BigBlueButton vs coturn
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted video conferencing options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Not the right match-up?
BigBlueButton
Virtual classroom and web conferencing for education
VS
coturn
Open-source TURN and STUN server for WebRTC
| Feature | BigBlueButton | coturn |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Video Conferencing | Video Conferencing |
| License | LGPL-3.0 | BSD-3-Clause |
| Language | JavaScript | C |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 8,192 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal, source | docker, bare-metal, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 9,182 | ★ 14,274 |
| First released | 2009 | 2012 |
| Replaces | Zoom, Microsoft Teams | — |
Why pick each one
Choose coturn if…
- Released under the BSD-3-Clause license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 14.3k GitHub stars
- Written in C
Frequently asked questions
Is BigBlueButton or coturn better?
coturn is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler medium setup. Consider BigBlueButton if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are BigBlueButton and coturn free and open-source?
Yes. BigBlueButton is licensed under LGPL-3.0 and coturn under BSD-3-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run BigBlueButton and coturn with Docker?
BigBlueButton: check the project docs for container support. coturn: yes.