Jitsi Has a Free Open-Source Video Conferencing Platform — Self-Host Your Own Zoom

#opensource #webdev #webrtc #selfhosted

Jitsi Has a Free Open-Source Video Conferencing Platform

Zoom costs $13/user/month. Google Meet limits free calls to 60 minutes. Jitsi is completely free, open-source, and you can self-host it with full control.

What Jitsi Does

Jitsi is a complete video conferencing solution:

HD video and audio — WebRTC-based, no plugins needed
Screen sharing — with presenter mode
Chat — in-call messaging
Recording — save meetings to Dropbox or local storage
Live streaming — to YouTube Live
End-to-end encryption — optional E2EE for all participants
No account required — just share a link

Quick Start

# Self-host with Docker
git clone https://github.com/jitsi/docker-jitsi-meet
cd docker-jitsi-meet
cp env.example .env
./gen-passwords.sh
docker compose up -d
# Visit https://localhost:8443

Embed in Your App

<script src="https://meet.jit.si/external_api.js"></script>
<script>
const api = new JitsiMeetExternalAPI("meet.jit.si", {
  roomName: "my-meeting-room",
  width: "100%",
  height: 600,
  parentNode: document.getElementById("jitsi-container"),
  configOverwrite: {
    startWithAudioMuted: true,
    startWithVideoMuted: true,
  }
});
</script>

Free Options

Option	Cost	Limits
meet.jit.si	Free	No time limit, 75 participants
Self-hosted	Free	No limits
8x8 (cloud)	From $0	25 participants free

Why Jitsi Over Zoom/Meet

Truly free — no time limits on free calls
Open source — Apache 2.0 license
Self-hostable — full data sovereignty
No accounts — participants just click a link
Embeddable — add video to your own app with IFrame API
E2EE — real end-to-end encryption option

Who Uses Jitsi

8x8 — commercial video built on Jitsi
Element/Matrix — Jitsi as video layer
Universities — self-hosted for privacy
Healthcare — HIPAA-compliant with self-hosting

Need video conferencing in your app? I help teams integrate Jitsi for telehealth, education, and enterprise use cases.

📧 spinov001@gmail.com — Video platform consulting

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