BigBlueButton vs Jitsi Meet: which one to choose in 2026?
Both are open source alternatives to Zoom. We compare license, tech stack and features to help you decide which fits your team best.
| BigBlueButton | Jitsi Meet | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Video Conferencing | Video Conferencing |
| License | LGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| GitHub stars | 5k | 24k |
| Tech stack | Java, HTML5, WebRTC | React, WebRTC, XMPP |
| Replaces | Zoom | Zoom, Google Meet |
Jitsi Meet has more GitHub stars, which usually indicates a larger community (not necessarily that it's the best option for your use case).
BigBlueButton
Education-focused video conferencing, an alternative to Zoom.
Pros
- The most complete option for educational use cases
Things to consider
- Production installation is more complex than a simple docker-compose
Jitsi Meet
Video calls with no limits or account, a direct alternative to Zoom.
Pros
- Free, with none of the SaaS version's artificial limits
Things to consider
- The full stack has 4 services to coordinate
Key features
BigBlueButton
- Multi-user collaborative whiteboard
- Breakout rooms
- Polls and class recording
Jitsi Meet
- No time or participant limit
- No account needed to join
- Recording and YouTube streaming