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2 open source alternatives to Zoom

Video meetings, webinars and events. Here are the open source projects real teams use instead — ranked by fit, with honest pros and cons for each.

What people don't love about Zoom

  • Past security incidents and data-handling concerns.
  • 40-minute limit on free tier.
  • Data travels through Zoom cloud — unacceptable for some regulated use cases.

Current Zoom pricing (for reference): Free tier with 40-min group call limit; Pro from $14.99/month.

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Quick comparison

Alternative Best for License Self-host Hosted cloud?
Jitsi Meet
Open source video meetings you can self-host or use free. 		Free public meetings or a small self-hosted instance. Apache-2.0 ★★★☆☆ Yes
BigBlueButton
Open source web conferencing built for online learning. 		Online classes, webinars and training. LGPL-3.0 ★★★★☆ Yes

1. Jitsi Meet — Free public meetings or a small self-hosted instance.

Open source video meetings you can self-host or use free.

Strengths

  • Free public instance (meet.jit.si) with no sign-up.
  • Self-hostable for privacy.
  • Webhook and SDK integrations available.

Weaknesses

  • Tuning a self-hosted instance for scale takes ops work.
  • Advanced features (e2ee, breakouts) evolving.
  • No native desktop app.
License: Apache-2.0 Self-host difficulty: 3/5 Hosted cloud optionMobile: iOS, Android

Jitsi Meet homepage · Source on GitHub · Zoom vs Jitsi Meet →

2. BigBlueButton — Online classes, webinars and training.

Open source web conferencing built for online learning.

Strengths

  • Designed for virtual classrooms with whiteboard and polls.
  • Recording, breakout rooms and captions built in.
  • Integrates with Moodle and other LMS.

Weaknesses

  • Demanding hardware for self-hosting.
  • Setup and maintenance are not beginner-friendly.
  • UI feels academic, not corporate.
License: LGPL-3.0 Self-host difficulty: 4/5 Hosted cloud option

BigBlueButton homepage · Source on GitHub · Zoom vs BigBlueButton →

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