Jitsi Meet vs Zoom

Jitsi Meet

• Quick video calls where guests should not need an account
• Organizations that want to self-host open-source video conferencing
• Developers who want to customize or embed the meeting client

Zoom

• Teams whose main need is video meetings with chat alongside
• Occasional hosts who can work within 40-minute meetings
• People who want AI meeting notes built into the meeting app
• Companies that plan to add phone, webinars or rooms later

Jitsi Meet

• Since August 24, 2023, the person creating a room on meet.jit.si must sign in with an account.
• End-to-end encryption is opt-in, needs a Chromium-based browser or the desktop client, and covers audio, video and screen sharing but not chat or polls.
• Neither the Jitsi team nor 8x8 sells commercial support; self-hosters rely on the community forum or outside providers.
• Embedding meetings in another app is directed to 8x8's separate Jitsi as a Service, which is free up to 25 endpoints and paid beyond that.

Zoom

• Basic meetings end at 40 minutes, and the plan records locally only with no cloud storage.
• Meetings of 300 people need Business; beyond that the Large Meeting add-on starts at $50 a month for 500 participants.
• SSO and managed domains start at Business, and webinars, the phone PBX and Rooms are bundled only into Enterprise, which is sold by sales.
• Annual plans are charged as one upfront payment; the monthly figure shown is the annual total divided by 12.

Jitsi Meet

Meetings at a simple URL

A meeting is a room name on a URL. On meet.jit.si the first participant signs in with a Google, Facebook or GitHub account; everyone else joins without one.

Screen sharing and in-call tools

Share a desktop or presentation, chat with emoji, raise a hand, edit a shared Etherpad document and play a YouTube video to all attendees.

Self-hosting

Stable and nightly Ubuntu and Debian packages and a Docker setup let you run your own instance, with your own authentication and moderation rules.

Encryption

Audio and video are encrypted in transit with DTLS-SRTP by default. End-to-end encryption can be switched on in Chromium-based browsers and the desktop client.

Recording, streaming and dial-in

Conferences can be live streamed to YouTube and recorded, and joined by phone. Self-hosted servers need the Jibri and Jigasi components for these.

APIs and SDKs

An external API embeds a meeting in a web page, and the app can be compiled as an SDK for Android and iOS. The code is 100% open source.

Zoom

Video meetings

Meetings run up to 40 minutes on Basic and 30 hours on paid plans, with 100 participants on Basic and Pro, 300 on Business and 1,000 on Enterprise.

Team chat

Instant messaging is part of every Workplace plan, including the free Basic plan, and sits in the same app as meetings and calling.

AI notes and meeting summaries

Basic includes AI note-taking 3 times a month and summaries for 3 hosted meetings. Pro makes both unlimited and takes notes in Zoom, third-party and in-person conversations.

Whiteboard and Clips

Basic allows 3 editable whiteboards and 5 two-minute clips. Clips become unlimited on Pro, and whiteboards become unlimited on Business.

Mail, Calendar and Scheduler

Basic connects Gmail or Outlook and syncs Google or Microsoft calendars. Pro adds Zoom Mail and Zoom Calendar, and Business adds unlimited Scheduler booking pages.

Recording and cloud storage

Basic records locally only. Pro adds 10 GB of cloud recording storage per license, and extra cloud storage is sold as an add-on from $10 a month for 30 GB.

Jitsi Meet

• Jitsi Meet$0

  Free meetings on the hosted meet.jit.si service, and free open-source software for self-hosting. The project is funded by 8x8.

Zoom

• Workplace Basic$0

  Meetings of up to 40 minutes and 100 participants, instant messaging, 3 editable whiteboards, 5 two-minute clips and limited AI features.

• Workplace Pro$14.16

  per user / month, billed annually ($16.99 billed monthly)

  30-hour meetings with 100 participants, unlimited AI note-taking and meeting summaries, unlimited clips, and 10 GB of cloud storage per user.

• Workplace Business$18.33

  per user / month, billed annually ($21.99 billed monthly)

  300 participants per meeting, Scheduler with unlimited booking pages, unlimited whiteboards, SSO and managed domains.

• Workplace EnterpriseCustom

  1,000 participants per meeting, plus a full-featured phone PBX, webinars for 500 attendees, Rooms and translated captions.

Jitsi Meet

No public discounts listed.

Zoom

• Annual discount

  About 17% less with annual billing

  Workplace Pro is $169.90 a year ($14.16 a month) against $16.99 billed monthly, and Business is $219.90 a year ($18.33 a month) against $21.99.

• Nonprofit

  50% off for verified nonprofits

  Zoom's pricing FAQ says verified nonprofit organizations worldwide get a 50% discount on Workplace Pro, Workplace Business, Webinars and Large Meetings.