BigBlueButton vs mediasoup
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
mediasoup
Cutting-edge WebRTC SFU library for Node.js
| Feature | BigBlueButton | mediasoup |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Video Conferencing | Video Conferencing |
| License | LGPL-3.0 | ISC |
| Language | JavaScript | C++ |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 8,192 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal, source | source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 9,182 | ★ 7,325 |
| First released | 2009 | 2016 |
| Replaces | Zoom, Microsoft Teams | Twilio Video |
Why pick each one
Choose mediasoup if…
- Released under the ISC license
- Mature project with 7.3k GitHub stars
- Written in C++
- Lightweight — runs in 512 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is BigBlueButton or mediasoup better?
Neither is universally better. BigBlueButton has the larger community; both share a hard setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are BigBlueButton and mediasoup free and open-source?
Yes. BigBlueButton is licensed under LGPL-3.0 and mediasoup under ISC. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run BigBlueButton and mediasoup with Docker?
BigBlueButton: check the project docs for container support. mediasoup: check the project docs for container support.