coturn TURN Relay
coturn TURN Relay is available in the NetActuate Marketplace as a one-click, open-source appliance you can deploy into any NetActuate PoP. A TURN relay in the PoP nearest your users, one click. It is grouped under the Media & Streaming category.
What It Does
coturn is a mature, widely deployed open-source implementation of TURN and STUN, the protocols that let WebRTC and VoIP endpoints traverse NATs and firewalls. When a direct peer-to-peer path is not possible, coturn relays real-time media reliably and securely between clients.
Key features
- Full STUN and TURN implementation with ICE support (RFC 5389, 5766, 6062, 6156, and more)
- Secure transports including TLS 1.3 and DTLS, plus UDP, TCP, and experimental SCTP
- Long-term credential, TURN REST API, and OAuth-based authentication mechanisms
- Pluggable user and config backends: SQLite, MariaDB/MySQL, PostgreSQL, Redis, and MongoDB
- High performance handling thousands of TURN calls (or tens of thousands STUN-only) per CPU core
- Optimized Linux networking with libevent2 and recvmmsg/sendmmsg batching
- Prometheus metrics endpoint and Redis-based statistics for monitoring
- Fine-grained access control with allowed and denied peer IP ranges and quota limits
Use cases
- TURN/STUN relay backing WebRTC video, voice, and data channels for conferencing and telehealth
- NAT traversal for SIP/VoIP softphones and unified-communications platforms
- Media relay for live streaming, gaming, and real-time collaboration behind symmetric NATs
- Self-hosted alternative to hosted TURN services for cost and data-control reasons
Why run it on the NetActuate edge Relay latency is dominated by geography, so placing coturn in a PoP near your users keeps relayed media paths short and quality high. NetActuate's global edge lets you deploy regional TURN relays close to endpoints instead of backhauling media across continents, with high-capacity networking suited to the bursty, latency-sensitive UDP traffic TURN relays carry.
Best for: WebRTC relay, NAT traversal, Video calls.
Vendor and Project
coturn TURN Relay is an open-source project, offered here under the Open Source listing with best-effort community support.
- Project home: github.com
- coturn auth docs: github.com
NetActuate supports the underlying infrastructure. Application-level support follows the listing SLA class (open-source, best effort).
Sizing
| vCPU | RAM | Disk | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum | 1 | 1 GB | 10 GB |
| Recommended | 4 | 4 GB | 10 GB |
No VPU (hardware acceleration) is required for this appliance. Choose a size at deploy based on your expected load.
Configuration Fields
When you deploy, you provide these fields. They are written into the appliance at first boot.
| Field | Required | Default | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Realm | Yes | none | The TURN realm (usually your domain) used in long-term credential auth. |
| Static Auth Secret | No | generated | Shared secret for TURN REST auth (RFC 5766). Generated for you and stored write-only; your app uses it to mint time-limited TURN credentials. Stored write-only in your account secret list |
| Listening Port | No | 3478 | |
| Relay Min Port | No | 49152 | |
| Relay Max Port | No | 65535 |
Using the Appliance
Deploy in minutes
- Connect. SSH to your relay as
ubuntu@YOUR_VM_IPusing the password or SSH key you set at deploy. - Open the relay ports. coturn listens on UDP/TCP 3478 (and 5349 for TLS) plus the relay range you chose. These are opened on the instance by the appliance.
- Point your app at it. Configure your WebRTC or SIP client with
turn:YOUR_VM_IP:3478and the realm and static auth secret you supplied at deploy. - Verify. Run
turnutils_uclient -v YOUR_VM_IPfrom a client, or checkjournalctl -u coturnon the server for allocation logs.
FAQ
Is there a software license fee? No. coturn TURN Relay is open source and free to run. You pay only for the NetActuate infrastructure and bandwidth.
Which port does the appliance serve on?
The primary service is published on port 3478 by default; see the configuration fields for any adjustable ports.
Who supports it? NetActuate operates the underlying infrastructure. The application itself is community-supported open source (best-effort SLA class).
Version and Changelog
| Version | Status | Released |
|---|---|---|
| 1.0.0 | Current (default) | 2026-07-09 |
Deploy
- Deploy in the portal: Deploy coturn TURN Relay
- View the listing: portal.netactuate.com/platform/marketplace/l/coturn
- Public listing: netactuate.com/marketplace/coturn
Need Help?
Contact support@netactuate.com or open a support ticket from the portal.