BigBlueButton vs Jitsi Meet
BigBlueButton and Jitsi Meet are both video conferencing software. BigBlueButton is open source under LGPL-3.0, with 9.3k GitHub stars. Jitsi Meet is open source under Apache-2.0, with 30k GitHub stars.
Which to pick
- Pick BigBlueButton when
- A school, university or training provider needs online classes integrated with Moodle, Canvas or another LMS on its own servers.
- Pick Jitsi Meet when
- You want a mature open-source Zoom alternative you can host yourself or embed in your own product.
Side by side
A virtual classroom server with audio, video, slides with whiteboard annotation, polls, shared notes, breakout rooms, recordings and learning analytics.
A browser-based video conferencing platform with mobile apps and embeddable SDKs, offering screen sharing, chat, polls, breakout rooms and recording; usable free at meet.jit.si or self-hosted.
Installation expects a dedicated Ubuntu server with specific versions and plenty of CPU and bandwidth; upgrades between major versions are significant work.
Self-hosting large meetings needs the full Jitsi stack (Prosody, Jicofo, videobridges) and proper bandwidth; meet.jit.si now requires a login.
Production-ready (both)
Self-hosted server
Self-hosted server, cloud service, mobile app and desktop app
TypeScript, Scala, FreeSWITCH, mediasoup, Redis and MongoDB
TypeScript, React, React Native, Lua and Prosody
Open source, LGPL-3.0 (weak copyleft)
Open source, Apache-2.0 (permissive)
You can use it inside a product you sell; changes you make to its own files must be shared.
You can build it into a product you sell, as long as you keep its copyright notice.
9.3k GitHub stars
30k GitHub stars
Established: started 16 years ago, latest release v4.0.1.
Established: started 13 years ago, latest release stable/jitsi-meet_11248.
Other comparisons
More video conferencing software
Both sides were judged on 2026-11-03 from each project's README and GitHub data. License, age and popularity lines are worked out directly.