eturnal vs mediasoup
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted video conferencing options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Not the right match-up?
eturnal
STUN and TURN server for real-time applications
VS
mediasoup
Cutting-edge WebRTC SFU library for Node.js
| Feature | eturnal | mediasoup |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Video Conferencing | Video Conferencing |
| License | Apache-2.0 | ISC |
| Language | Erlang | C++ |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary, source | source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 340 | ★ 7,325 |
| First released | 2020 | 2016 |
| Replaces | Twilio STUN/TURN | Twilio Video |
Why pick each one
Choose eturnal if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in Erlang
- Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Choose mediasoup if…
- Released under the ISC license
- Mature project with 7.3k GitHub stars
- Written in C++
- Lightweight — runs in 512 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is eturnal or mediasoup better?
Neither is universally better. mediasoup has the larger community, while eturnal is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are eturnal and mediasoup free and open-source?
Yes. eturnal is licensed under Apache-2.0 and mediasoup under ISC. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run eturnal and mediasoup with Docker?
eturnal: yes. mediasoup: check the project docs for container support.