Digium vs. Sangoma: Which PCI Cards Are Better?

I was given the dubious task of comparing Digium vs. Sangoma PCI cards.  I probably would have been better off if I’d been tasked with “Who’s the bigger train wreck, Linsday Lohan or Charlie Sheen?” 

In both cases, it’s like comparing green apples to red ones.  Both have their good points and both have not so good points.

With that said, instead of giving my opinion on which is better, Digium or Sangoma (Not Lohan or Sheen!); I decided to list the pros and cons of each card manufacturer and you can derive your opinion from that.

Read on for the the Pros and Cons.

Sangoma Pros

• Backplane technology allows you to add up to 6 a200 series cards or 4 a400 series cards in a server only using (1) PCI or PCIe bus.
• Half-height bracket support on all cards and ships with these brackets.
• Support for up to 8 T1 circuits.
• Sangoma Fax Sync solution
• Analog Sangoma A200 series ports glow red for FXO and green for FXS signifying to the user which ports are what functionality.

Sangoma Cons

• Not field upgradable in regards to hardware echo cancellation.
• Requires A200 cables for the A200 series cards to break out from proprietary RJ10 port to standard RJ11 jack.
• Sangoma A400 series cards use a proprietary DB-25 connection which you must use the A400 pigtail cable shipped with the card or purchase the Sangoma Y Cable to connect to RJ-21 Amphenol.

Digium pros

• 4 port (Digium AEX400) and 8 port (Digium AEX800) cards support standard RJ11 jacks, and 24 port cards (Digium AEX2400) support standard RJ-21 Amphenol.
• Field upgradeable echo cancellation modules (can be added after the purchase).
• Created by and supported by the makers of Asterisk

Digium Cons

• Digium Analog series cards do not support half height brackets.
• Expandability may require the use of additional PCI or PCIe buses on the server motherboard (No backplane technology).
• T1 cards only up to 4 T1.
• Pins on cards used to connect FXO/FXS and echo cancellation modules have a tendency to get bent very easily and break.