Janus vs Jitsi Meet
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?
Janus
General-purpose, lightweight, minimalist WebRTC Server
VS
Jitsi Meet
Secure, fully featured video conferencing
| Feature | Janus | Jitsi Meet |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Video Conferencing | Video Conferencing |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | C | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 4,096 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 9,144 | ★ 29,702 |
| First released | 2020 | 2013 |
| Replaces | — | Zoom, Google Meet |
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 Janus or Jitsi Meet better?
Neither is universally better. Jitsi Meet 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 Janus and Jitsi Meet free and open-source?
Yes. Janus is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Jitsi Meet under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Janus and Jitsi Meet with Docker?
Janus: check the project docs for container support. Jitsi Meet: yes.