This post was initially a reply to a friend on their LiveJournal, but I put enough time into it, so I thought I’d make a full-out blog post out of it. Keep in mind that this is all personal observation and thoughts, so for the most part, your mileage may vary.
For those of you not in the know, there are now two programs out there that do free P2P VoIP – Skype has been around for quite awhile now, where Gizmo Project (which may get a new name soon) is a relative newcomer. Both offer similar paid services, such as the ability to call out to standard phone networks, or the ability to have your own custom inbound number. In fact, I used Skype rather extensively when Lisa was in Argentina as a means of talking to her. I’m sure we saved quite a bit in long distance bills by using Skype and getting her a SkypeIn phone number that was a local phone number for our land line, not to mention it made it a lot easier for the less tech-savvy family members to reach her.
My friend asked me if I knew how they compared, in terms of RAM utilization. Skype.exe is eating 22,784K according to Windows XP. Gizmo.exe is using 16,292K. Gizmo wins for size, at least initially.
As for other features, with Gizmo, there’s some unique things. For example, there doesn’t seem to be as easy a way to get multiple people into one call, but you’re also technically not capped by anything other than bandwidth. You pick and dial a random-ish conference call number, then distribute it to other people and have them connect. It seems a little goofy. I don’t know anyone else on Gizmo yet, so I’ve yet to see it in practice. If a bunch of you sign up for Gizmo, we might have to give it a shot. Although Gizmo’s conference call system seems a bit odd, it says that if you have people mute themselves when they’re not talking, you’ll have much greater success with large numbers of people. They say that they’ve had 28 people in 11 countries talking at once without much degradation of call quality. They say once you break past four people who aren’t muting, call quality slips a bit. Skype caps out at five people in a call, no matter what.
You also get the ability to have people call you directly from a land line for free, by using the SIP phone number that Gizmo provides. I can’t easily find this number in any member area of Gizmo, but you get it in the welcome email, so be sure to hang onto that when you sign up. So, for example, you can visit http://www.gizmoproject.com/access-numbers.html and pick an access number, dial it up, then press 1 for the SIPphone network, then punch in my SIP number (which I won’t post here, ask if you want to try it) and bam, that’s me, from a land line, without me having to put out any money at all. Of course, you as the caller have to pay whatever long distance charges may apply, but it works well, and when I tested it on myself, it was a near instant connection. It actually stunned me how fast it went from me punching in my SIP number on my handset to the call showing up on my screen.
I called myself to test it out. After getting that call and pushing it to voicemail (as I didn’t feel like talking to myself), Gizmo is up to 21,672K, which is higher than it was earier, but still lower than Skype at idle. Just for grins, I used my SkypeIn number that I signed up for and called myself in a similar such manner, and Skype went up to 30,513K, and when I hung up, it dropped to 29,536K. The Skype connection didn’t show up as fast as Gizmo did, but was still quick enough that had I answered it right away, the caller wouldn’t have waited for more than a ring or two. It makes me want to sign up for a Gizmo CallIn number, but there are none local to 505 yet. That’s one big win for Skype: The SkypeIn numbers seem to be much more extensive over the US, where Gizmo’s CallIn numbers are still only in large markets. I’m sure that Gizmo will expand, but for now, if that’s a big priority for you, then Skype is really your only choice unless you live in a large market. Free inbound calls rock, if you don’t mind only having access numbers in major cities and having people dial 20+ digits to reach you, but considering the ubiquity of free long distance on cell phones these days, long distance calls aren’t such an issue.
I should also note that voicemail is a paid service on Skype, but is free on Gizmo. However, each program handles voicemail rather differently. With Skype, you can either pay for voicemail as an independent service, or it comes free with a SkypeIn number. All voicemail information is managed in the client. You listen to and delete voicemails from within Skype. With Gizmo, each voicemail is sent as a .wav attachment to the email address that you provide. I gave it my gmail address (as I’m thinking of hopping ship to gmail for all of my email), so email size isn’t such a concern, but if you have a small inbox, this sort of system could be dangerous. Overall, the voicemail quality seemed better on Skype, but I’ve received a few there and only my one test on Gizmo, so it might not be that big of a difference. I didn’t do extensive testing on this aspect. I like managing voicemail through the program itself rather than email, but having it come in through email could be a real benefit in that you could listen to it from any PC, even if you can’t install the application, such as at a web cafe or something.
One odd thing I discovered, is that with your SIP phone number, you can go to http://www.sipphone.com/ and log in using your number and Gizmo password, and set up things like SMS notification of missed calls, which isn’t something Skype seems to offer yet. I don’t think I’d mess around much at SIPphone though, because I don’t know what sort of odd effects that’d have on Gizmo. It’s just neat to be able to turn on SMS notification, so I did, but I haven’t done any other account adjustments there. If I want to in the future, I think I’ll be doing it directly at GizmoProject.com.
