Best Open Source Alternatives to Zoom in 2026
Zoom's Per-User Pricing Gets Expensive Fast
Zoom Pro costs $13.33/user/month (billed annually). Business runs $18.32/user/month. Enterprise is $27.99/user/month. For a 50-person team on Business, that's $10,992/year. At 200 people, you're past $43,000 annually.
And the free tier? Limited to 40 minutes per meeting with 3+ participants. Useful for quick calls, useless for real work.
Zoom's Basic plan caps meetings at 40 minutes, limits cloud recording, and restricts AI features to paid tiers. The moment you need longer meetings, recording, or admin controls, you're on a paid plan.
Open source video conferencing tools give you unlimited meeting duration, full recording capabilities, complete privacy through self-hosting, and zero per-user fees. Here are the best options in 2026.
TL;DR
Jitsi Meet is the best overall Zoom alternative -- no accounts, no downloads, just share a link and join. For education and training, BigBlueButton is purpose-built with whiteboards, breakout rooms, and polling. If end-to-end encryption matters most, Element Call on the Matrix protocol is the strongest option.
Key Takeaways
- Jitsi Meet (28K+ GitHub stars) is the most popular open source video conferencing tool. No account required, WebRTC-based, free hosted instance at meet.jit.si, handles 75-200+ participants.
- BigBlueButton (9K+ GitHub stars) is built for education -- multi-user whiteboard, breakout rooms, polling, shared notes, and built-in recording.
- Element Call / Matrix provides end-to-end encrypted video conferencing on a decentralized protocol. Used by the French government, German armed forces, and NATO.
- LiveKit (17K+ GitHub stars) is real-time video infrastructure for developers. Build custom conferencing, streaming, and AI voice apps with SDKs for every platform.
- Galene (1.3K+ GitHub stars) is a lightweight server written in Go that runs on minimal hardware -- ideal for lectures and small deployments.
Quick Comparison
| Tool | Best For | Max Participants | E2E Encryption | Recording | Breakout Rooms | Mobile Apps | License |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jitsi Meet | General use | 75-200+ | Yes | Yes | Yes | iOS, Android | Apache 2.0 |
| BigBlueButton | Education | 200+ | No | Built-in | Yes (advanced) | Browser-based | LGPL-3.0 |
| Element Call | Privacy | 50+ | Default | No | No | Element app | AGPL-3.0 |
| LiveKit | Custom apps | 1,000+ | Yes | Yes | Custom build | SDKs | Apache 2.0 |
| Galene | Lightweight | 20-300 | No | No | Subgroups | Browser-based | MIT |
Pricing: Zoom vs Open Source
Zoom Costs by Team Size (Annual)
| Team Size | Pro ($13.33/user/mo) | Business ($18.32/user/mo) | Enterprise ($27.99/user/mo) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 users | $1,600/yr | $2,198/yr | $3,359/yr |
| 50 users | $8,000/yr | $10,992/yr | $16,794/yr |
| 200 users | $32,000/yr | $43,968/yr | $67,176/yr |
Zoom Plan Limits
| Feature | Basic (Free) | Pro | Business | Enterprise |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Meeting duration | 40 min | 30 hours | 30 hours | 30 hours |
| Max participants | 100 | 100 | 300 | 1,000 |
| Cloud recording | None | 5 GB | 10 GB | Unlimited |
Self-Hosting Costs (Any Team Size)
| Cost Component | Annual Estimate |
|---|---|
| VPS (8GB RAM, 4 vCPU) | $480-$960 |
| Bandwidth (video-heavy) | $120-$600 |
| Admin time (4-6 hrs/month) | $3,600-$5,400 |
| Recording storage | $60-$360 |
| Total | $4,260-$7,320 |
At 50+ users, self-hosting breaks even. At 200+, you save $25,000-$60,000/year versus Zoom.
Jitsi Meet -- Best Overall Zoom Alternative
Jitsi Meet is the closest open source equivalent to Zoom. No accounts, no downloads -- share a link and anyone joins from their browser. With 28,000+ GitHub stars and backing from 8x8, it's the most deployed open source video conferencing platform. The free public instance at meet.jit.si works out of the box.
