head to head · open source
etherpad vs bigbluebutton
etherpad has 18,552 GitHub stars, 3,050 forks, 31 open issues and last shipped yesterday. bigbluebutton has 9,219 stars, 5,981 forks, 721 open issues and last shipped yesterday. etherpad leads on adoption by 101% (18,552 vs 9,219 stars). etherpad is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; bigbluebutton is written in JavaScript under LGPL-3.0. etherpad has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, bigbluebutton 65%. etherpad was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (collaboration), 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
| etherpad | bigbluebutton | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 19K | ★ 9.2K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | LGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.0K | ⑂ 6.0K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick etherpad if
- You weight community size — 19K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick bigbluebutton if
- You want the bigbluebutton feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the LGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and bigbluebutton fits your workflow better
About etherpad
Etherpad is a real time collaborative document editor, written in TypeScript and released under Apache 2.0, for teams and institutions that need every keystroke attributed to its author, every revision preserved, and all text hosted on infrastructure they control.
read the full etherpad overview →
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 →
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Frequently asked questions
Is etherpad or bigbluebutton more popular?
etherpad has 18,552 GitHub stars and bigbluebutton has 9,219. etherpad has the larger community by that measure.
Are etherpad and bigbluebutton free?
Both are open source. etherpad is licensed under Apache-2.0 and bigbluebutton under LGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between etherpad and bigbluebutton?
etherpad is written in TypeScript and bigbluebutton in JavaScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, etherpad or bigbluebutton?
Choose etherpad if you want the larger community (18,552 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose bigbluebutton if its feature set, stack or LGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.