Fourwaves
Fourwaves follows its participant inbox with a week of admin fixes and security hardening.
Comparison · Meetings
FreeSWITCH vs HOMER
A side-by-side editorial comparison of FreeSWITCH and HOMER — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
FreeSWITCH vs HOMER: at a glance
What is FreeSWITCH?
FreeSWITCH is shipping security releases on a cadence it never used to keep.
Three releases in four months after years of near-silence. 1.11.3 is a security and stability cut that drops Debian 11 Bullseye and gates the chat API proto in mod_sofia and mod_verto; 1.11.2 brought an interface allowlist and stricter DTLS/STUN validation; 1.11.1 added hot TLS certificate reloads. The project is treating the telephony attack surface as the main work.
What is HOMER?
HOMER 11.0.369 fixes S3 auth on Ceph-based storage and stops compaction memory growth.
HOMER's 11.0 line is still hardening its DuckDB tiered-storage layer. 11.0.368 retries incomplete tier moves and fixes tiered queries that missed lake tables. The 11.0.369 pre-release stops sending the AWS session token with static S3 keys, which broke Vultr/Ceph RGW, and keeps DuckDB's file cache off on write paths so compaction memory plateaus. Security fixes (bound tiered lookup parameters, hono bump) ride alongside.
FreeSWITCH vs HOMER: editorial side-by-side
FreeSWITCH
5.0MEETINGS
FreeSWITCH is shipping security releases on a cadence it never used to keep.
◆ Current state
Three releases in four months after years of near-silence. 1.11.3 is a security and stability cut that drops Debian 11 Bullseye and gates the chat API proto in mod_sofia and mod_verto; 1.11.2 brought an interface allowlist and stricter DTLS/STUN validation; 1.11.1 added hot TLS certificate reloads. The project is treating the telephony attack surface as the main work.
◆ Where it's heading
1.11.0 set the terms by deleting roughly thirty legacy modules and migrating to PCRE2, and everything since has been consolidation on the narrower tree: harden what remains, drop old platforms, gate optional protocols behind explicit configuration. Operators still on 1.10 are accumulating a larger migration the longer they wait, which is the practical effect of this cadence.
◆ Prediction
Expect the pattern to hold — further point releases on 1.11 weighted to security fixes and platform drops, with new capability arriving only where it serves TLS or SIP hardening.
HOMER
5.0MEETINGS
HOMER 11.0.369 fixes S3 auth on Ceph-based storage and stops compaction memory growth.
◆ Current state
HOMER's 11.0 line is still hardening its DuckDB tiered-storage layer. 11.0.368 retries incomplete tier moves and fixes tiered queries that missed lake tables. The 11.0.369 pre-release stops sending the AWS session token with static S3 keys, which broke Vultr/Ceph RGW, and keeps DuckDB's file cache off on write paths so compaction memory plateaus. Security fixes (bound tiered lookup parameters, hono bump) ride alongside.
◆ Where it's heading
Almost every release since early October fixes the parquet lake: compaction, cache behaviour, tiering and S3 compatibility. The storage rewrite is being shaken out in production on more varied object stores. Feature work, such as OTLP log events on the call ladder, has paused while this stabilises.
◆ Prediction
Expect 11.0.369 to be promoted from pre-release, followed by more storage fixes for non-AWS object stores before feature work picks up again.
Alternatives to FreeSWITCH and HOMER
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 FreeSWITCH or HOMER.
Element Call
Element Call starts moving to new LiveKit transports and falls back to remote SFUs when needed.
JW Player
JW Player moves CMAF VOD into the dashboard, adds AV1, and opens Broadcast Live to audio-only feeds.
rtpengine
rtpengine opens the mr26.3 branch with a rollback message and leaner call state.
Nextcloud Talk Desktop
Nextcloud Talk Desktop 2.3.3 adds accessibility options and bundles Talk v25.0.6.
Nextcloud Talk
Nextcloud Talk patches v22 and v23 while v25 stable sits five weeks past its last RC.
See all FreeSWITCH alternatives → · See all HOMER alternatives →
Recent activity from FreeSWITCH and HOMER
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1d agoHOMERHOMER 11.0.371: B2BUA legs in exports, Smart Search fix
- 3d agoHOMERHOMER 11.0.369 fixes Ceph S3 auth and compaction memory growth
- 5d agoHOMERHOMER 11.0.368 fixes tier moves and tiered-query table coverage
- 8d agoHOMERHOMER 11.0.367 disables DuckDB file cache for local lakes
- 8d agoHOMERHOMER 11.0.366 bumps DuckDB to 1.5.6, pins Go build
- 14d agoHOMERBlocks DuckDB file reads and rejects placeholder JWT secrets
- 2mo agoFreeSWITCH1.11.3 drops Debian 11 and gates the chat API proto
- 2mo agoFreeSWITCHInterface allowlist lands with a broad memory-safety sweep
- 5mo agoFreeSWITCHHot TLS certificate reloads and SIP 603 passthrough
- 5mo agoFreeSWITCHPCRE2, OpenSSL 3 on Windows, and thirty legacy modules removed ⚡
- 2y agoFreeSWITCHARM64 support arrives, Debian 10 and CentOS dropped
- 2y agoFreeSWITCHCoverity fixes and a sofia-sip version bump
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between FreeSWITCH and HOMER?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. FreeSWITCH and HOMER 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 FreeSWITCH better than HOMER?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. FreeSWITCH and HOMER 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 FreeSWITCH?
Top FreeSWITCH alternatives in Meetings are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "FreeSWITCH alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/freeswitch for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to HOMER?
Top HOMER alternatives in Meetings are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "HOMER alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/homer-voip for the full list with editorial commentary on each.