# Asterisk PBX

13 Hacker News commenters recommended Asterisk PBX and 3 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 9 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Free open-source phone system that turns a Raspberry Pi and VoIP line into your own PBX and blocks spam, though critics find setup complicated.

## Why people recommend it

- Blocks spam and unwanted calls (3 comments): "Installed Asterisk with a Raspberry on their land line to allow only whitelisted numbers and the problem was solved" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49179562)) "The nicest thing is that when the phone rings, it's a person who I know, not a scam." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49524173)) "This worked remarkably well for blocking the spam." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47125550))
- Runs your own PBX on Raspberry Pi (2 comments): "connect it to a Raspberry Pi with Asterisk, and any VOIP provider, to make your own PBX" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47485285)) "if you have a PBX line (which the telco will change for) you can run Asterix and then" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46311012))
- Fun to build and use (2 comments): "Run your own Asterisk server with special #0 that the kids can dial to listen to children's podcasts, etc., it can be very entertaining." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47917545)) "It was seriously fun working with that stuff." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48913758))

## What people warn about

- Hard to configure and maintain (2 comments): "complicated setup and eventually it fell into disuse" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47501864)) "It can be challenging to configure but LLMs can help a lot with this in my experience." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48181619))

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Asterisk PBX", https://hackerapproved.com/p/asterisk/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).