EU Video Conferencing: Jitsi vs BigBlueButton vs Whereby vs Livestorm

Read time: 10 min | Last updated: January 2026

TL;DR: Jitsi for free, no-signup meetings. BigBlueButton for education and training. Whereby for simple team meetings with a nice UX. Livestorm for professional webinars and events.

Zoom works great. But every call routes through US infrastructure. Your company meetings, sales calls, confidential discussions. All accessible under US jurisdiction.

Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Webex. Same story.

If that matters to you, European alternatives exist. They’ve caught up more than you might expect.

The Quick Comparison

	Jitsi Meet	BigBlueButton	Whereby	Livestorm
Country	France (8x8)	Canada/Global	Norway	France
Free tier	Fully free	Self-host free	Yes (1 room)	Yes (limited)
Self-hosted	Yes	Yes	No	No
Max participants	100	300+	200	3,000+
Best for	Quick meetings	Education	Team calls	Webinars
Recording	Yes	Yes	Paid	Yes

Jitsi Meet: Free and Open

Originally created in France, now owned by 8x8. Completely open-source.

What Makes It Different

No account needed. Go to meet.jit.si, create a room, share the link. That’s it. No signup, no download, no friction.

What’s Good

Truly free. No time limits, no participant limits that matter, no paywalls. Forever.

Zero friction. Works in browser. No app required. Share link, people join immediately.

Self-host option. Run your own Jitsi server. Complete control over data and privacy.

Screen sharing, recording, chat. All the basics work well.

Strong community. Thousands of deployments worldwide. Active development.

What’s Not

Quality at scale. Beyond 20-30 participants, things can get choppy. Architecture limitations.

Basic features only. No breakout rooms (without plugins). No virtual backgrounds out of box.

No central management. No admin console for organizations unless self-hosted.

Branded as free tier. Public meet.jit.si has 8x8 branding and limitations.

Best For

Quick meetings without signup friction
Privacy-conscious individuals
Organizations with IT resources to self-host
Replacing Zoom for casual use

BigBlueButton: Education-First

Canadian company, but used extensively by EU educational institutions. Open-source, self-hosted.

What Makes It Different

Built specifically for online learning. Whiteboards, breakout rooms, polls, recording. Everything teachers need.

What’s Good

Feature-rich for teaching. Whiteboard tools, multi-user annotations, presenter notes, learning analytics.

Breakout rooms. Create, assign, join. Works properly, unlike bolted-on implementations.

Scalable. Handles large classes. Many universities run 300+ person lectures.

Recording with playback. Records sessions in searchable format with slide sync.

Learning management integration. Works with Moodle, Canvas, Sakai. Standard LTI support.

What’s Not

Self-host required. No SaaS option. You need servers and technical knowledge.

Resource-heavy. Needs serious hardware. Not something you run on a €5/month VPS.

Dated interface. Functional but not beautiful. Feels 2015.

Complex setup. Installation is involved. Not a quick docker-compose.

Best For

Schools and universities
Corporate training departments
Anyone who needs breakout rooms that work
Organizations with IT infrastructure

Whereby: Beautiful and Simple

Norwegian company, founded 2013. Focused on making video calls delightful, not feature-packed.

What Makes It Different

Design-forward approach. Whereby prioritizes UX over feature checkboxes. Meetings should feel good.

What’s Good

Beautiful interface. Clean, minimal, thoughtful. The Apple of video conferencing.

No downloads. Browser-based. Works everywhere without installing anything.

Persistent rooms. Your room URL never changes. Send same link to everyone, forever.

Integrations. Embed meetings in your product. APIs for developers.

Reasonable pricing. Free tier works for personal use. Business pricing is fair.

What’s Not

Feature limitations. No breakout rooms on lower tiers. Recording costs extra.

Participant limits. Free tier is 100 participants, but quality suffers before that.

No self-hosting. SaaS only. Your data on their servers (EU, but still).

Small company risk. Smaller than alternatives. Unknown long-term trajectory.

Best For

Design-conscious teams
Customer meetings where impression matters
Embedding video in your product
Teams tired of ugly interfaces

Livestorm: Professional Webinars

French company, founded 2016. Built for marketing webinars and virtual events.

