Jitsi Meet
The open source video meeting app that needs no account to join
Alternative toZoomGoogle Meet
Jitsi Meet runs video meetings in the browser and in mobile apps, the job Zoom and Google Meet do for most people. It is Apache-2.0, you can use the free public instance or self host it, and 8x8 sells a hosted developer service built on it.
Best for when
- you host meetings with guests who should not need an account
- you want meetings on a server you control
- you want to embed video calls into your own app or site
Watch out for
- self hosting needs good bandwidth and a public UDP port, so it is not a private only service
- recording and live streaming need an extra, resource hungry component
- webinar, transcription and calendar features are behind Zoom's
A meeting link and nothing else
Open a link, allow the camera, and you are in the meeting. Guests do not need an account or an installed app, which is the main reason people pick Jitsi over Zoom. It has screen sharing, chat, raised hands, breakout rooms, lobby and password protection, and recording through an extra component.
You can use the public meet.jit.si instance for free, embed meetings into your own site through its API, or run your own server so meetings stay on infrastructure you control. Calls are encrypted in transit, and an end to end encryption option exists for supported browsers.
What running your own instance takes
Video is demanding. A self hosted Jitsi is several services (the web front end, an XMPP server, the conference focus and the video bridge) and needs good upload bandwidth. Large meetings need more video bridges, and recording or streaming requires the separate Jibri component, which wants a lot of CPU and memory per recording.
Unlike most private homelab apps, a meeting server has to be reachable by your guests, including a UDP port for media, so it widens what you expose to the internet. Zoom also still leads on features such as webinars, polished recording, transcription and calendar integrations.
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