head to head · open source
Rocket.Chat vs bigbluebutton
Rocket.Chat has 46,361 GitHub stars, 14,076 forks, 4,023 open issues and last shipped yesterday. bigbluebutton has 9,263 stars, 5,982 forks, 721 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Rocket.Chat leads on adoption by 400% (46,361 vs 9,263 stars). Rocket.Chat is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; bigbluebutton is written in TypeScript under LGPL-3.0. Rocket.Chat has attracted 30% as many forks as stars, bigbluebutton 65%. Rocket.Chat was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (collaboration, 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
| Rocket.Chat | bigbluebutton | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 46K | ★ 9.3K |
| License | Custom / other | LGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 14K | ⑂ 6.0K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Rocket.Chat if
- You weight community size — 46K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other 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 TypeScript
- You evaluated both and bigbluebutton fits your workflow better
About Rocket.Chat
The ultimate secure open source solution for team communications Rocket.Chat is an open source, secure, fully customizable communications platform developed in TypeScript for organizations with high standards of data protection. We are the ultimate solution for team communications, enabling real time conversations between colleagues, with other companies, and with your customers or citizens, regardless of how they connect with you. The result is an increase in productivity and user satisfaction rates. Every day, tens of millions of users in over 150 countries and in organizations such as Deutsche Bahn, The US…
read the full Rocket.Chat overview →
About bigbluebutton
BigBlueButton ============= BigBlueButton is an open source virtual classroom designed to help teachers teach and learners learn. BigBlueButton supports real time sharing of audio, video, slides (with whiteboard annotations), chat, and the screen. Instructors can engage remote students with polling, emojis, multi user whiteboards, shared notes, and breakout rooms. During the session, BigBlueButton generates analytics that are visible to moderators in the Learning Analytics Dashboard. Presenters can record and playback content for later sharing with others. We designed BigBlueButton for online learning, it can be…
read the full bigbluebutton overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Rocket.Chat or bigbluebutton more popular?
Rocket.Chat has 46,361 GitHub stars and bigbluebutton has 9,263. Rocket.Chat has the larger community by that measure.
Are Rocket.Chat and bigbluebutton free?
Both are open source. Rocket.Chat has no licence declared in this registry, and bigbluebutton is licensed under LGPL-3.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Rocket.Chat and bigbluebutton?
Rocket.Chat is written in TypeScript and bigbluebutton 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, Rocket.Chat or bigbluebutton?
Choose Rocket.Chat if you want the larger community (46,361 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose bigbluebutton if its feature set, stack or LGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.