head to head · open source
bigbluebutton vs chitchatter
bigbluebutton has 9,223 GitHub stars, 5,982 forks, 721 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. chitchatter has 2,332 stars, 434 forks, 53 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. bigbluebutton leads on adoption by 295% (9,223 vs 2,332 stars). bigbluebutton is written in JavaScript under LGPL-3.0; chitchatter is written in TypeScript under GPL-2.0. bigbluebutton has attracted 65% as many forks as stars, chitchatter 19%. bigbluebutton was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (video-conferencing), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| bigbluebutton | chitchatter | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 9.2K | ★ 2.3K |
| License | LGPL-3.0 | GPL-2.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.0K | ⑂ 434 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick bigbluebutton if
- You weight community size — 9.2K stars and counting
- You want the LGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick chitchatter if
- You want the chitchatter feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and chitchatter fits your workflow better
About bigbluebutton
BigBlueButton is an open source web conferencing system built for virtual classes, described by its maintainers as an open source virtual classroom designed to help teachers teach and learners learn. It lives in the JavaScript ecosystem and is distributed under the LGPL 3.0 license. The project has been developed for roughly sixteen years, carries 9,215 stars and 5,978 forks on GitHub, and its latest release is BigBlueButton 3.0. It supports real time sharing of audio, video, slides with whiteboard annotations, chat, and screen, and it ships with GreenLight as its default front end.
read the full bigbluebutton overview →
About chitchatter
Chitchatter is a TypeScript web chat application released under GPL 2.0 that provides secure peer to peer communication without a required central API server. It lives in the decentralized web mesh ecosystem, using React, WebRTC, Trystero, WebTorrent, and TURN relays to connect browsers directly. The project is a free, open source collaboration tool for private conversations, video and audio chats, screen sharing, and file transfer.
read the full chitchatter overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is bigbluebutton or chitchatter more popular?
bigbluebutton has 9,223 GitHub stars and chitchatter has 2,332. bigbluebutton has the larger community by that measure.
Are bigbluebutton and chitchatter free?
Both are open source. bigbluebutton is licensed under LGPL-3.0 and chitchatter under GPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between bigbluebutton and chitchatter?
bigbluebutton is written in JavaScript and chitchatter in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, bigbluebutton or chitchatter?
Choose bigbluebutton if you want the larger community (9,223 stars) or its LGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose chitchatter if its feature set, stack or GPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.