head to head · open source
bigbluebutton vs plugNmeet-server
bigbluebutton has 9,223 GitHub stars, 5,982 forks, 721 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. plugNmeet-server has 537 stars, 119 forks, 11 open issues and last shipped today. bigbluebutton leads on adoption by 1,618% (9,223 vs 537 stars). bigbluebutton is written in JavaScript under LGPL-3.0; plugNmeet-server is written in Go under MIT. bigbluebutton has attracted 65% as many forks as stars, plugNmeet-server 22%. plugNmeet-server was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (video-conferencing, webrtc), 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 | plugNmeet-server | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 9.2K | ★ 537 |
| License | LGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | JavaScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-20 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.0K | ⑂ 119 |
| 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 plugNmeet-server if
- You want the plugNmeet-server feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and plugNmeet-server 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 plugNmeet-server
Plug N Meet is an MIT licensed, self hosted web conferencing system written in Go that runs on LiveKit's WebRTC infrastructure and is meant for teams, developers, and organizations that want to embed video meetings with an AI meeting agent into their own websites, applications, or systems.
read the full plugNmeet-server overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is bigbluebutton or plugNmeet-server more popular?
bigbluebutton has 9,223 GitHub stars and plugNmeet-server has 537. bigbluebutton has the larger community by that measure.
Are bigbluebutton and plugNmeet-server free?
Both are open source. bigbluebutton is licensed under LGPL-3.0 and plugNmeet-server under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between bigbluebutton and plugNmeet-server?
bigbluebutton is written in JavaScript and plugNmeet-server in Go. 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 plugNmeet-server?
Choose bigbluebutton if you want the larger community (9,223 stars) or its LGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose plugNmeet-server if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.