head to head · open source
srs vs bigbluebutton
srs has 29,414 GitHub stars, 5,708 forks, 8 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. bigbluebutton has 9,263 stars, 5,982 forks, 721 open issues and last shipped yesterday. srs leads on adoption by 218% (29,414 vs 9,263 stars). srs is written in C++ under MIT; bigbluebutton is written in TypeScript under LGPL-3.0. srs has attracted 19% as many forks as stars, bigbluebutton 65%. bigbluebutton 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 | ★ 9.3K |
| License | MIT | LGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | C++ | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-10-31 | 2026-11-02 |
| 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 TypeScript
- You evaluated both and bigbluebutton fits your workflow better
About srs
SRS(Simple Realtime Server) SRS/8.0 (Free) is a simple, high performance, AI driven real time media server. It supports RTMP, WebRTC, HLS, HTTP FLV, SRT, MPEG DASH, and GB28181 on Linux and macOS across x86 64, ARMv7, AArch64, Apple M1, RISC V, LoongArch, and MIPS architectures. Supported codecs include H.264, H.265, AV1, VP9, AAC, Opus, and G.711. See the complete list of features. Note: For more details on the single node architecture for SRS, please visit the following link. SRS is licenced under MIT, and some third party libraries are distributed under their licenses. Usage Please check the Getting Started…
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 srs or bigbluebutton more popular?
srs has 29,414 GitHub stars and bigbluebutton has 9,263. 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 TypeScript. 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 (29,414 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose bigbluebutton if its feature set, stack or LGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.