head to head · open source
kafka vs Telephone
kafka has 34,129 GitHub stars, 15,659 forks, 574 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Telephone has 1,178 stars, 241 forks, 132 open issues and last shipped 24 days ago. kafka leads on adoption by 2,797% (34,129 vs 1,178 stars). kafka is written in Java under Apache-2.0; Telephone is written in Swift under GPL-3.0. kafka has attracted 46% as many forks as stars, Telephone 20%. kafka 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.
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Side by side
| kafka | Telephone | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 34K | ★ 1.2K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Java | Swift |
| Last push | 2026-11-05 | 2026-10-13 |
| Forks | ⑂ 16K | ⑂ 241 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick kafka if
- You weight community size — 34K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- 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 kafka
Apache Kafka is an open source distributed event streaming platform used by thousands of companies for high performance data pipelines, streaming analytics, data integration, and mission critical applications. You need to have Java installed. We build and test Apache Kafka with Java versions 17 and 25. The release parameter in javac is set to 11 for the clients and streams modules, and 17 for the rest, ensuring compatibility with their respective minimum Java versions. Similarly, the release parameter in scalac is set to 11 for the streams modules and 17 for the rest. Scala 2.13 is the only supported version in…
read the full kafka overview →
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 →
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Frequently asked questions
Is kafka or Telephone more popular?
kafka has 34,129 GitHub stars and Telephone has 1,178. kafka has the larger community by that measure.
Are kafka and Telephone free?
Both are open source. kafka is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Telephone under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between kafka and Telephone?
kafka is written in Java 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, kafka or Telephone?
Choose kafka if you want the larger community (34,129 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Telephone if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.