What Makes It Different

Not just meetings. Livestorm is for events. Registration pages, email sequences, engagement tools, analytics.

What’s Good

Event infrastructure. Landing pages, registration, reminders, follow-ups. Built-in marketing.

Engagement tools. Polls, Q&A, chat moderation, CTAs. Keep audiences active.

Analytics. Who watched, how long, what they clicked. Connect to your CRM.

Branded experience. Custom colors, logos, domains. Looks like your event, not Livestorm’s.

Automation. Pre-recorded webinars that feel live. Replay on-demand.

What’s Not

Expensive. Starts at €79/month. Not for casual use.

Webinar-focused. Overkill for team meetings. Right tool, wrong job.

Limited free tier. 20 minutes, 30 attendees. Demo only.

Learning curve. More complex than Zoom. Takes time to set up properly.

Best For

Marketing teams running webinars
Product demos and launches
Virtual conferences and events
Lead generation through content

Other EU Options Worth Knowing

OpenTalk

German company. Focus on security and German market. On-premise option. Good for German public sector.

eyeson

Austrian company. Unique “single video stream” architecture. Less bandwidth needed. Good for large meetings.

Sichere-Videokonferenz.de

German service built on Jitsi. Hosted in Germany with German support. Good for compliance-sensitive organizations.

Talk (Nextcloud)

If you already run Nextcloud, Talk is built-in. Video, chat, file sharing in one. Quality depends on your infrastructure.

Performance Reality

Let’s be honest. These alternatives work well for most use cases, but they’re not Zoom.

Where Zoom still wins:

500+ participant meetings
Consistent quality on bad connections
Features like real-time transcription, AI summaries
Mobile app polish

Where EU alternatives match or beat:

Standard meetings (2-50 people)
Privacy and data control
Specific use cases (education, webinars)
No signup required (Jitsi)

For 90% of meetings, EU alternatives work perfectly. For large corporate all-hands or enterprise features, you might still need Zoom.

The Self-Hosting Question

Self-hosting gives you complete control but requires real investment.

Platform	Difficulty	Resources Needed	Time to Deploy
Jitsi	Medium	4GB RAM min	Few hours
BigBlueButton	Hard	16GB RAM, SSD	Days
Nextcloud Talk	Medium	Depends on NC	Hours

Worth it if:

Regulatory requirements demand it
You have IT staff already
Meeting content is highly sensitive
You need custom branding/integration

Not worth it if:

You just want privacy
Small team without IT
Budget is limited
Time is scarce

Pricing Comparison

For a small team (10 people):

Platform	Annual Cost	What You Get
Zoom	€165/user = €1,650	Full features
Whereby	€7/user = €840	Good basics
Jitsi	Free	Self-hosted control
Livestorm	€948+	Webinar features

My Recommendation

Choose Jitsi if:

You want free without limits
You need zero-signup meetings
You can self-host or trust 8x8’s infrastructure
Feature basics are enough

Choose BigBlueButton if:

You’re in education or training
You need breakout rooms that work
You have IT resources to deploy and maintain
Scale matters (100+ participants)

Choose Whereby if:

You want beautiful, simple meetings
Brand experience matters
You’re embedding video in your product
You don’t need breakout rooms or advanced features

Choose Livestorm if:

You run marketing webinars
Lead generation is a goal
You need registration and analytics
Budget isn’t the primary constraint

FAQ

Can Jitsi really handle 100 participants?

The software can. Whether your server or network can is different. Public meet.jit.si tends to struggle past 20-30. Self-hosted with proper hardware handles more.

Is BigBlueButton only for schools?

No, but that’s where it shines. Corporate training works great. General business meetings are possible but overkill.

Why isn’t Whereby more popular?

Good question. Probably because Zoom became the default and Whereby doesn’t have enterprise sales teams. It’s actually excellent.

What about Microsoft Teams?

US company, US servers. More integrated than Zoom if you’re in Microsoft ecosystem, but same jurisdiction issues.

Try Them

Jitsi Meet: meet.jit.si - Instant, no signup
BigBlueButton: bigbluebutton.org - Demo available
Whereby: whereby.com - Free room
Livestorm: livestorm.co - Free trial

See also:

Last updated: January 2026

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