Grasshopper

Best Self Hosted Alternatives to Grasshopper

A curated collection of the 3 best self hosted alternatives to Grasshopper.

Grasshopper is a virtual phone system for small businesses that provides business phone numbers, call forwarding, voicemail, SMS messaging, and mobile/desktop apps to manage calls and separate work from personal communications.

Alternatives List

#1
Asterisk

Asterisk

Open-source PBX and telephony toolkit for building communications applications; modular C-based engine with SIP, WebRTC, RTP, ARI/AMI APIs and hardware support.

Asterisk screenshot

Asterisk is an open-source telephony engine and PBX toolkit implemented primarily in C and developed for GNU/Linux. It exposes traditional PBX features and low-level telephony primitives so developers and operators can build SIP, WebRTC and PSTN-connected communications applications.

Key Features

  • Modular, channel-based architecture with pluggable modules for SIP (chan_pjsip / chan_sip), media, codecs and hardware interfaces
  • WebRTC support (WSS/DTLS-SRTP), RTP/RTCP handling, and modern codec support including Opus for browser and realtime audio
  • ARI (Asterisk REST Interface) exposing REST + WebSocket events for building custom programmable call applications
  • AMI and AGI interfaces for management, automation and traditional dialplan scripting; full CLI and menuselect build configuration
  • PSTN and telephony hardware integration (traditional telephony cards and drivers) alongside VoIP gateway capability
  • Source-driven build system using autoconf/Autotools and GNU Make; extensive documentation, community forum and release advisories

Use Cases

  • Deploying an enterprise or branch PBX providing calls, voicemail, conferencing, queues and call routing
  • Acting as a VoIP gateway or SBC to bridge SIP/WebRTC clients with PSTN trunks and telephony hardware
  • Building programmable communications services (IVR, voicebots, conferencing, call recording) using ARI or AMI

Limitations and Considerations

  • Nontrivial operational complexity: requires careful configuration, dependency management and familiarity with telephony concepts
  • Requires proactive security and performance tuning (file-descriptor limits, TLS/DTLS configuration); security advisories are periodically published for critical fixes
  • Feature surface is large and modularity means some functionality requires enabling/building specific modules or external libraries

Asterisk is a mature, widely adopted telephony engine suited for operators and developers who need deep control over call handling and media. It is maintained by a large community and is intended for production PBX and programmable-telephony deployments.

3kstars
1.2kforks
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#2
FusionPBX

FusionPBX

FusionPBX is a domain-based, multi-tenant PBX and softswitch web UI for FreeSWITCH, supporting extensions, IVR, queues, voicemail, provisioning, and more.

FusionPBX screenshot

FusionPBX is a full-featured, domain-based multi-tenant PBX and voice switch built around FreeSWITCH. It provides a web-based interface to manage telephony features for businesses, service providers, and multi-customer environments.

Key Features

  • Domain-based multi-tenancy for hosting multiple independent PBX tenants
  • Extension and user management with typical PBX calling features
  • IVR, ring groups, call parking, and call routing via dialplan tools
  • Call queues / ACD and call center-oriented applications
  • Voicemail features including voicemail-to-email support
  • Device provisioning with troubleshooting logs for provisioning requests
  • Call detail records (CDR) and call recordings management
  • High availability and redundancy options for more resilient deployments

Use Cases

  • Hosting a multi-tenant PBX platform for customers or departments
  • Building a VoIP business phone system with IVR, voicemail, and queues
  • Running a FreeSWITCH-based softswitch with web-managed configuration

Limitations and Considerations

  • Requires deploying and operating FreeSWITCH alongside the FusionPBX web application
  • Some advanced features (for example, certain reporting modules and the REST API) may depend on membership or add-on applications

FusionPBX is well-suited for organizations that want a FreeSWITCH-based telephony stack with a comprehensive administrative UI and multi-tenant capabilities. It scales from single-instance PBX deployments to carrier-oriented environments when designed with redundancy in mind.

963stars
731forks
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#3
Wazo Platform

Wazo Platform

Open-source, API-first platform for carrier-grade IP communications: VoIP, WebRTC, messaging, conferencing and programmable telephony microservices.

Wazo Platform screenshot

Wazo Platform is an open-source, API-first project for building carrier-grade IP communication infrastructures. It provides microservices, APIs and SDKs to deliver VoIP, WebRTC, messaging, conferencing, call center and PBX features for custom and scalable deployments. (wazo-platform.org)

Key Features

  • API-first microservices implemented primarily in Python, exposing REST APIs, WebSockets and Webhooks. (github.com)
  • Call-control and telephony services (wazo-calld) for creating and managing calls, voicemail, transfers and switchboards. (github.com)
  • WebRTC-enabled softphone SDKs and demos for embedding browser-based voice/video clients. (github.com)
  • Engine integration with telecom components (Asterisk, Kamailio, RTPEngine) and a technical stack using Nginx, RabbitMQ and PostgreSQL. (wazo-platform.org)
  • Container and packaging support (Docker / docker-compose) and OpenAPI-described endpoints for easier integration. (github.com)

Use Cases

  • Build a white-label UCaaS or MSP offering with programmable VoIP, chat and conferencing.
  • Integrate an embedded softphone or add telephony features into web and mobile apps.
  • Deploy SIP routing, session border controller or contact center/call-center services.

Limitations and Considerations

  • Wazo relies on third-party telecom components (Asterisk, Kamailio, RTPEngine); deploying and operating production telecom stacks requires telephony and infrastructure expertise. (wazo-platform.org)
  • The community maintains most components and some container tooling is marked experimental; CI/packaging and deployment workflows may need adaptation for production. (github.com)

Wazo Platform provides a modular, extensible foundation for building programmable telephony and UC solutions. It targets operators, MSPs and developers who need deep customization and API-level control over telecommunication features. (wazo-platform.org)

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Why choose an open source alternative?

  • •Data ownership: Keep your data on your own servers
  • •No vendor lock-in: Freedom to switch or modify at any time
  • •Cost savings: Reduce or eliminate subscription fees
  • •Transparency: Audit the code and know exactly what's running