BigBlueButton vs Janus
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
Janus
General-purpose, lightweight, minimalist WebRTC Server
| Feature | BigBlueButton | Janus |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Video Conferencing | Video Conferencing |
| License | LGPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | JavaScript | C |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 8,192 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal, source | bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 9,182 | ★ 9,144 |
| First released | 2009 | 2020 |
| Replaces | Zoom, Microsoft Teams | — |
Why pick each one
Choose Janus if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- Mature project with 9.1k GitHub stars
- Written in C
- Lightweight — runs in 512 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is BigBlueButton or Janus better?
Neither is universally better. BigBlueButton has the larger community, while Janus is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are BigBlueButton and Janus free and open-source?
Yes. BigBlueButton is licensed under LGPL-3.0 and Janus under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run BigBlueButton and Janus with Docker?
BigBlueButton: check the project docs for container support. Janus: check the project docs for container support.