Asterisk vs FreeSWITCH
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted chat & communication options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Not the right match-up?
Asterisk
Open-source framework for building telephony systems
VS
FreeSWITCH
Scalable software telephony platform
| Feature | Asterisk | FreeSWITCH |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Chat & Communication | Chat & Communication |
| License | GPL-2.0 | MPL-2.0 |
| Language | C | C |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal, source | docker, bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 3,431 | ★ 5,069 |
| First released | 1999 | 2006 |
| Replaces | Avaya, Cisco Unified Communications | Twilio, Asterisk |
Why pick each one
Choose Asterisk if…
- Released under the GPL-2.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (3.4k GitHub stars)
- Written in C
Choose FreeSWITCH if…
- Released under the MPL-2.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 5.1k GitHub stars
- Written in C
Frequently asked questions
Is Asterisk or FreeSWITCH better?
Neither is universally better. FreeSWITCH has the larger community; both share a hard setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Asterisk and FreeSWITCH free and open-source?
Yes. Asterisk is licensed under GPL-2.0 and FreeSWITCH under MPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Asterisk and FreeSWITCH with Docker?
Asterisk: yes. FreeSWITCH: yes.