FreeSWITCH vs SimpleX Chat

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?
FeatureFreeSWITCHSimpleX Chat
CategoryChat & CommunicationChat & Communication
LicenseMPL-2.0AGPL-3.0
LanguageCHaskell
Setup difficultyHardMedium
Min. RAM512 MB256 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metal, sourcedocker, binary, source
GitHub stars★ 5,069★ 19,211
First released20062021
ReplacesTwilio, AsteriskSignal, WhatsApp, Telegram

Why pick each one

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
FreeSWITCH details

Choose SimpleX Chat if…

  • Best-in-class metadata privacy
  • Run your own relays
SimpleX Chat details

Frequently asked questions

Is FreeSWITCH or SimpleX Chat better?

SimpleX Chat is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler medium setup. Consider FreeSWITCH if its specific feature set fits your needs better.

Are FreeSWITCH and SimpleX Chat free and open-source?

Yes. FreeSWITCH is licensed under MPL-2.0 and SimpleX Chat under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run FreeSWITCH and SimpleX Chat with Docker?

FreeSWITCH: yes. SimpleX Chat: yes.

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