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Comparison · Meetings
Asterisk vs Nextcloud Talk
A side-by-side editorial comparison of Asterisk and Nextcloud Talk — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Asterisk vs Nextcloud Talk: at a glance
What is Asterisk?
Four parallel branches, one fix set — Asterisk's changelog is a backport ledger, not a feature list.
Asterisk maintains mainline 20, 22 and 23 branches alongside a certified track, and lands each fix set across all of them at once. The June 25 batch was a coordinated security release resolving roughly 20 advisories on every branch simultaneously. The August 7 batch opens the next cycle with release candidates carrying identical commit, author and issue counts across 23.5.0, 22.11.0 and 20.21.0.
What is Nextcloud Talk?
Two parallel Talk lines: a 24.0 feature push in RC, a 22.0 stable stream in maintenance.
Nextcloud Talk (the spreed app) is the self-hosted voice, video, and chat layer of Nextcloud. The feed shows two branches moving at once: the 22.0 stable line churning out backport-heavy patch releases, and the 24.0 line working through release candidates. Recent 22.0 work is mostly call-reliability fixes (iOS audio mixing, camera constraints, media-device handling) and dependency bumps.
Asterisk vs Nextcloud Talk: editorial side-by-side
Asterisk
5.0MEETINGS
Four parallel branches, one fix set — Asterisk's changelog is a backport ledger, not a feature list.
◆ Current state
Asterisk maintains mainline 20, 22 and 23 branches alongside a certified track, and lands each fix set across all of them at once. The June 25 batch was a coordinated security release resolving roughly 20 advisories on every branch simultaneously. The August 7 batch opens the next cycle with release candidates carrying identical commit, author and issue counts across 23.5.0, 22.11.0 and 20.21.0.
◆ Where it's heading
The visible output is backport discipline rather than feature development. Release notes carry counts, tags and advisory IDs but no feature text, so the changelog reads as a stability and security ledger for a mature telephony core. The certified track deliberately lags mainline and picks up a smaller subset of each cycle.
◆ Prediction
The three release candidates should promote to final within the project's usual short RC window, with the certified branch taking the same fixes a cycle later. Nothing in these entries points to feature work in flight.
Nextcloud Talk
5.0MEETINGS
Two parallel Talk lines: a 24.0 feature push in RC, a 22.0 stable stream in maintenance.
◆ Current state
Nextcloud Talk (the spreed app) is the self-hosted voice, video, and chat layer of Nextcloud. The feed shows two branches moving at once: the 22.0 stable line churning out backport-heavy patch releases, and the 24.0 line working through release candidates. Recent 22.0 work is mostly call-reliability fixes (iOS audio mixing, camera constraints, media-device handling) and dependency bumps.
◆ Where it's heading
The substantive feature bets landed earlier in the 24.0 beta — permanent call rooms, advanced noise suppression, calls from the avatar menu, conversation tagging — and the current releases are stabilizing them toward a stable cut. The 22.0 stream will keep receiving call and federation hardening in parallel. Momentum is on hardening real-time calling and SIP/federation edge cases rather than new surface.
◆ Prediction
The 24.0 line looks headed for a stable release once the RC call and chat fixes settle, with the 22.0 stream continuing to receive backported reliability patches.
Alternatives to Asterisk and Nextcloud Talk
Other Meetings products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either Asterisk or Nextcloud Talk.
Webex
The feed is a marketing blog; the actual GA announcements arrive between the thought leadership
HOMER
HOMER 11's DuckLake rearchitecture is in its hardening phase, shipping near-daily.
mediasoup
mediasoup's Rust line is shipping subchannel fixes every few days and nothing else
Daily.co
One real release is buried in a feed that is mostly captured page furniture.
Fourwaves
A daily drip of conference-platform polish, with finance filtering and attendee self-service leading.
See all Asterisk alternatives → · See all Nextcloud Talk alternatives →
Recent activity from Asterisk and Nextcloud Talk
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 4d agoAsteriskCertified 22.8-cert4: 8 community-reported fixes
- 4d agoAsterisk23.5.0-rc1 opens the cycle with 27 issues resolved
- 4d agoAsterisk22.11.0-rc1 mirrors the 23.5.0 fix set
- 4d agoAsterisk20.21.0-rc1 carries the same set back to the LTS line
- 18d agoNextcloud Talkv22.0.16: call-audio and camera fixes on the stable line
- 1mo agoNextcloud Talkv22.0.15: session cleanup and user-deletion fixes
- 1mo agoNextcloud Talkv22.0.14: 30fps calls, chunked recording uploads, E2EE recording
- 1mo agoAsterisk23.4.1 security release resolves 20 advisories
- 1mo agoAsterisk22.10.1 takes the same 20-advisory security set
- 2mo agoNextcloud Talkv24.0.0-rc.4: chat hotkey and SIP dial-out fixes
- 2mo agoNextcloud Talkv24.0.0-rc.3: screenshare, federation, and permission fixes
- 2mo agoNextcloud Talkv22.0.13: backported screenshare and federation fixes
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Asterisk and Nextcloud Talk?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. Asterisk and Nextcloud Talk are shipping at a similar cadence (velocity 5.0 vs 5.0, both within Sparkpulse's "active" band). See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is Asterisk better than Nextcloud Talk?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Asterisk and Nextcloud Talk are shipping at a similar cadence (velocity 5.0 vs 5.0, both within Sparkpulse's "active" band). For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Meetings products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to Asterisk?
Top Asterisk alternatives in Meetings are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Asterisk alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/asterisk for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to Nextcloud Talk?
Top Nextcloud Talk alternatives in Meetings are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Nextcloud Talk alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/nextcloud-talk for the full list with editorial commentary on each.