Zoom and Jitsi Meet solve the same problem from opposite directions. Zoom is a product you rent per person. Jitsi is software you can own and run.
At a glance
| Jitsi Meet (self-hosted) | Zoom | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Your server and bandwidth, no per-user fees | Per-host monthly licenses, add-ons extra |
| Where meetings run | Your own server or cloud account | Zoom’s cloud |
| Recordings stored | Your storage, e.g. your S3 bucket | Zoom cloud or local disk |
| Join without install | Yes, in the browser | Browser join exists; the app is pushed |
| Account needed to join | No | No for guests; hosts need accounts |
| Branding | Full white label | Limited customization |
| Source code | Open source (Apache 2.0) | Proprietary |
| Webinars for thousands | Via streaming or scaling work | Built in, paid add-on |
| Operations | You or your provider run it | None |
Cost
Zoom charges per licensed host every month, and features like webinars, large meetings and cloud storage cost extra. It is simple and predictable for small teams.
A self-hosted Jitsi server costs the same whether 5 or 500 people use it, as long as it can carry the load: a 4 GB server is about $33 a month on AWS, plus bandwidth. For an organization with many occasional hosts, that is often far cheaper. See the real self-hosting numbers.
Privacy and data control
With self-hosted Jitsi:
- Meetings are processed on your server, in the region you choose.
- Recordings and transcripts land in your own storage.
- You control logs, retention and who has access.
That matters for healthcare, education, legal, government and any company with data residency rules. Zoom has made large security investments, but it is still a third party processing your meetings.
Features
Both cover the everyday essentials: HD video, screen sharing, chat, reactions, raise hand, breakout rooms, lobbies, passwords, recording and live captions (Jitsi via Jibri and Jigasi).
Zoom leads on native apps, a large integrations marketplace, webinars with registration, whiteboard polish and AI summaries. Jitsi leads on zero-install joining, embedding (the IFrame API and JWT make it easy to put meetings inside your own product) and white labeling.
Reliability
Zoom runs a global network. A self-hosted Jitsi server is as reliable as the server and the person running it. In practice, a correctly sized server with a pinned release is very stable; the failures we see are configuration, not software. See troubleshooting.
Which should you choose?
Choose Zoom if you want zero operations, need large webinars, or rely on Zoom integrations.
Choose self-hosted Jitsi if you need data to stay in your own infrastructure, want your own brand, want to embed meetings in your product, or have many users and want to stop paying per seat.
Getting self-hosted Jitsi without the work
Our platform deploys Jitsi into your own AWS account in one click, with your domain, SSL and optional recording, transcription, branding and JWT. See how it works.