head to head · open source
srs vs bigbluebutton
srs has 29,249 GitHub stars, 5,694 forks, 8 open issues and last shipped yesterday. bigbluebutton has 9,219 stars, 5,981 forks, 721 open issues and last shipped yesterday. srs leads on adoption by 217% (29,249 vs 9,219 stars). srs is written in C++ under MIT; bigbluebutton is written in JavaScript under LGPL-3.0. srs has attracted 19% as many forks as stars, bigbluebutton 65%. srs 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
| srs | bigbluebutton | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 29K | ★ 9.2K |
| License | MIT | LGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | C++ | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.7K | ⑂ 6.0K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick srs if
- You weight community size — 29K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- 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 srs
SRS (Simple Realtime Server) is an open source, AI driven real time media server written in C++ and released under the MIT license. It ingests and republishes live audio and video across a broad set of streaming protocols, including RTMP, WebRTC, HLS, HTTP FLV, HTTP TS, SRT, MPEG DASH, and GB28181. The project runs on Linux and macOS and is built for x86 64, ARMv7, AArch64, Apple M1, RISC V, LoongArch, and MIPS architectures. Codec support covers H.264, H.265, AV1, VP9, AAC, Opus, and G.711. The current line is SRS 8.0, and the project has been developed for roughly eleven years, with documentation published in b…
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 srs or bigbluebutton more popular?
srs has 29,249 GitHub stars and bigbluebutton has 9,219. srs has the larger community by that measure.
Are srs and bigbluebutton free?
Both are open source. srs is licensed under MIT and bigbluebutton under LGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between srs and bigbluebutton?
srs is written in C++ 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, srs or bigbluebutton?
Choose srs if you want the larger community (29,249 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose bigbluebutton if its feature set, stack or LGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.