{"data":{"slug":"coturn","name":"coturn","tagline":"BSD-3-Clause TURN/STUN NAT-traversal relay (not an SFU)","category":"devops","categoryName":"DevOps","url":"https://coturn.github.io/","github":"https://github.com/coturn/coturn","pricing":"open-source","hook":"coturn is the TURN/STUN relay when LiveKit/Janus are rooms/SFUs and Pion/PeerJS are libraries — you still need NAT traversal infra.","whatsGood":"BSD-3-Clause-style (3-clause). coturn/coturn. Free open-source TURN and STUN server for VoIP/WebRTC media NAT traversal — REST auth, TLS/DTLS, Docker images on Docker Hub/GHCR/Quay. Homepage coturn.github.io; source github.com/coturn/coturn.","theCatch":"Vs LiveKit / Janus (rooms/SFU products), Pion / PeerJS (WebRTC libs/signaling): coturn is the *relay*, not a room product and not a client SDK. You still open UDP/TCP ranges, set realm/secrets, and pay bandwidth on the box that relays. Distinct from mediasoup/LiveKit media routing.","verdict":"BSD-3-Clause TURN/STUN. Free forever relay software; the bill is ports, RAM, and egress.","addedAt":"2026-09-11","featured":false,"domain":"Comms","subSpecialty":"Realtime","subcategory":"Realtime","tags":["self-host","permissive","license-unclear","active"],"capabilities":["webrtc","turn","stun"],"surfaces":["Self-host"],"ecosystem":["Multi-platform"],"licenseModel":"OSS/MIT","githubStars":14489,"starsPerWeek":25,"access":"free","archived":false,"repo":{"createdAt":"2015-07-17","pushedAt":"2026-10-17","license":"NOASSERTION","archived":false,"checkedAt":"2026-10-19"}},"related":[{"slug":"github-actions","name":"GitHub Actions","tagline":"CI/CD that lives where your code does"},{"slug":"docker","name":"Docker","tagline":"Container runtime that changed deployment"},{"slug":"kubernetes","name":"Kubernetes","tagline":"Container orchestration at scale"},{"slug":"pulumi","name":"Pulumi","tagline":"Infrastructure as code in real languages"},{"slug":"fly-io","name":"Fly.io","tagline":"Deploy apps to VMs close to your users"}],"links":{"self":"/api/gems/coturn","html":"/gems/coturn","markdown":"/gems/coturn.md","category":"/api/gems?category=devops","categoryPage":"/stacks/devops"}}