Open Source Zoom Alternatives

Jitsi Meet: The Best General-Purpose Alternative

Jitsi Meet is the most widely used open source video conferencing platform and the closest direct replacement for Zoom in most use cases. It requires no account creation, no software installation, and no registration. You generate a meeting link and share it with participants, who join instantly through their web browser. Mobile apps for iOS and Android provide a native experience on phones and tablets, and a desktop application based on Electron is available for users who prefer a standalone window.

Jitsi uses WebRTC for browser-based real-time communication, which means all audio and video processing happens without plugins or additional software. Features include screen sharing, text chat, hand raising, reactions, virtual backgrounds, speaker statistics, recording (to Dropbox or a self-hosted Jibri recording service), live streaming to YouTube, breakout rooms, and lobby mode for controlling who enters the meeting. The interface is clean and intuitive, and most Zoom users can switch to Jitsi without any training.

Meeting capacity depends on server resources. The free public instance at meet.jit.si handles meetings well, though it has some limitations on large groups. Self-hosted Jitsi deployments typically support 75 to 200 or more participants depending on server hardware, network bandwidth, and whether the Jitsi Videobridge is deployed with horizontal scaling. For organizations with consistent video conferencing needs, self-hosting Jitsi on a dedicated server or cloud VPS provides the best performance and reliability.

Jitsi can be deployed on a single server using Docker or native packages for Debian and Ubuntu. The setup process is well-documented and takes about 30 minutes for someone comfortable with Linux server administration. More complex deployments with multiple video bridges for load balancing, SRTP encryption, and LDAP authentication are also supported for enterprise environments.

The main areas where Jitsi falls short of Zoom are in very large meetings (Zoom handles 1,000 participants in its webinar mode), native calendar integration, and the depth of administrative controls available in Zoom's enterprise dashboard. For meetings under 100 participants, which covers the vast majority of business and personal use cases, Jitsi provides a fully comparable experience.

BigBlueButton: Built for Education and Training

BigBlueButton is not a general-purpose video conferencing tool. It was designed specifically for online teaching, training sessions, and webinars, and its feature set reflects that focus. If your primary use case involves classrooms, courses, corporate training, or structured presentations, BigBlueButton offers capabilities that neither Zoom nor Jitsi match out of the box.

The multi-user interactive whiteboard is one of BigBlueButton's standout features. Instructors and students can draw, annotate, and collaborate on a shared whiteboard in real time. The whiteboard supports multiple pages, text tools, shapes, and freehand drawing, making it useful for mathematical instruction, diagramming, and visual explanations that go beyond what screen sharing provides.

Breakout rooms in BigBlueButton support both automatic random assignment and manual selection by the instructor. Students can move between breakout rooms, and the instructor can join any room to observe or participate. Shared notes provide a collaborative text area where all participants can contribute during the session. Live polling lets instructors ask questions and display results in real time, which is valuable for checking comprehension and maintaining engagement.

Built-in session recording captures video, audio, screen sharing, chat, and whiteboard activity for later playback. Recordings are processed into a format that includes synchronized video alongside the presentation slides and shared notes, creating a useful archive for students who missed the live session or want to review the material.

BigBlueButton integrates directly with learning management systems through the LTI (Learning Tools Interoperability) standard. Moodle, Canvas, Schoology, Sakai, and other LMS platforms can launch BigBlueButton sessions directly from course pages, with student identity and enrollment handled automatically. This integration is seamless for educational institutions that already run an LMS.

The trade-off is that BigBlueButton requires more server resources than Jitsi and has a more complex installation process. It is designed for deployment on Ubuntu servers and benefits from dedicated hardware with substantial RAM and fast network connections. For casual team meetings and quick video calls, Jitsi is the simpler choice. For structured educational and training sessions, BigBlueButton's purpose-built features make it significantly more capable.

Element Call: Encrypted and Decentralized

Element Call provides video conferencing built on the Matrix decentralized communication protocol. Its defining characteristic is true end-to-end encryption for group video and voice calls, which means nobody other than the participants can access the call content. Not the server operator, not Element the company, and not any third party.

Element Call is part of the broader Element ecosystem, which includes text messaging, file sharing, and voice calls through the Matrix protocol. If your organization already uses Element or Matrix for messaging, Element Call integrates naturally as the video conferencing layer. Calls can be initiated directly from Matrix chat rooms, making the transition from text to video seamless.

The decentralized nature of Matrix means there is no single point of control or failure. Your organization runs its own Matrix homeserver, and calls are routed through your infrastructure. Even if Element the company were to disappear, your Matrix server and all its capabilities would continue functioning independently. This architectural independence is valuable for organizations that need to guarantee long-term availability of their communication infrastructure.

Element Call is currently best suited for small to medium group calls rather than large meetings. Its feature set is more focused than Jitsi's, without screen sharing annotations, polling, or some of the administrative controls available in more mature platforms. However, for organizations where encrypted, decentralized communication is a hard requirement, Element Call provides capabilities that no other open source video conferencing tool matches.

LiveKit: Infrastructure for Developers

LiveKit is not a video conferencing application that end users install and use directly. Instead, it is an open source WebRTC infrastructure platform that developers use to build real-time audio and video features into their own applications. If you are building a product that needs video calls, live streaming, screen sharing, or real-time audio, LiveKit provides the server-side infrastructure and client SDKs that handle the complex parts of real-time media.

LiveKit handles media routing, adaptive bitrate streaming, simulcast, scalable video coding, and participant management. Client SDKs are available for JavaScript, React, Swift (iOS), Kotlin (Android), Flutter, Unity, Go, Python, and Rust. This broad SDK support means LiveKit can power video features in web applications, mobile apps, desktop software, and even games.

LiveKit is relevant to this guide because some organizations choose to build their own video conferencing interface on top of LiveKit rather than deploying Jitsi or BigBlueButton. This approach requires development effort but provides complete control over the user interface, feature set, and integration with existing systems. LiveKit also supports features like egress (recording and streaming to external services) and ingress (bringing external streams into LiveKit rooms), which enable sophisticated media workflows.

Wire: Enterprise-Focused Encrypted Communication

Wire provides end-to-end encrypted messaging, voice calls, and video conferencing with a focus on enterprise deployment. It is open source, can be self-hosted, and has been audited by independent security firms. Wire supports group video calls, screen sharing, file sharing, and guest access for external participants. Its enterprise focus includes features like federated deployment, SCIM provisioning, and compliance with data residency requirements.

Wire's video conferencing capabilities are more modest than Jitsi's in terms of participant limits and features, but its strength lies in the combination of encrypted messaging and video within a single platform that meets enterprise security requirements. Organizations in regulated industries that need both secure messaging and video calling often find Wire's integrated approach more practical than running separate tools for each function.

Choosing the Right Zoom Alternative

For most organizations looking to replace Zoom, Jitsi Meet is the best starting point. It provides the closest experience to Zoom with the lowest barrier to entry, both for administrators setting it up and for users joining meetings. If your primary use case is education or training, BigBlueButton's purpose-built classroom features make it the clear choice. If end-to-end encryption is a hard requirement, Element Call or Wire provide the strongest guarantees. If you are building video features into your own product, LiveKit gives you the infrastructure to do so without building the real-time media layer from scratch.