head to head · open source
dino vs Telephone
dino has 2,505 GitHub stars, 284 forks, 684 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. Telephone has 1,177 stars, 241 forks, 132 open issues and last shipped 21 days ago. dino leads on adoption by 113% (2,505 vs 1,177 stars). dino is written in Vala under GPL-3.0; Telephone is written in Swift under GPL-3.0. dino has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, Telephone 20%. dino was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| dino | Telephone | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 2.5K | ★ 1.2K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Vala | Swift |
| Last push | 2026-10-31 | 2026-10-13 |
| Forks | ⑂ 284 | ⑂ 241 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick dino if
- You weight community size — 2.5K stars and counting
- You want the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Vala
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Telephone if
- You want the Telephone feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Swift
- You evaluated both and Telephone fits your workflow better
About dino
Dino Dino is an XMPP messaging app for Linux using GTK and Vala. It supports calls, encryption, file transfers, group chats and more. Installation Have a look at the prebuilt packages. Build Make sure to install all dependencies. meson setup build meson compile C build build/main/dino Resources Check out the Dino website. Join our XMPP channel at chat@dino.im . The wiki provides additional information. Contribute Pull requests are welcome. These might be good first issues. Please discuss bigger changes in our channel first. Look at how to debug Dino before you report a bug. Help translating Dino into your…
About Telephone
Telephone is a VoIP SIP softphone for Mac. It allows you to make phone calls over the Internet or your company network. If your phone line supports SIP protocol, you can use it on your Mac instead of a physical phone anywhere you have a decent network connection. Building Opus Opus codec is optional. Download: $ curl O $ tar xzvf opus 1.3.1.tar.gz $ cd opus 1.3.1 Build and install: $ ./configure prefix=/path/to/Telephone/ThirdParty/Opus disable shared CFLAGS=' arch arm64 arch x86 64 Os mmacosx version min=15.6' $ make $ make install LibreSSL Download: $ curl O $ curl O $ gpg verify libressl 3.1.5.tar.gz.asc $…
read the full Telephone overview →
More in Infrastructure & Operations
Related comparisons
More Messaging & Event Streaming projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Messaging & Event Streaming field.
Frequently asked questions
Is dino or Telephone more popular?
dino has 2,505 GitHub stars and Telephone has 1,177. dino has the larger community by that measure.
Are dino and Telephone free?
Both are open source. dino is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Telephone under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between dino and Telephone?
dino is written in Vala and Telephone in Swift. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, dino or Telephone?
Choose dino if you want the larger community (2,505 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Telephone if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.