head to head · open source
cobalt vs Jitsi
cobalt has 43,316 GitHub stars, 3,798 forks, 269 open issues and last shipped 6 months ago. Jitsi has 29,931 stars, 8,026 forks, 141 open issues and last shipped yesterday. cobalt leads on adoption by 45% (43,316 vs 29,931 stars). cobalt is written in Svelte under AGPL-3.0; Jitsi is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. cobalt has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, Jitsi 27%. Jitsi was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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
| cobalt | Jitsi | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 43K | ★ 30K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Svelte | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-04-06 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.8K | ⑂ 8.0K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick cobalt if
- You weight community size — 43K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Svelte
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Jitsi if
- You want the Jitsi feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Jitsi fits your workflow better
About cobalt
cobalt is a media downloader built around a single promise: paste a link, get the file, move on. It is a monorepo containing the source for an API, a web frontend, and related packages, written primarily in Svelte and TypeScript. The project lives in the modern web and JavaScript ecosystem, and its public surface is hosted at cobalt.tools, while the full codebase is published under the AGPL 3.0 license.
read the full cobalt overview →
About Jitsi
Jitsi Meet is an open source video conferencing platform built on WebRTC standards, designed for privacy focused, account free video calls. It operates as a standalone web application or embeddable component, supporting both browser based and native mobile usage without requiring user accounts to join meetings. The project lives in the video communication ecosystem, competing directly with proprietary services like Zoom, Google Meet, and Slack’s built in calling.
read the full Jitsi overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is cobalt or Jitsi more popular?
cobalt has 43,316 GitHub stars and Jitsi has 29,931. cobalt has the larger community by that measure.
Are cobalt and Jitsi free?
Both are open source. cobalt is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Jitsi under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between cobalt and Jitsi?
cobalt is written in Svelte and Jitsi 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, cobalt or Jitsi?
Choose cobalt if you want the larger community (43,316 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Jitsi if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.