head to head · open source
Tone.js vs ical4j
Tone.js has 14,725 GitHub stars, 1,063 forks, 65 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. ical4j has 837 stars, 218 forks, 162 open issues and last shipped 29 days ago. Tone.js leads on adoption by 1,659% (14,725 vs 837 stars). Tone.js is written in TypeScript under MIT; ical4j is written in Java under BSD-3-Clause. Tone.js has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, ical4j 26%. Tone.js was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (scheduling), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| Tone.js | ical4j | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 15K | ★ 837 |
| License | MIT | BSD-3-Clause |
| Written in | TypeScript | Java |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2026-08-20 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.1K | ⑂ 218 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Tone.js if
- You weight community size — 15K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick ical4j if
- You want the ical4j feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and ical4j fits your workflow better
About Tone.js
Tone.js is a Web Audio framework for creating interactive music in the browser. It is written in TypeScript and released under the MIT license, and it lives in the JavaScript and Web Audio API ecosystem, where it is distributed through npm and unpkg. The project has been developed for roughly thirteen years and carries a substantial community footprint, with more than fourteen thousand stars and over a thousand forks on GitHub.
read the full Tone.js overview →
About ical4j
iCal4j is a BSD 3 Clause licensed Java library that reads and writes iCalendar data streams and exposes them as an object model, built for Java developers who need to handle calendar data such as events, appointments and to do lists inside their own applications.
read the full ical4j overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Tone.js or ical4j more popular?
Tone.js has 14,725 GitHub stars and ical4j has 837. Tone.js has the larger community by that measure.
Are Tone.js and ical4j free?
Both are open source. Tone.js is licensed under MIT and ical4j under BSD-3-Clause. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Tone.js and ical4j?
Tone.js is written in TypeScript and ical4j in Java. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Tone.js or ical4j?
Choose Tone.js if you want the larger community (14,725 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose ical4j if its feature set, stack or BSD-3-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.