Jitsi Meet review 2026: explore this free, open-source, self-hostable video conferencing platform, its encryption, features, pricing and alternatives.
Jitsi Meet is a free, open-source video conferencing platform that runs in a web browser without requiring an account or download, and can be fully self-hosted for organizations that want complete control over their video infrastructure and data. It grew out of a 2003 academic VoIP project called SIP Communicator, was rebranded Jitsi in 2011, and has been owned and stewarded by cloud communications provider 8x8 since 2018 after a brief period under Atlassian.
Unlike closed platforms such as Zoom or Google Meet, Jitsi Meet's full source code, including its videobridge, conference focus and web client, is published under the Apache 2.0 license on GitHub, letting anyone audit, modify or self-host the software. This openness, combined with a free public instance at meet.jit.si, made Jitsi a popular privacy-conscious alternative during the pandemic-era surge in video conferencing usage.
Jitsi Meet is built on WebRTC with a selective forwarding unit architecture that scales group calls more efficiently than simple peer-to-peer meshes, and supports optional end-to-end encryption that prevents even the server operator from accessing meeting content when enabled. Standard features include screen sharing, YouTube live streaming, virtual backgrounds, breakout rooms, live captions and in-meeting chat.
The platform ships as a free public web service, native desktop and mobile apps for Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS and Android, and self-hostable Docker or native Linux packages for organizations with strict data residency or compliance needs. Developers who want to embed video calling into their own products can use 8x8's Jitsi as a Service (JaaS), a hosted API and SDK layer built on the same open-source core.
The core Jitsi Meet software is free and open source under the Apache 2.0 license, with no cost for using the public meet.jit.si instance or for self-hosting your own deployment, aside from the infrastructure and technical staff time required to run and maintain it.
For teams that want managed hosting instead of self-hosting, 8x8 offers Jitsi as a Service (JaaS) on a monthly-active-user pricing model starting at 0.35 dollars per MAU with volume discounts, including a free developer tier covering up to 25 monthly active users; cloud call recording is billed separately at 0.01 dollars per minute.
Yes. The public meet.jit.si instance is free to use with no account required, and the underlying software is free and open source for self-hosting.
Jitsi Meet is stewarded by 8x8, Inc., a publicly traded cloud communications company that acquired the Jitsi technology and engineering team from Atlassian in October 2018.
Yes. Jitsi Meet's source code is released under the Apache 2.0 license and can be deployed on your own servers via Docker or native Linux packages for full data control.
Yes. Jitsi Meet offers optional end-to-end encryption that, when enabled, prevents even the server operator from decrypting meeting audio and video.
No. Participants can join meetings on the public instance directly from a link in their browser without creating an account.
JaaS is 8x8's managed, commercial API and SDK offering built on the open-source Jitsi core, priced per monthly active user starting at 0.35 dollars, aimed at developers embedding video calling into their own products.