head to head · open source
bigbluebutton vs docker-jitsi-meet
bigbluebutton has 9,223 GitHub stars, 5,982 forks, 721 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. docker-jitsi-meet has 3,607 stars, 1,579 forks, 11 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. bigbluebutton leads on adoption by 156% (9,223 vs 3,607 stars). bigbluebutton is written in JavaScript under LGPL-3.0; docker-jitsi-meet is written in Lua under Apache-2.0. bigbluebutton has attracted 65% as many forks as stars, docker-jitsi-meet 44%. 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 | docker-jitsi-meet | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 9.2K | ★ 3.6K |
| License | LGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | Lua |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.0K | ⑂ 1.6K |
| 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 docker-jitsi-meet if
- You want the docker-jitsi-meet feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Lua
- You evaluated both and docker-jitsi-meet 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 docker-jitsi-meet
docker jitsi meet is the Docker packaging project for Jitsi Meet, a fully encrypted, open source video conferencing solution. It provides the tools needed to run a Jitsi Meet stack on Docker with Docker Compose, so teams can host secure video meetings inside their own infrastructure. The project lives in the Jitsi ecosystem and publishes its images through the GitHub Container Registry.
read the full docker-jitsi-meet overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is bigbluebutton or docker-jitsi-meet more popular?
bigbluebutton has 9,223 GitHub stars and docker-jitsi-meet has 3,607. bigbluebutton has the larger community by that measure.
Are bigbluebutton and docker-jitsi-meet free?
Both are open source. bigbluebutton is licensed under LGPL-3.0 and docker-jitsi-meet under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between bigbluebutton and docker-jitsi-meet?
bigbluebutton is written in JavaScript and docker-jitsi-meet in Lua. 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 docker-jitsi-meet?
Choose bigbluebutton if you want the larger community (9,223 stars) or its LGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose docker-jitsi-meet if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.