sip-exporter

Overview

sip-exporter is free, open-source software for monitoring SIP calls from a Linux host, with metrics designed for Prometheus-compatible tools. It suits operators who can place a sensor on the call path and run it with elevated container privileges. Its detailed call-quality and fraud signals are compelling, but only for traffic that fits its narrow capture model.

This is a specialist sensor rather than a broad VoIP monitoring service: it can correlate signaling and media, but only when both are visible to the same host.

Key features

The exporter exposes SIP traffic, active sessions, performance and voice-quality measures, plus RTP, RTCP, fraud and diagnostic metrics at /metrics. For RTP streams it can report jitter, packet loss, packet-delay variation and E-model MOS. RTCP sender and receiver statistics add loss, jitter and round-trip time, correlated by SSRC. Together, these measures give operators a useful view of call quality and media behavior when the sensor sees the associated SIP and media traffic.

Its documented fraud signals include registration scans, bursts of INVITE requests, account takeover following a registration-country change, and False Answer Supervision. The included Grafana dashboard has 11 sections, and the project provides Prometheus alert-rule examples, with Alertmanager examples for Slack, PagerDuty and email. Metrics are documented as compatible with Prometheus, VictoriaMetrics, Grafana Cloud and other Prometheus-compatible scrapers.

Privacy-conscious teams may value that the project says it does not store packets or audio. RTP processing parses the fixed header rather than inspecting audio, although RTP snapshots copied to userspace may contain a small prefix of payload. Anonymous usage telemetry is enabled by default; operators can disable it by setting SIP_EXPORTER_TELEMETRY to false.

Pricing

AGPL-3.0 open-source — free. The project is free for personal and educational use, and permits commercial use subject to AGPL-3.0 conditions. There is no free trial because the software is free. The license matters for organizations deploying modified versions over a network: those versions must offer users the corresponding source under the license terms.

Platforms

sip-exporter runs on Linux and is self-hosted. A single-container deployment is provided, but the container must run privileged and use host networking to access eBPF and the network interface. That setup is a practical constraint for environments with strict container permissions or centralized monitoring architectures.

Capture is limited to IPv4 SIP over UDP and correlated RTP/RTCP. SIP over TCP or TLS, IPv6, and fragmented UDP are unsupported. Mirrored traffic is also unsupported for trustworthy quality-of-experience and direction metrics. For full metrics, the sensor must sit on a host that sees both SIP signaling and the RTP media for the same call.

Who it's for

This is a good fit for Linux-based voice operators who already use Prometheus-compatible monitoring and can place a privileged sensor on the actual call path. The combination of SIP performance, correlated RTP quality, RTCP statistics and fraud indicators is particularly relevant to teams investigating call degradation or suspicious registration and calling patterns.

It is a poor fit where traffic uses IPv6 or SIP over TCP/TLS, where media and signaling take different paths, or where privileged host networking is not acceptable. The project directs users to GitHub Issues for support, bug reports and feature requests, and to its security policy for private vulnerability reports.

Pros and cons

• Useful call-quality coverage: MOS, jitter, packet loss, packet-delay variation and RTCP round-trip time help characterize media when it can be correlated with SIP.
• Actionable security signals: the documented registration and calling-pattern signals give voice operators more than basic traffic counts.
• Ready monitoring components: a multi-section Grafana dashboard and alert examples can support adoption in an existing Prometheus-compatible stack.
• Strict capture requirements: IPv4/UDP-only capture excludes common protocol and network configurations, and both signaling and media must be visible at the same host.
• Elevated deployment privileges: privileged mode and host networking may conflict with security policies or container-platform restrictions.
• License obligations: commercial use is permitted with AGPL-3.0 conditions, including source-offer requirements for modified network-accessible versions.

Alternatives

VoIP Monitoring Software is a broader category to explore when comparing monitoring approaches.

Consider Obkio if you want a cross-platform monitoring option with a free plan and a 14-day trial that includes premium features, up to 10 agents and no credit card requirement. Dotcom-Monitor is another free-plan option, with monitoring for up to 25 targets, a five-minute minimum frequency and two locations.

HOMER is a free, open-source alternative for teams seeking a self-hosted VoIP monitoring tool with commercial support available by quote. If your requirements instead call for a controller and one or more node devices that can control over 100 nodes, consider MultiDSLA.

Bicom Systems SIP Monitoring (sipMON), CallMeter, and Nectar Diagnostics are other paid alternatives. ServicePilot VoIP Monitoring offers a free plan and trial alongside per-object pricing for supported VoIP systems.

Verdict

Choose sip-exporter if you need call-quality and fraud metrics from IPv4/UDP SIP traffic and can run a privileged Linux sensor where it sees both signaling and media. Its strongest case is the depth of correlated SIP, RTP and RTCP data at no software cost. Look elsewhere if your traffic uses unsupported protocols, your call path cannot provide the required visibility, or your deployment cannot accept its privileges and AGPL obligations.