Free SIP-IAX softphones for windows linux mac - asterisk
Topic: Free SIP - IAX softphones download links
In this article i have provided the Free SIP-IAX softphones available for windows,linux and mac to work with Asterisk based pbx and dialers like freepbx,vicidial,goautodial,issabel,elastix etc.
What is a Softphone?
A softphone is a piece of software that allows users to make telephone calls over the internet via a computer or smartphone. It has all the features of a desk phone and typically expands the range of services you can access on a desk phone. Most importantly, a softphone allows you to take your work phone with you wherever you go. It can be installed on a laptop, tablet or smartphone
Softphone vs Webphone
Softphone: An internet phone that can be used on any IoT device—whether in a web browser, desktop app, or mobile app.
Webphone: An internet phone that can be used in a web browser only or you can say voice over http.
All webphones are softphones, but not all softphones are webphones.
SIP - IAX - Webphone - PJSIP
A SIP softphone is a software program for making telephone calls using SIP-based (Session Initiation Protocol) communications, basically listens on port 5060 UDP and for RTP traffic relies on port 10000 to 20000 UDP
A IAX Softphone is also similar to SIP softphones, but they listen on the port 4569 and RTP traffic also flows over same port
A PJSIP softphone is also similar to SIP phone but they support the PJSIP protocol, which is alternate or enhanced version of SIP
Webphones are web-based applications that allow you to make phone calls directly in your Internet browser like Firefox, Chrome, Safari and many more. The webphones are based on WebRTC technology
Free Softphones and Webphones
Below are the list of free open source softphones and webphones, which support SIP or IAX or PJSIP or webrtc, Few of them supports most of them together
Zoiper
Zoiper is most popular free softphone which supports but SIP and IAX also provides paid version of webphone, supports windows, linux, mac, mobiles.
MicroSIP - open source portable SIP softphone based on PJSIP stack for Windows OS, its very light weight and easy to configure
Linphone is an open source instant messaging and voice/video over IP (VoIP) phone that makes it possible to communicate freely with people over the internet via voice, video and text messaging.
Jitsi is an audio/video Internet phone and instant messenger written in Java. It supports some of the most popular instant messaging and telephony protocols such as SIP, Jabber/XMPP (and hence Facebook and Google Talk), AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo! Messenger.
VICIphone was built with WebRTC Technology. WebRTC provides browsers and mobile applications with Real-Time Communications (RTC) capabilities. This enables your users to use VICIphone without having to install or configure anything.
Dialplate Softphone is the best solution for receptionist attendant and call center operators: calls management, transfer, hold, one-click calls and several other functions are optimized for these uses. The free version supports 2 lines and paid version supports max 16 lines
Sample pic of Dialplate receptionist phone
