head to head · open source
routr vs Telephone
routr has 1,725 GitHub stars, 184 forks, 29 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Telephone has 1,177 stars, 241 forks, 132 open issues and last shipped 21 days ago. routr leads on adoption by 47% (1,725 vs 1,177 stars). routr is written in TypeScript under MIT; Telephone is written in Swift under GPL-3.0. routr has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, Telephone 20%. routr 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
| routr | Telephone | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 1.7K | ★ 1.2K |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Swift |
| Last push | 2026-11-01 | 2026-10-13 |
| Forks | ⑂ 184 | ⑂ 241 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick routr if
- You weight community size — 1.7K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- 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 routr
Routr is a lightweight sip proxy, location server, and registrar that provides a reliable and scalable SIP infrastructure for telephony carriers, communication service providers, and integrators. Content Community Should you try Routr? Contact us Features The official handbook Deployment Docker Kubernetes Gitpod Getting started with the CTL First steps with the NodeSDK Custom Processors and Middleware Documentation Bugs and feedback Sponsors Contributing License Community We are building Routr in the open. The best to communicate with us is via GitHub Discussions. Special Announcement: We now have a Discord…
read the full routr 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 routr or Telephone more popular?
routr has 1,725 GitHub stars and Telephone has 1,177. routr has the larger community by that measure.
Are routr and Telephone free?
Both are open source. routr is licensed under MIT and Telephone under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between routr and Telephone?
routr is written in TypeScript 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, routr or Telephone?
Choose routr if you want the larger community (1,725 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Telephone if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.