Key Features
- No account required -- generate a room URL and share it. Zero onboarding friction
- WebRTC-based -- works in Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge without plugins
- Screen sharing -- full screen, window, or tab with audio support
- Recording -- local recording or server-side via Jibri to Dropbox/custom storage
- Breakout rooms -- split participants into smaller groups mid-meeting
- Live streaming -- stream to YouTube Live or any RTMP endpoint
- End-to-end encryption -- optional E2E encryption using Insertable Streams
- Embeddable -- IFrame API for integrating into any web application
Self-Hosting
Deploy via Debian packages or Docker Compose. Core stack: Jitsi Meet (React frontend), Jicofo (conference focus), Prosody (XMPP signaling), and Jitsi Videobridge (media router). A 4-core, 8GB RAM server handles 75-100 participants. Scale by adding more Videobridge instances.
Best For
Teams wanting the most frictionless Zoom replacement. Organizations embedding video into their own apps. Anyone who values simplicity -- Jitsi requires the least setup of any tool here.
Limitations
No built-in whiteboard. Jibri recording needs a separate machine. Large meetings (100+) require JVB scaling. Mobile apps are solid but trail Zoom's native experience.
BigBlueButton -- Best for Education and Training
BigBlueButton was purpose-built for online classrooms. Multi-user whiteboard, breakout rooms with auto-assignment, polling, shared notes, and presentation mode are first-class features. Universities worldwide and LMS platforms like Moodle and Canvas integrate BigBlueButton natively.
Key Features
- Multi-user whiteboard -- tldraw 2.0 in BBB 3.0 with improved stylus support and collaborative drawing
- Breakout rooms -- manual or auto-assignment, moderator movement between rooms, timers, and announcements
- Polling -- instant polls with real-time results published to chat
- Shared notes -- collaborative Etherpad-based note-taking
- Presentation mode -- upload PDFs/slides with presenter controls
- Built-in recording -- synchronized playback of video, audio, slides, chat, and whiteboard
Self-Hosting
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS only. Requires 8 CPU cores, 16GB RAM minimum for production. The official bbb-install.sh handles full setup including Nginx, SSL, and dependencies. Scaling requires Scalelite (a separate load balancer) to distribute across multiple BBB servers.
Best For
Schools, universities, and corporate training. Any use case where presentation-style content with audience interaction is primary.
Limitations
Heavy resource requirements. Ubuntu-only. No native mobile apps (browser-only on mobile). The interface is optimized for education, which may feel unfamiliar for general meeting use.
Element Call / Matrix -- Best for Privacy and Encrypted Meetings
Element Call brings end-to-end encrypted video to the Matrix protocol. Unlike Zoom's optional encryption, Element Call encrypts every frame by default using WebRTC Insertable Streams, with keys rotated whenever participants change. The French government, German Bundeswehr, and NATO rely on Matrix for secure communications.
Key Features
- E2E encryption by default -- per-frame encryption with forward secrecy and post-compromise secrecy
- Decentralized -- runs on Matrix protocol with federation across homeservers
- Guest access -- shareable conference links without requiring a Matrix account
- Screen sharing, raise hand, reactions -- core meeting interaction features
- Cross-platform -- Element Web, Desktop, and Element X mobile apps (iOS/Android)
Self-Hosting
Requires the Matrix stack: Synapse or Dendrite homeserver, Element Call SPA, LiveKit or Jitsi as the SFU, PostgreSQL, and Coturn for NAT traversal. More components than Jitsi, but privacy guarantees are unmatched.
Best For
Government, healthcare, legal, defense -- any organization where privacy is non-negotiable. Teams needing secure cross-organizational communication via federation.
Limitations
Higher deployment complexity. No built-in recording (by design -- E2E encryption conflicts with server-side recording). No breakout rooms. Group call features are still maturing compared to Jitsi.
LiveKit -- Best for Building Custom Video Apps
LiveKit is video infrastructure, not a finished product. If Jitsi is "Zoom but open source," LiveKit is "Twilio Video but open source." It provides real-time video/audio/data APIs with SDKs for React, Swift, Kotlin, Flutter, Go, Python, and more.