As for client stability, Skype wins overall. Gizmo is still in beta, and it’s shown in one or two screens. I like the overall interface of Gizmo a bit more, but I did have one really weird issue where I had clicked on a small banner on one screen in Gizmo (not an ad, just a banner talking about something), and it linked me to another site, but when I came back, the dialog with the banner was stuck to my mouse, and I had to close that window using the keyboard, because when I moved my mouse, the dialog moved with it. It didn’t crash or anything, but there’s been one or two odd little things like that. They haven’t hampered usage, but it does show that it’s in beta still, whereas Skype is pretty much rock solid, and has been for months.
Since the initial question I was asked was about application memory usage, I’ve been staring at that during this whole testing phase. Overall, it seems like Gizmo is going to be lower in memory usage, usually by about 7-9MB. Even after a call, Gizmo was smaller in size than Skype at idle.
Also, I can’t seem to pick a truly personal avatar for Gizmo like I can with Skype. That stinks, but it’s not such a big deal.
My username is brianarn on both systems, if you want to do any testing or such things. If you want my SIP number, email me. Keep in mind that I may be at work, and so I might not talk much (if at all), but I’m sure we could say Hi or something.
Overall, I think I like Gizmo a bit more now. It uses less RAM, has more in the way of free features, and lets a ton more people than five get together at once. However, I know more people on Skype. I’ll stick to running both for now, but I’d recommend that people check out Gizmo and see what they think.
Have Skype and use it to call daughter teaching in Bosnia.
Really saves on the phone bill. Voicemail in Skype is
expiring (only have SkypeOUT as extra) so looking at
Gizmo since it offers free voicemail and can record
both sides of call for podcast or for playback or forwarding
to other family members. Thanks for your blog.
Seems that VOIP will have to be free around the world someday
including call in and call out to PTSN
since we pay for the broadband connection in the first place.
you can choose your own avatar in gizmo – just copy your avatar file (in my case a jpg) to the follwoing directory – it should now show up when you try to browse for one
C:\Program Files\Gizmo Project\avatars
good luck!
Michael
Try Openwengo… Its free, Open as open source and is based on SIP too…
Plus it supports Video on Windows and Linux as well.
User base is small, but thats because its a new project.
Greatest thing is it will soon launch (under development now) a Wengo Phone extension for Firefox browser – so you can use the whole Openwengo software from your broweser itself – no need to download and install a app.
As for now the App is still beta – and kinks are there and are being ironed out each day.
Call our rates are cheaper tahn Skype (and certainly Gizmo).
As somebody mentioned back in August, a major issue for many Skype users has been the problem of how to buy more credits. People from certain blacklisted countries find they are unable to use a credit card because they are automatically flagged as potential fraudsters. Gizmo has had similar problems. If your billing address is in one country and you live or travel in another country, you will most likely have your credit card rejected.
It’s easy to understand the merchant’s perspective here. But (to me, at least) it seems that ultimately policies that don’t focus on the need to offer a broader range of payment methods to that big chunk of the world where credit cards are less common will prove to be based on poor business decisions.
I’m a senior at SUNY Geneseo, and my friend at SUNY Albany spent hours last semester trying to get a decent VoIP program to work. Skype gave us nothing but aggravation the whole time: it wouldn’t connect; he could hear me but I could not hear him. We spent hours trying to figure out how his system was flawed; we could find nothing.
We both downloaded Gizmo Project, and *POOF*, very nice sound quality on both ends. Now that Gizmo Project has one-cent-a-minute calls, I am tempted to plunk down the ten bucks and give it a shot. Has anyone out there used both Skype-Out and Gizmo Project’s call-out and compared the two? Please post if you have!
User base is small, but thats because its a new project.
Greatest thing is it will soon launch (under development now) a Wengo Phone extension for Firefox browser – so you can use the whole Openwengo software from your broweser itself – no need to download and install a app.
I am very excited about this whole open source voip movemnt. I am traveling to austalia for 6 months to study and I would love to talk with my parents at home in the us. I am curious though can you use a bluetooth enabled cell phone as a handset with any of these services. It would be nice to have both local and global calls on one device.
Hello again folks,
After my posts a few months ago I thought I would post again and let you know that Gizmo is much better to use these days. After several updates it is in fact our preferred option over Skype.
Guys,
Skype is harsh and is not as good as it used to be… and Gizmo is so NERDY and GEEKY ;-) I don’t wanna sound un-cool…
Check out damaka
They have really cool features… I have been using damaka and converting my friends from Skype, Yahoo and MSN… we all love the quality and fun we can have with damaka. Its a very neat and easy to use collaboration tool… perfect for non-techy people like myself…
You can get damaka from here…
jackie
Just a quck note Skype is not all together cheaper i pay one penny a minute for my Gizmo Project calls …..Thats for all Us And Canada minutes ….the
other international rates are a bit higher …So if ya live in the United States Or Canada Gizmo is the way to go
Gizmo projects expire a year after purchase date….
Your Skype Credit will remain active for 180 days after your last SkypeOut call. So if you use your skype at least once every 6 mos it dont run out.
Also on both Gizmo and Skype you can purchase your minutes as they are used… So if your a person that doesn’t talk on the phone but once every six months to a year you don’t need either service.
There’s been some very interesting facts here (e.g. about some of the other FREE VOIP services) but I haven’t seen a comparison to the ‘grand-daddy’ of this FWD – Free World Dialup! FWD is SIP based and I believe it has been for a long time.
