BigBlueButton vs Peer-calls
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted apps from related categories — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Not the right match-up?
BigBlueButton
Virtual classroom and web conferencing for education
VS
Peer-calls
Group peer to peer video calls for everyone
| Feature | BigBlueButton | Peer-calls |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Video Conferencing | Chat & Communication |
| License | LGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | JavaScript | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 8,192 MB | 50 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal, source | bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 9,182 | ★ 1,903 |
| First released | 2009 | 2024 |
| Replaces | Zoom, Microsoft Teams | BigBlueButton, Skype, Zoom |
Why pick each one
Choose Peer-calls if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- Active community (1.9k GitHub stars)
- Written in Go
Frequently asked questions
Is BigBlueButton or Peer-calls better?
Neither is universally better. BigBlueButton has the larger community, while Peer-calls is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are BigBlueButton and Peer-calls free and open-source?
Yes. BigBlueButton is licensed under LGPL-3.0 and Peer-calls under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run BigBlueButton and Peer-calls with Docker?
BigBlueButton: check the project docs for container support. Peer-calls: check the project docs for container support.