head to head · open source
kafka vs Telephone
kafka has 33,768 GitHub stars, 15,525 forks, 574 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Telephone has 1,169 stars, 233 forks, 132 open issues and last shipped 13 days ago. kafka leads on adoption by 2,789% (33,768 vs 1,169 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 | 2026-09-20 | 2026-09-09 |
| Forks | ⑂ 16K | ⑂ 233 |
| 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, written in Java and Scala, for organizations that need high performance data pipelines, streaming analytics, data integration, and mission critical applications.
read the full kafka overview →
About Telephone
Telephone is a GPL 3.0 licensed VoIP SIP softphone for macOS, written in Swift, that lets anyone whose phone line speaks SIP place and answer calls over the Internet or a company network from a Mac instead of a physical phone.
read the full Telephone overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is kafka or Telephone more popular?
kafka has 33,768 GitHub stars and Telephone has 1,169. 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 (33,768 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.