FreeSWITCH vs. Asterisk: What Makes Them Different?

Asterisk vs. FreeSWITCH

In the VoIP world, the two most popular VoIP solution development platforms are Asterisk and FreeSWITCH. Both are powerful to develop any complex communication and collaboration platform. There are thousands of applications out there that remove the complexity of communication and strengthen businesses with the supremacy of unified communication tools. These applications are developed on top of Asterisk or FreeSWITCH and in this article, we will have a quick brief on each of these VoIP solution development platforms to understand what makes them different from each other.

Asterisk

Let’s start with understating Asterisk and Asterisk development. It is not an exaggeration if we say that Asterisk development is in the market since the inception of VoIP technology and solutions. It is the pioneer of VoIP development. It actually is a PBX (Private Branch Exchange) that comes with a host of features that can be used for a wide variety of Asterisk software development. The experts use Asterisk development to benefit small businesses to large organizations with unified communication tools. Its open source nature makes it so popular. Asterisk development has expanded its reach in more than 170 countries that are using millions of Asterisk software day in, day out.

Its huge community makes it perfect to develop any complex solution to satisfy the communication needs of a business. The Asterisk development can be done in a way that it is easy to get integrated within the system very easily without making major changes.

It comes with the GNU GPL dual license. You can also opt for a proprietary license, if you need. It can be used for any type of Asterisk software development, but the most suitable applications that can give the best results if developed in Asterisk are, IP PBX, IVR, Click2call, etc.

As you must have sensed, it is a very powerful development platform. However, it has some limitations when we talk about the scalability of a solution. Of course, you can scale up a system developed on top of Asterisk, but to a certain level only. The Asterisk development for huge traffic might not be that effective as it would result in low quality audio. Also, Asterisk development is not effective to handle multiple parallel video streams with good quality.

FreeSWITCH

It came into existence much later in the VoIP world. In fact, Asterisk developers themselves after parting apart from the community developed this VoIP development platform. Thus, it is not an exaggeration to say this platform tries to cover the weaknesses of Asterisk to give it a tough competition. FreeSWITCH is also a PBX (Private Branch Exchange) system that can be used to develop various communication and collaboration applications. It follows a modular approach and a state-machine model. It has all the features that Asterisk possesses. Moreover, it is commendable for FreeSWITCH development that needs high level scalability.

It is also an open source solution, but with a different licensing model. To use FreeSWITCH development for software, you will need the Mozilla Public License. Thus, you can use it for FreeSWITCH software development for standalone applications, too unlike Asterisk that demands dual licensing. Of course, FreeSWITCH also offers proprietary licensing. There are many solutions developed on top of FreeSWITCH, but relatively less compared to Asterisk because it came later. However, FreeSWITCH software development is gaining popularity and replacing many asterisk systems as it is more scalable and robust compared to Asterisk.

FreeSWITCH software development is the best choice when you want to develop a system that handles a large volume of concurrent calls and for video-based applications. Thus, FreeSWITCH development is the best for applications like video conferencing.

The only challenge in using FreeSWITCH is getting expert developers that know the power of this platform and help you with expert FreeSWITCH development. We have an expert team of Asterisk and FreeSWITCH development services who can build tailormade solutions for our customers.

Connect with us to discuss your requirements and how our skills can help you!

About the author

We are an IT company offering top class VoIP, web, and mobile app development services and solutions. We have various call center solutions to offer along with other comprehensive unified communication solutions and eCommerce web stores.

Leave a Reply