Alternatives / Twilio
Looking for an open source Twilio alternative? We compared 3 open source communication platforms by license, channels, and self-hosting. Fonoster covers voice and messaging apps, useSend covers email, and SAMA is a chat server, so none covers all of Twilio.
Written by Maxime DERAME
Last updated:
| Alternative | Best for | License |
|---|---|---|
| Fonoster | Voice applications and IVR | MIT |
| useSend | Transactional and marketing email on Amazon SES | AGPL-3.0 |
| SAMA | Real-time chat inside your app | GPL-3.0 |
We looked for open-source tools that overlap with parts of Twilio's platform: programmable voice, messaging, email, and chat. We verified each project's license, recent activity, stars, and self-hosting in its repository. Twilio is a carrier-connected platform with phone numbers, so open-source tools cover the software layer and you still need telecom providers for real phone calls and SMS. See our methodology for the full criteria.
Open-source software does not give you phone numbers or carrier connections. Fonoster builds voice and messaging applications such as IVR systems and SMS notifications, but you must connect them to telecom providers. useSend sends email through Amazon SES, which AWS bills separately.
Fonoster is a cloud communications platform for voice applications. useSend is an email platform with analytics, a visual editor, contact management, and an SMTP relay, covering email rather than voice or SMS. SAMA is a chat server with end-to-end encryption, clustering, presence, and push notifications, and it is not a telephony or SMS API.
useSend's managed cloud has paid plans starting at $10 a month, with per-email pricing of $0.0004 for transactional email and $0.001 for marketing email. Fonoster is MIT, useSend is AGPL-3.0, and SAMA is GPL-3.0.
Fonoster, useSend, and SAMA had commits within days or weeks of this update. SAMA is a small project with about 160 stars.
Twilio is a proprietary pay-per-use platform whose per-message and per-minute prices add up, with your communications flowing through its network. Open-source alternatives let you self-host the software layer, choose your own carriers and email providers, and avoid platform markup, at the cost of arranging telecom connectivity and running the infrastructure.
Fonoster is an MIT-licensed cloud communications platform for building voice and messaging applications, including IVR systems and SMS notifications, with an API you can self-host. It covers the software layer, and you must connect it to telecom providers for real phone calls and SMS. Its scalability and cost claims are promotional.
Pricing: Free to self-host; telecom provider costs apply.
AGPL-3.0 self-hosted email platform built around Amazon SES, with transactional API, SMTP relay, marketing campaigns, contacts, visual editor, delivery logs, open/click tracking, bounce tracking, suppressions, analytics, and TypeScript, Python, Go, and PHP SDKs.
Pricing: Self-hosted open-source layer; Amazon SES usage and AWS infrastructure are billed separately.
SAMA is a GPL-3.0 messaging server for developers building real-time communication applications, with private and group chats, presence, read receipts, attachments, encryption, push notifications, and clustering.
Pricing: Free and self-hostable under GPL-3.0; client development and infrastructure costs still apply.
| Alternative | Type | License | Self-hosted | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fonoster | Voice and messaging platform | MIT | Yes | IVR and voice apps |
| useSend | Email platform on SES | AGPL-3.0 | Yes | Email delivery |
| SAMA | Chat server | GPL-3.0 | Yes | In-app chat |
Want to build voice applications and IVR
Fonoster is an MIT platform for voice and messaging apps, but you must connect it to telecom providers.
Want to replace Twilio SendGrid-style email
useSend sends transactional and marketing email on Amazon SES with analytics and an SMTP relay, under AGPL-3.0.
Want chat inside your own app
SAMA is a GPL-3.0 chat server with end-to-end encryption, presence, and push notifications.