
Ask HN: What's the most cost-effective TURN solution? - sp527
I&#x27;m scoping out solutions and debating between using Twilio&#x2F;Plivo or an open source solution like https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;coturn&#x2F;coturn.<p>Does anyone have experience with the cost dynamics of one vs the other? I imagine it has to be cheaper to run our own TURN servers, but I want to make sure it&#x27;s worth it (cost savings significantly outweigh the setup overhead and such, in the long-term) before locking into that approach.<p>Context: implementing P2P VoIP in a mobile app, probably over WebRTC. We probably won&#x27;t expect too much load at first (max 100 active concurrent calls), so I imagine Twilio might even be cheaper overall, at first.<p>Any help&#x2F;resources&#x2F;etc would be much appreciated. Thanks!
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manglav
Why do you think you'd be locked in? To switch from twilio to your own
service, it's one LOC client side, and setting up your server. I don't see
what would lock you in. If you need to host your own TURN server, you need to
host it somewhere where bandwidth is cheap, so NOT aws. You can any lightsail,
DO, etc. However, with a VPS, you're subject to instabilities from other
users, so you may want to get your own instances from Hetzner/OVH. This is a
lot of overhead as you see, so only do it if it's worth it.

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danieka
Hi,

Running your own TURN server isn't that difficult and you should remember that
most calls (80-95%) don't need TURN (packet relay) but only use STUN (IP
discovery). So one small TURN server should have no trouble handling 100
concurrent calls.

There are AMIs if you use AWS, and if you're interested I can send over the
config files we use. We use coturn. My email is in my profile.

Shameless plug: I'm a co-founder of EagleDial, we specialize in calls over
WebRTC with built in payments either per minute or per call. We have white
label solutions.

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auganov
Are you going to need other WebRTC (or similar) infrastructure? For many use
cases, you'll want the TURN server to be colocated with the rest of your
infrastructure.

