head to head · open source
MadelineProto vs Telephone
MadelineProto has 3,551 GitHub stars, 931 forks, 75 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Telephone has 1,177 stars, 241 forks, 132 open issues and last shipped 21 days ago. MadelineProto leads on adoption by 202% (3,551 vs 1,177 stars). MadelineProto is written in PHP under AGPL-3.0; Telephone is written in Swift under GPL-3.0. MadelineProto has attracted 26% as many forks as stars, Telephone 20%. MadelineProto 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
| MadelineProto | Telephone | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 3.6K | ★ 1.2K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | PHP | Swift |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-13 |
| Forks | ⑂ 931 | ⑂ 241 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick MadelineProto if
- You weight community size — 3.6K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- 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 MadelineProto
MadelineProto, a PHP MTProto telegram client Created by Daniil Gentili StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 Do join the official channel, @MadelineProto and the support groups! Approved by Telegram! What's this? This library can be used to easily interact with Telegram without the bot API, just like the official apps. It can login with a phone number (MTProto API), or with a bot token (MTProto API, no bot API involved! ). It is now fully async! Getting started (now fully async!) Try running this code in a browser or in a console! Tip: if you receive an error (or nothing), send us the error message and the MadelineProto.log…
read the full MadelineProto 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 MadelineProto or Telephone more popular?
MadelineProto has 3,551 GitHub stars and Telephone has 1,177. MadelineProto has the larger community by that measure.
Are MadelineProto and Telephone free?
Both are open source. MadelineProto is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Telephone under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between MadelineProto and Telephone?
MadelineProto is written in PHP 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, MadelineProto or Telephone?
Choose MadelineProto if you want the larger community (3,551 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Telephone if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.