Which brings up a related question; has anyone experiences with SIP hard
phones connected to any of these services (not Skype) or SIP ATA’s (analog telephone adaptors like the Grandstream Handytone 286 at ~ 50 USD!!)
this is a really great conversation. thanks to everyone for the extra tips!
Just want to make the following comments:
- Patrick Cole: Gizmo is out for Linux
- I’ve had no issues using PayPal for SkypeOut credit. It’s worked like a charm and gotten my minutes almost immediately (knock on wood)
- I wholeheartedly agree a Palm client is definitely missing (ex-Palm user)
- I wouldn’t say the 1-222-xxx-xxxx method for conference calling is “goofy” but rather a clever way to start a conference call if security is not your primary concern (ie. *anyone* can join the call). It would be nice to have a toggle to prevent others from joining the call.
You are comparing closed programs which are hardcoded to use only one network. That way you get the impression that you must enroll with them to make calls to regular phones.
You don’t really have to be limited by that. You can get a SIPPhone account and a FWD account and a Wengo account, any account that best fits your needs (except of course Skype), and simultaneously register (go online) to them in a single configurable SIP client, or a few of them in one ATA.
For example, I deposited 10 USD in a “pay as you go” plan with teliax, simply because they offer the cheapest rates to Mexico (USD 0.02 to major cities in Mexico is really cheap). On top of that they don’t charge full minutes if you use a few seconds after the first minute. I also have a free FWD account with an ipkall DID which got me a free US incoming number, which is very handy to get calls from cell phones in the US. There are also many local numbers listed in http://www.sipbroker.com which can be used to reach that FWD number.
While I get an adaptor (if I ever), I am using Twinkle, an open source Linux SIP client which registers to both teliax and FWD, so I don’t need to switch programs to call and receive calls using the two different providers. Twinkle might not be very pretty, but it works.
There is a nicer looking interesting project: Ekiga, supporting video. Xten’s X-lite is another easy to install softphone, although not open source.
I used Skype for the mac for about 6 weeks. The Sound sucks on both ends. I thought it might be me firewall so I turend off my firewall on the mac and the router. It still sounds like crap. I am visting out of state and have tried it on a diffrent mac. Sound is still bad. I got Gizmo and it works great! I will not be useing Skype. Gizmo sound is better then my cell phone and Skype is like talking in a tin can.
Gizmo rocks!!!
Dan K
Is it posible to use skype through a cell phone?
I just want to add this: the Gizmo Project technology is open source and relies on SIP communications and XMPP. It can benefit from constant developments of other open source project as Jabber, OpenWengo (Wengo’s sister project), Jabbin for example. Maybe it could also peer-to-peer SIP technologies.
On the other hand, Skype with its proprietary code needs to do every thing on its own. From the version 1.0 to 2.0, no many functionalities appeared besides the video feature. I guess they will need to harmonize with the SIP protocol, which tends to emerge as the VoIP standard.
you state Gizmo is a P2P VOIP client, it isn’t. It is SIP. SIP based P2P isn’t ready yet
i think skype has a great price on callin but gizmo offers free callin if u use the gateway. call a gateway near you then dial your pals sip number and voila!!. fo business its a bitcruel ans skypes one numver at 30 a yr is ok but free gizmo callin is great for most folks. Also from europe call out to the states is half price at gizmo…I think the onl thing missing is a local number to callvia cell to get into ones callout or net to net calls.one big problem is calout via cellwith no wifi.I suffested to boh setting up a national or loccl number thats a gateway to sktpe or gizmo…….
Heh, have anyone here heard about iParty? I used that in the late 90’s. Not for land/cell calls — only a p2p voice caller, which works much like a walk-talk (you press ctrl to buffer your message). It was done exclusively for masses talking (based on conference with both written and spoken chat.
Btw, I use gizmo to call my father on my home city. I can spend a two 30-minute long distance call each day. Kinda great. for free. (despite the work my father had to set it up in his computer). I’ll give a try to that voip buster.
i have bith and price rules. GP is half skype. skype has the extras but cost is alot…thr call fwding is abig future drawas many folk wanna fwd to their cells all incoming skype or GP calls.This still is in the hands of telefon companies.but if GP or skype gets the cost down itll bethe winner as most people are answering voip at thepc when home but don have wifi everywhere nor have wifi cells. a cheap fwd is a plus. As well a cheapway to use a nonwifi cell toget into ones voip beit GP or skype..I use my own skype in number as a gateway..but to receive calls?a big problem
Regarding your last comment ” lets a ton more people than five get together at once.” You can have up to 50 people free conference using Skype at http://www.highspeedconferencing.com/. All calls form Skype are free and you can also have people calling from the landlines join.
I have Gizmo call in and call out. It’s great for having a 2nd line or to call overseas. It’s not so great for making lots of local calls. For that, you should get Voice Pulse $15 per month unlimited local. I love that I can call my brother in dallas free using the grandstream handytone 286 device (computer doesn’t have to be on. Also, when Voice Pulse is down (about 1 percent of the time) my gizmo is a great backup.