Zoom costs $15.99 per host per month for a Pro subscription, which is the plan you need if your calls run longer than 40 minutes or you want to save recordings. If you run sensitive meetings where you do not want recordings stored on Zoom's servers, that cost does not go away: it just shifts from a billing question to a data governance one. Jitsi Meet is the practical alternative. The free version at meet.jit.si works for most calls with no setup and no account required for guests. The self-hosted version, which you run on your own server, puts recordings on infrastructure you control.
| Fact | Value |
|---|---|
| What it is | Open-source video conferencing platform |
| Built by | 8x8, Inc. (open-source community) |
| License | Apache 2.0 (free to use, modify, and distribute) |
| Platforms | Browser (no install for guests); server runs on Linux or Docker |
| Requires | Any modern browser to join; Linux server to self-host |
| Install method | Use free meet.jit.si or self-host with Docker |
| Verdict | Use meet.jit.si for free calls with no setup; self-host if you need call recordings under your control |
What Jitsi Meet actually is
Jitsi Meet is an open-source video conferencing application built and maintained by 8x8, Inc., the communications company, with contributions from an active open-source community. The codebase lives at github.com/jitsi/jitsi-meet under an Apache 2.0 license (a permissive open-source license that lets you run, modify, and redistribute the software freely, including inside commercial products). It has 29,691 stars on GitHub.
Jitsi Meet operates in two modes. The first is the free public server at meet.jit.si: open a browser, go to the URL, type in a room name, and your meeting is live. No account needed to host. No app install needed for anyone who joins. They click the link, allow camera and microphone access, and they are in. The second mode is self-hosting: you run the Jitsi Meet server stack on your own Linux server. This gives you full control over recording destinations, data retention, and who can create rooms.
The distinction matters because of where recordings go. On meet.jit.si, recordings save to your Dropbox account (which requires granting the service access to your Dropbox). On a self-hosted instance, recordings save to local storage on your own server. For legal consultations, HR reviews, board calls, or any meeting where you have a reason to keep the recording off a third-party cloud service, self-hosting is the operative feature.
What you get after installing it (or using the hosted version)
Whether you use meet.jit.si or a self-hosted instance, the feature set is the same.
Core calls
- Video and audio calls in any modern browser with no app install for participants
- Screen sharing: share your full screen, a single application window, or a browser tab
- Hand raising to request the floor without interrupting
- Virtual backgrounds (blur or custom images)
- Chat (text messages visible to everyone in the call)
Collaboration tools
- Whiteboard via Excalidraw integration (Excalidraw is an open-source collaborative drawing tool embedded directly in the call)
- Polls: create a question and multiple-choice options mid-call and collect responses from participants
- Breakout rooms: split participants into smaller sub-groups and bring them back to the main room when done
Meeting management
- Lobby (waiting room): participants wait to be admitted by the host, rather than entering freely
- Meeting passwords: require a password to join a room
- End-to-end encryption option (E2EE, where call data is encrypted in a way that even the server operator cannot decrypt it)
- Live streaming to YouTube for public broadcasts
Recording
- Record calls and save to Dropbox (on meet.jit.si) or local server storage (on self-hosted)
- This is the core advantage of self-hosting: recordings never leave your infrastructure
One thing worth noting: meet.jit.si works reliably for smaller calls, roughly under 10 to 15 participants. Calls with larger groups may see video quality drop on the public free server because server resources are shared across all public rooms. A self-hosted instance on dedicated hardware does not have this constraint.
The install experience (self-hosting)
Jitsi Meet self-hosting uses Docker (a tool that packages software so it runs identically on any server, removing the need to manually configure system dependencies). The recommended path is Docker Compose (a tool that starts multiple Docker containers together with a single command), which handles the full Jitsi stack: the web interface, the video routing server, and the signaling server (the component that manages how clients find and connect to each other before the video stream starts).
