server in standard format. I ran both apps side by side against that same server for a few days, confirmed everything I needed worked, and only then uninstalled Tasks.org. The server did not move, the data did not move; I switched clients.

So this is not a data argument. It is about the client: the interface, and how far it reaches. Two things made the difference for me. The Android interface is dated and inconsistent in a way that started to wear on me, and Tasks.org could not give me my to-dos on my iPad and Linux desktop in one consistent app the way I now have them.

And the caveat stays at the top, not buried: Caffeinated Calendar is closed source. The original reason I went down the self-hosted road was a preference for open tools. If FOSS is non-negotiable for you, stop here and keep Tasks.org. It is good software.

Same backend, a different client

This is the most important thing to understand, so it goes first. Tasks.org and Caffeinated Calendar are both CalDAV clients. Neither one is the source of truth; your CalDAV server is. With Tasks.org I ran a self-hosted Radicale instance and the app synced VTODOs to and from it. Caffeinated Calendar talks to that exact same server.

Because of that, switching is low risk and reversible. I literally ran both apps against the same Radicale server at the same time. Changes made in one showed up in the other, because the server does not care which client you use. You can do the same to evaluate without committing: install Caffeinated Calendar next to Tasks.org, point both at the same server, and decide with no data migration at all.

Platform support

This was half of why I switched. Tasks.org is an excellent Android app, but it is an Android app. I have a Nothing phone, do app development on iOS and macOS, I use a Linux desktop, and I have an iPad. I wanted my personal to-dos in one consistent app across all of that, not just on my phone.

Caffeinated Calendar runs natively on iOS, iPadOS, Android, Windows, macOS, and Linux, and it speaks CalDAV directly on every one of them, so there is no separate DAVx5 sync layer to install and maintain. I now have the same to-dos, from the same Radicale server, on my phone, my iPad, and my Linux desktop.

Interface, and tasks with your calendar

Tasks.org is reliable, but its Android interface is dated and inconsistent. The save action is a floppy-disk icon, and the overall layout feels like an earlier era of Android. It works, and if you do not mind that, it genuinely works. It started to wear on me as a daily-driver.

Caffeinated Calendar has a modern interface, and because it is a calendar, your tasks appear alongside your events in the Agenda and Day views and in the home-screen widgets, with priorities, due and start dates, percent-complete, categories, nested subtasks you can drag to reparent, and recurring tasks that roll forward on completion. For “what do I need to deal with today,” having the to-dos in the same timeline as the events is something that I utilize daily.

Open source and cost

This is where Tasks.org is straightforwardly the better choice for some people, and I am not going to soften it. Tasks.org is open source. You can read the code, build it yourself, get it from F-Droid, and trust it without trusting me. It is free forever, with no subscription concept; there is an optional paid hosted CalDAV service if you want one, but you can self-host instead at no cost, which is exactly what I did.

Caffeinated Calendar is closed source. It is free on every platform, your CalDAV tasks sync through your own server at no charge, and an optional Caffeinated subscription only syncs the app’s own local settings between devices. But closed source is closed source. The original post that led me here was specifically about preferring open tools, and I am not going to say that I don’t still prefer them, but I have also purchased quite a bit of software.

How Caffeinated thinks about subscriptions

Tasks.org has no subscription model at its core; it is FOSS with an optional hosted-sync add-on. Caffeinated takes a different but deliberately narrow position, and it is worth being explicit since this comparison keeps touching it.

Every feature in Caffeinated Calendar works for free, on every device, on every platform, with nothing gated and no ads. Your CalDAV tasks and calendars sync directly with whatever server you use, free, with nothing routed through Caffeinated’s infrastructure.

The only thing a Caffeinated subscription pays for is cross-device sync of the app’s own local configuration (filters, calendar groups, account credentials, and native Caffeinated calendars) and multi-user sharing. If your tasks live on your own CalDAV server, none of that is required; you can use Caffeinated Calendar indefinitely without paying anything. The same subscription, if you want it, covers the whole Caffeinated suite.

What Caffeinated Calendar doesn't have

• Open source. You can read, build, and audit Tasks.org. Caffeinated Calendar you cannot, and for some people that is the entire decision.
• F-Droid availability and a FOSS community around it.
• No closed-source trust requirement at all: with Tasks.org you do not have to take my word for anything.
• Deep Android-native integrations like Tasker automation, and support for additional back ends such as Google Tasks and EteSync alongside CalDAV.
• Years of maturity as a dedicated Android task app.