Jitsi Meet vs Google Meet: which to choose when control over your data matters

Jitsi Meet — an open-source video conferencing application (Apache 2.0 license). You can use it on the public server meet.jit.si or install it on your own server: then calls go through your infrastructure, and participants only need to open a link in a browser. Google Meet — Google’s cloud service, which runs only on Google servers and is tied to Google accounts and the Google Workspace suite.

Below — how these options differ in practice and when to choose which.

How Jitsi Meet is organized

Jitsi Meet consists of several components: the web interface, the XMPP server Prosody, the conference management component Jicofo, and the videobridge Jitsi Videobridge (JVB). The videobridge does not mix streams; it forwards to each participant the streams they need from others. