Jitsi Meet

What Is Jitsi Meet?

The video conferencing industry has spent a decade adding complexity. Zoom requires an account and a desktop client. Microsoft Teams demands a Microsoft 365 subscription and an identity infrastructure. Google Meet needs a Google account. Every platform has added AI transcription, virtual backgrounds, breakout rooms, whiteboards, and scheduling integrations -- features that serve legitimate needs but also create friction, subscription costs, and data dependencies that many meetings simply do not require.

Jitsi Meet asks a different question: what if a video call was as simple as sharing a URL?

That is exactly what Jitsi delivers. Navigate to meet.jit.si, type a room name, and share the link. Anyone who clicks the link joins the call instantly -- no account creation, no software download, no email verification, no calendar integration. The call happens in the browser. When you close the tab, the call ends and no data persists. There is nothing to sign up for, nothing to cancel, and nothing to pay.

Created in Strasbourg, France in 2003 by Emil Ivov, Jitsi is one of the oldest open-source video conferencing projects in existence. It predates Zoom by eight years. The project has evolved through multiple phases -- initially a desktop SIP client, then a WebRTC-based browser platform, and now a full conferencing suite maintained with significant contributions from 8x8's European development team. Despite the corporate stewardship, the software remains fully open-source under the Apache 2.0 licence, and can be self-hosted by anyone on their own infrastructure.

Jitsi is not trying to compete with Zoom on features. It does not have AI-powered meeting summaries, automatic transcription, or a marketplace of integrations. What it offers instead is something Zoom structurally cannot: a video call that requires zero trust in a third party, zero data shared with a corporation, and zero cost. For privacy-conscious individuals, European organisations navigating GDPR, and anyone who believes a video call should not require a corporate account, Jitsi Meet represents a fundamentally different philosophy.

Key Features

Zero-Friction Meeting Creation

The core Jitsi experience is radical in its simplicity. Go to meet.jit.si (or your self-hosted instance), enter a room name, and you are in a video call. Share the URL, and others join. There is no registration, no email, no phone number, no software installation. The meeting runs entirely in the browser using WebRTC.

This zero-friction model has practical advantages beyond convenience. When you need to speak with someone outside your organisation -- a client, a contractor, a government official -- you do not need to ask them to create an account on your platform, install software, or accept terms of service. You share a link. They click it. The conversation happens. For cross-organisational communication where imposing your tooling on external participants is inappropriate, Jitsi's frictionless approach is genuinely valuable.

The room names function as de facto access control: anyone who knows (or guesses) the room name can join. For sensitive meetings, Jitsi offers lobby mode (a waiting room where a moderator admits participants), meeting passwords, and the option to use cryptographically random room names that are effectively unguessable.

End-to-End Encryption

Jitsi Meet supports end-to-end encryption (E2EE) using the Insertable Streams API in Chromium-based browsers. When E2EE is enabled, media streams are encrypted in the sender's browser and decrypted only in recipients' browsers. The server relays encrypted packets without the ability to decrypt them.

This is a significant privacy feature for sensitive conversations. Without E2EE, the Jitsi Videobridge server processes media in a form it could theoretically inspect (though it does not). With E2EE enabled, even a compromised server cannot intercept meeting content. For meetings involving confidential business discussions, legal consultations, or journalistic source protection, E2EE provides meaningful additional security.

The limitation is browser support: E2EE works reliably in Chromium-based browsers (Chrome, Edge, Brave) but has limited support in Firefox and Safari. Participants using incompatible browsers will need to use the standard encryption mode. For meetings where all participants use Chrome, E2EE is a straightforward addition.

Self-Hosting for Complete Data Sovereignty

Jitsi's self-hosting capability is its most important feature for European organisations. The entire platform -- Jitsi Meet web client, Jitsi Videobridge (media server), Okaeli (authentication), and Jibri (recording and streaming) -- can be deployed on your own infrastructure. When self-hosted, no meeting data passes through any third-party servers. Audio, video, and chat remain on your network.

Self-hosting Jitsi on an EU-based server provides absolute GDPR compliance for video conferencing. There are no data processing agreements to negotiate, no subprocessor lists to evaluate, and no cross-border data transfers to justify. The data stays on your server, in your data centre, under your control. For government agencies, healthcare providers, and legal practices that cannot use cloud-based video services, self-hosted Jitsi is often the only compliant option that remains free.

Live Streaming and Recording

Jitsi supports live streaming to YouTube and local recording through Jibri, a server-side component that captures meetings as video files. Moderators can start and stop recording, and recordings are saved to the server or connected cloud storage. Live streaming enables webinar-style events where a small group of speakers broadcasts to a YouTube audience of potentially thousands.

Setting up Jibri is the most complex part of a self-hosted Jitsi deployment. It requires a dedicated server (or container) with Chrome running in a virtual framebuffer, capturing the meeting output as video. The resource requirements are significant: Jibri needs its own 4+ GB of RAM and CPU allocation per concurrent recording. For organisations that need meeting recordings, Jibri is essential but adds operational complexity.

Breakout Rooms and Meeting Management

Jitsi supports breakout rooms for splitting participants into smaller groups, speaker statistics for tracking talk time, raise-hand functionality, emoji reactions, lobby mode for admission control, and meeting passwords. These features cover the essential meeting management needs for team calls, workshops, and educational sessions.

