rustpbx
A high-performance, AI-native software-defined PBX built in Rust for programmable contact centers.
What is rustpbx?
RustPBX is a modern, software-defined PBX (Private Branch Exchange) built in Rust, designed as a high-performance, AI-native communication platform for next-generation contact centers. It fundamentally differs from traditional systems like Asterisk by exposing all call control via HTTP, WebSocket, and webhooks, making it fully programmable and enabling AI to be a native participant in every call.
Developers and organizations building programmable contact centers, AI voice agents, cloud call centers, enterprise unified communications, VoIP wholesale platforms, or compliance recording systems that require deep integration with modern applications and AI.
Developers choose RustPBX over traditional PBX systems because it externalizes all control logic via standard web protocols (HTTP/WebSocket/Webhook), making it fully programmable in any language and seamlessly integrable with AI and business applications, without relying on closed architectures or C modules.
Overview
A PBX written by rust
Use Cases
Best For
- Building AI contact centers where an AI Voice Agent handles incoming calls and transfers to human agents for complex issues.
- Developing cloud call centers with multi-tenant SaaS architectures, remote agents, and WebRTC + SIP endpoints.
- Creating enterprise unified communication systems with internal communication, conferencing, voicemail, and CRM/OA integration.
- Implementing VoIP wholesale platforms for multi-carrier routing, flexible billing, and profit optimization (requires Commercial edition).
- Setting up compliance recording for financial or healthcare sectors, including AI quality inspection and PCI masking.
- Running outbound marketing campaigns with predictive dialing, call analytics, and lead scoring.
Not Ideal For
- Small offices or hobbyists needing a simple, pre-configured PBX with minimal DevOps overhead
- Projects requiring advanced IVR or visual voicemail without purchasing the commercial edition
- Teams heavily reliant on legacy telephony hardware or proprietary PBX modules not supported via HTTP/WebSocket
- Environments where immediate, extensive third-party plugin ecosystems are critical
Pros & Cons
Pros
Benchmark data shows it handles 800 concurrent calls with low latency and predictable CPU/memory usage, as detailed in the resource scaling estimates.
Exposes all call control via HTTP router webhooks and WebSocket RWI, enabling integration with any language and AI systems, unlike traditional C-module PBXs.
Supports SIP over UDP/TCP/WS/TLS/WebRTC with RTP relay and NAT traversal, making it cloud-native and suitable for remote agents.
Includes a web console with RBAC, Prometheus metrics, OpenTelemetry tracing, and SipFlow recording for unified SIP+RTP capture.
Cons
Key features like VoIP wholesale, IVR visual editor, and enterprise auth are only in the paid edition, limiting the community version's appeal for enterprise use.
Requires Docker or building from source with dependencies like CMake and OpenSSL, and configuration involves TOML files and realm settings for NAT traversal.
Compared to Asterisk, it has a smaller community and fewer third-party modules, which might slow adoption for teams needing proven integrations.
Open Source Alternative To
rustpbx is an open-source alternative to the following products:
FreeSWITCH is a scalable open-source telephony platform for building voice, video, and messaging applications, supporting protocols like SIP, WebRTC, and PSTN.
A VoIP softswitch platform used for managing and operating telecommunications services, including call routing, billing, and customer management.
Asterisk is an open-source framework for building communications applications, such as VoIP gateways, conference servers, and PBX systems.
Frequently Asked Questions
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