The technical requirements are a Linux server (Ubuntu LTS is the most tested), Docker installed, and a domain name pointed at your server. A VPS (virtual private server, a rented Linux machine you access remotely) from Hetzner, DigitalOcean, or AWS running 4 GB of RAM handles small to medium self-hosted deployments comfortably, at a cost of roughly $10 to $20 per month.
The install steps look like this:
- Clone the docker-jitsi-meet repository from GitHub
- Copy the example environment file and generate secure secrets using the built-in script
- Edit the
.envfile to add your domain name and configure recording destinations - Run
docker compose up -d(a command that starts all containers and keeps them running in the background) - Point your domain's DNS (Domain Name System, the system that translates a domain name like jitsi.yourcompany.com into your server's IP address) at the server and wait for the SSL certificate (the padlock encryption shown in browser URLs) to provision automatically
The honest difficulty assessment: if you have deployed a Docker application before, this takes 30 to 45 minutes. If you have not, expect closer to 90 minutes working through the documentation. Jitsi's official documentation at jitsi.org covers the process in detail. The main friction points are getting the SSL certificate to provision correctly (which requires your domain DNS to be pointing at the server first) and generating the internal secrets (which the provided script handles, but requires you to read the steps rather than skip ahead).
Jitsi as a Service (JaaS) is a paid managed version offered by 8x8 that handles the infrastructure for you, with SLAs (service level agreements, contractual uptime guarantees) and higher participant limits. This article covers the free self-hosted path; JaaS is the option if you want managed infrastructure with vendor support.
Where it fits and what to compare it to
Zoom (zoom.us) is the baseline comparison. Call quality and reliability are excellent. The free tier caps meetings at 40 minutes with more than two participants, after which you need a Pro subscription at $15.99 per host per month to remove the limit and get recording functionality. Recordings save to Zoom's cloud or your local machine depending on plan. No self-hosting option: all call data, including recordings, routes through Zoom's infrastructure.
Google Meet (meet.google.com) is free for most users and works directly in Chrome with no install. Call quality is solid for standard calls. The trade-off: call data goes to Google. Recording requires a Google Workspace paid plan. No self-hosting option. If your organization already pays for Google Workspace and data residency (the requirement that data stays within a specific country or jurisdiction) is not a concern, Meet is the path of least resistance.
Microsoft Teams (microsoft.com/teams) is bundled with Microsoft 365 subscriptions. Participants often need a Microsoft account to join (depending on your plan settings), which adds friction for external guests. No self-hosting option for the call infrastructure.
Whereby (whereby.com) is browser-based with no account required for guests, which matches Jitsi's guest experience. A clean, simple product. Recording requires a paid plan starting at $8.99 per month. No self-hosting option.
Jitsi Meet's specific position: it is the only option in this set where you can put the server on your own hardware, control where recordings go, and pay nothing in software licensing fees. The trade-off is that you own the infrastructure responsibility. meet.jit.si removes that trade-off but puts you back on shared infrastructure with the associated quality limits for larger calls.
Verdict
Use meet.jit.si if you want free, no-setup video calls right now. No account creation, no software download for guests, no 40-minute limit. Send someone a room URL and start the call. For most routine meetings, this covers the need completely.
Self-host if any of these apply: you record meetings and need those recordings on infrastructure you control; you have legal, HR, or compliance reasons not to route calls through third-party servers; or you run calls with more than 15 participants regularly and want consistent quality.
The Apache 2.0 license means there is no licensing cost regardless of how many users or calls you run. The infrastructure cost on a self-hosted setup is whatever you pay for your server, typically $10 to $20 per month for a small instance.
The argument against: Zoom's call quality and reliability are genuinely better at scale, and if you are already paying for Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, Meet and Teams are effectively free additions to subscriptions you hold anyway. Jitsi's case is strongest when recording data ownership matters, or when you need guests to join without any account or app. Both scenarios are real and common enough that Jitsi is worth knowing about, regardless of which video conferencing tool you use today.