The feature set is intentionally modest compared to Zoom or Teams. There is no built-in scheduling, no calendar integration, no waiting room with branded backgrounds, and no post-meeting analytics. Jitsi is designed for the meeting itself, not the meeting lifecycle. If you need the full apparatus of enterprise meeting management -- calendar invites, automated recordings, AI summaries, attendance tracking -- Jitsi is not the right tool.

Pricing

Jitsi Meet is free. The software is open-source under the Apache 2.0 licence. The public instance at meet.jit.si is free to use with no account required. Self-hosting is free with no per-user licensing.

The only costs are infrastructure for self-hosting. A basic Jitsi server capable of handling 20-30 concurrent participants needs a server with approximately 4 GB RAM and 2 CPU cores -- available from European hosting providers like Hetzner for around EUR 10-20 per month. For larger deployments with 50+ concurrent participants, multiple Jitsi Videobridge instances behind a load balancer increase infrastructure costs proportionally.

JaaS (Jitsi as a Service), operated by 8x8, provides managed Jitsi infrastructure with pay-per-use pricing for organisations that want Jitsi's technology without self-hosting responsibilities. JaaS includes custom branding, embedding, SLAs, and enterprise support.

Our value assessment gives Jitsi a 9.5 out of 10 -- the highest in our video conferencing category. For a fully functional, encrypted, self-hostable video conferencing platform, the price of zero is difficult to beat. The value calculation for self-hosting involves comparing the infrastructure cost (EUR 10-40/month for a basic server) against the per-user licensing cost of commercial alternatives (Zoom Business starts at EUR 13.33 per user per month). For a team of 10, Jitsi self-hosting costs approximately EUR 20/month versus EUR 133/month for Zoom Business.

EU Compliance & Privacy

Jitsi earns 9.0 out of 10 for EU compliance. When self-hosted on EU infrastructure, Jitsi provides absolute data sovereignty with no third-party data processing. The open-source codebase is auditable, and there is no telemetry or data collection in self-hosted deployments.

The public meet.jit.si instance is operated by 8x8, a US company. While convenient for casual use, organisations with GDPR obligations should self-host or use a European JaaS deployment to maintain EU data residency. The distinction is important: Jitsi the software is privacy-maximising; meet.jit.si the public instance is convenient but US-operated.

Jitsi's European origins -- created in Strasbourg, France -- and continued European development provide cultural alignment with European privacy values. The project's design philosophy of minimal data collection, no account requirements, and optional E2EE reflects a privacy-first approach that resonates with EU regulatory expectations.

Who It's Best For

Privacy-conscious individuals and teams who want encrypted video calls without creating accounts, sharing personal data, or trusting a commercial provider with meeting content.

European government agencies and public institutions that need self-hosted video conferencing on sovereign infrastructure with no US company involvement in data processing.

Organisations with technical staff capable of deploying and maintaining a self-hosted Jitsi instance on Linux infrastructure.

Cross-organisational meetings where participants use different platforms and you need a tool that works instantly in any browser without requiring the other party to install software or create an account.

The Verdict

Jitsi Meet is not the most polished video conferencing platform. Its video quality degrades with larger groups. Its enterprise features are minimal. Its mobile apps are functional but not refined. If you need a video platform for a 200-person company with SSO, analytics, recording management, and calendar integration, Zoom or Teams will serve you better.

But Jitsi solves a problem that no commercial platform can: how do you have a video call that requires zero trust, zero data sharing, and zero cost? For quick calls, sensitive conversations, privacy-conscious organisations, and anyone who objects to the assumption that a video call requires a corporate account, Jitsi delivers something genuinely different. Its European origins, open-source licence, and self-hosting capabilities make it an essential tool in the European sovereign technology stack.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many people can join a Jitsi meeting?

Jitsi Meet works well with up to 35-50 participants on a properly configured server, depending on hardware and bandwidth. Quality degrades noticeably above this range as the Jitsi Videobridge server reaches processing limits. For larger events, Jitsi's YouTube live streaming feature can broadcast to thousands of viewers while keeping the active meeting small. Increasing server resources or using multiple Videobridge instances can extend the practical limit.

Is meet.jit.si safe to use for business meetings?

Meet.jit.si is operated by 8x8 (US company) and processes meeting data through their infrastructure. For casual and non-sensitive meetings, it is perfectly fine. For meetings involving confidential business information, personal data subject to GDPR, or regulatory-sensitive content, self-hosting on EU infrastructure is recommended. No meeting data is stored after sessions end on any Jitsi instance.

How does Jitsi compare to Zoom?

Jitsi is free, open-source, and requires no account. Zoom is commercial, proprietary, and requires accounts for hosts. Jitsi offers superior privacy (E2EE, self-hosting). Zoom offers superior scalability, recording management, integrations, and enterprise features. For small, privacy-sensitive meetings, Jitsi excels. For large organisations needing enterprise video infrastructure, Zoom is more practical.

Can I brand Jitsi with my company's logo?

Yes. Self-hosted Jitsi supports full customisation including logos, colours, watermarks, and custom welcome pages. JaaS (Jitsi as a Service) also provides branding options. You can embed Jitsi meetings in your own web application using the Jitsi iframe API, creating a seamless branded experience for your users.

What are the server requirements for self-hosting Jitsi?

A basic Jitsi deployment for up to 30 concurrent participants requires a server with 4 GB RAM, 2 CPU cores, and a public IP address with ports 80, 443, and 10000 (UDP) open. For recording via Jibri, add a separate server with 4+ GB RAM. For larger deployments, multiple Jitsi Videobridge servers behind a load balancer scale horizontally. Ubuntu 22.04 is the recommended operating system.