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Asterisk

Open-source modular communication system

Table of Contents

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Asterisk - 2026 Pricing, Features, Reviews & Alternatives

All user reviews are verified by in-house moderators and provider data by our software research team. Learn more

Asterisk overview

What is Asterisk?

Asterisk by Digium is an open source communications tool that provides voice and video communication solutions for small, mid-size and large organizations across the globe. The software is freely available and can connect seamlessly with legacy communication systems and VoIP. Asterisk includes many pre-built components that have the capability to handle simple as well as complex voice, video and text communications.

Asterisk telephony solutions provide both classical PBX functionality as well as advanced features including call recording, call routing, call snooping, call waiting, caller ID blocking, blacklists, authentication and conference bridging. Other features offered by Asterisk include SMS messaging, trunking, transcoding, text-to-speech conversion, interactive voice response, flexible extension logic and overhead paging. The software is scalable, allows for the integration of physically separate installations and supports a unified dialplan across offices located in multiple locations. The tool follows both VoIP protocols such as UNIStim, Google Talk, IAX, Jingle/XMPP, SIP, MGCP, and SCCP as well as traditional telephony protocols such as FXS, FXO, Loopstart, Kewlstart, E&M, and others.

Asterisk has a modular design and includes several different components that can be combined to build unified communication solutions including VoIP gateways, phone systems, voicemail servers, conference bridges and IVR servers. Over 1,000 companies in 170 countries use Digium’s phone systems including Yahoo, University of Pennsylvania, Google, U.S. Army, eBay and many of the Fortune 1000 companies.

Key benefits of using Asterisk

? Asterisk is an open source framework for building communication applications and consists of hundreds of pre-built components that can be combined together to form solutions such as VoIP gateways, conference bridges, phones systems and voicemail servers.

? The tool offers features such as call recording, call forwarding, call routing, blacklists, call queuing, call waiting, caller ID, calling cards and blind transfer.

? The product can be used to build a complete phone system, to bridge gaps between systems or to extend or enhance an existing system.

? Asterisk is flexible and lets users define the solution that truly fits their requirements and is stable as well as reliable.

? The system supports both classical PBX functionality as well as advanced features that are associated with large, high-end proprietary PBXs and inter-operates both with traditional telephony systems and VoIP systems.

Starting price

595

Alternatives

with better value for money

Asterisk’s user interface

Ease of use rating:

4.5

(44)

Asterisk reviews

Overall rating

4.5

Positive reviews

Rating breakdown

Value for money
Ease of use
Features
Customer support
Likelihood to recommend8.66/10

Rating distribution

Pros

“The openness of the system and ability to create so many solutions based on this little piece of software. It is a great foundation for creating a telecommunication solution for yourself.”

Verified reviewer

Anonymity request

“Presently, I am including students in the system such that while on campus they can benefit from free phone calls while on campus. Asterisk is really amazing.”

Wobe M.

Network and Systems Administrator

“Best solution for an in-house PBX should you have the ability to manage and maintain it.”

Matthew M.

CTO

Cons

“Need to be careful not to leave it open to fraudulent calls. As a CLI based tool it can be a bit confusing to install from the tgz.”

Eric K.

COO

“It entails a number of severe security threats. And We don't obtain the complete event of Outdial parameters in the Asterisk manager interface layer.”

Osama A.

desginer

“No administration tools, no user interface, lack of commonly needed extensions like phone handset management and voicemail.”

Tim M.

IT consultant

Who uses Asterisk?

Based on 44 verified user reviews.

Company size

Small Businesses

Enterprises

Midsize Businesses

Top industries

Telecommunications

Computer Software

Information Technology and Services

Computer & Network Security

Others

Use cases

Business Phone Systems

Telephony

Asterisk's key features

Most critical features, based on insights from Asterisk users:

Voice mail

4.5

(4)

Call transfer

5.0

(3)

Call routing

5.0

(3)

Call center management

2.4

(5)

Caller id

5.0

(3)

Automatic call distribution

5.0

(2)

All Asterisk features

Features rating:

4.6

(44)

VoIP connection

5.0

(5)

VoIP

5.0

(1)

Call recording

4.5

(2)

Mobile access

5.0

(1)

Virtual Call Center

(0)

Video conferencing

(0)

Text to speech

(0)

SMS messaging

(0)

Reporting/Analytics

(0)

Predictive dialer

(0)

PBX

(0)

IVR

(0)

Employee directory

(0)

Contact management

(0)

Computer telephony integration

(0)

Communication management

(0)

Call reporting

(0)

Call monitoring

(0)

Call logging

(0)

Auto-Dialer

(0)

API

(0)

Asterisk alternatives

Asterisk

4.5

(44)

Starting from

595

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Ease of Use

3.5

Features

4.6

Value for Money

4.8

Customer Support

3.4

Ringover

4.7

(823)

visit website

Starting from

Per month

Free trial

Free version

Ease of Use

4.8

Features

4.6

Value for Money

4.5

Customer Support

4.6

Twilio

4.4

(500)

visit website

Starting from

0.01

Free trial

Free version

Ease of Use

4.1

Features

4.5

Value for Money

4.2

Customer Support

4.0

Dialpad

4.2

(561)

visit website

Starting from

Per month

Free trial

Free version

Ease of Use

4.3

Features

4.2

Value for Money

4.1

Customer Support

4.0

Asterisk pricing

Value for money rating:

4.8

(44)

Starting from

595

Pricing details

Subscription

Free trial

Free plan

Pricing range

User opinions about Asterisk price and value

Value for money rating:

4.8

(44)

To see what individual users think of Asterisk's price and value, check out the review snippets below.

“The openness of the system and ability to create so many solutions based on this little piece of software. It is a great foundation for creating a telecommunication solution for yourself.”

Verified reviewer

Anonymity request

“Presently, I am including students in the system such that while on campus they can benefit from free phone calls while on campus. Asterisk is really amazing.”

Wobe M.

Network and Systems Administrator