Key Features
- SFU architecture -- automatic bitrate, resolution, and framerate adaptation per subscriber
- SDKs for every platform -- React Components, iOS, Android, Flutter, Unity, Rust, Go, Python
- LiveKit Meet -- open source reference conferencing app (Next.js)
- LiveKit Agents -- framework for AI-powered voice and video agents
- Recording and streaming -- server-side recording to S3, RTMP egress
Self-Hosting
Single Go binary plus Redis. Handles hundreds of participants per node. Docker and Helm charts available. Horizontal scaling by adding nodes behind a load balancer.
Best For
Developers building custom video into products -- telehealth, education platforms, live streaming, AI voice agents.
Limitations
Not a ready-to-use product. Building a production conferencing app requires significant frontend development. LiveKit Meet is a reference, not a competitor to Jitsi.
Galene -- Best Lightweight Option
Galene is a minimalist videoconference server in Go. Designed for lectures, it serves ~300 participants per CPU core in one-to-many mode and ~20 participants in many-to-many mode. A 100-student lecture uses roughly 1/4 of a CPU core.
Key Features
- Extremely lightweight -- single binary, no database, no message queue, no containers required
- Codec flexibility -- VP8, VP9, H.264, preliminary AV1 with full congestion control
- Subgroups -- breakout rooms configured via JSON
- Cross-platform server -- runs on Linux, macOS, Windows, even OpenWRT routers
- Full IPv6 support -- for signaling and media
Self-Hosting
Download the binary, create JSON config files for rooms and users, run. No PostgreSQL, no Redis, no Docker required. Minimum: 1 CPU core, 512MB RAM.
Best For
University departments and small organizations. Limited-resource deployments (Raspberry Pi, low-end VPS). Lectures and presentations where simplicity matters more than features.
Limitations
No recording. No whiteboard. No mobile apps. Small community (1.3K stars) means fewer integrations and resources.
How to Choose
"I want the closest thing to Zoom" -- Jitsi Meet. No accounts, browser-based, recording, breakout rooms. Most familiar for Zoom users.
"I run online classes or training" -- BigBlueButton. Whiteboard, polling, shared notes, and breakout rooms built for education.
"Privacy and encryption are non-negotiable" -- Element Call. E2E encrypted by default, decentralized, used by governments.
"I need video inside my own product" -- LiveKit. Real-time infrastructure with SDKs for every platform.
"I want minimal setup on minimal hardware" -- Galene. Single binary, no dependencies, runs anywhere.
Feature Parity Checklist
| Feature | Zoom | Jitsi Meet | BigBlueButton | Element Call | LiveKit | Galene |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Video quality | Excellent | Good | Good | Good | Excellent | Good |
| Screen sharing | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Recording | Cloud + local | Local + Jibri | Built-in | No | Server-side | No |
| Breakout rooms | Yes | Yes | Advanced | No | Custom | Subgroups |
| Whiteboard | Yes | No | Built-in | No | No | No |
| Mobile apps | Excellent | Good | Browser | Good | SDKs | Browser |
| Max participants | 100-1,000 | 75-200+ | 200+ | 50+ | 1,000+ | 20-300 |
| Polling | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No |
| Live streaming | Paid add-on | RTMP/YouTube | No | No | RTMP | No |
| SSO/LDAP | Paid | Via Prosody | Via Greenlight | Via Matrix | Custom | No |
Methodology
We evaluated these tools based on:
- Feature parity with Zoom -- video quality, screen sharing, recording, breakout rooms, whiteboard, mobile apps, and maximum participants.
- Self-hosting viability -- deployment complexity, resource requirements, documentation quality, and scaling path.
- Community and ecosystem -- GitHub activity, adoption, and integration availability as of March 2026.
- Privacy and security -- encryption capabilities, data sovereignty, and compliance suitability.
- Total cost of ownership -- server resources, bandwidth, admin overhead, and recording storage versus Zoom pricing at various team sizes.
We did not accept payment or sponsorship from any project listed. Tools were tested via self-hosted deployments and public instances where available.
Find Your Alternative
For most teams, Jitsi Meet is the best starting point -- closest to Zoom's experience with the lowest barrier to entry. If your needs lean toward education, privacy, or custom development, BigBlueButton, Element Call, or LiveKit may be the better fit.
Browse all Zoom alternatives on OSSAlt to see detailed feature comparisons, deployment guides, and community reviews.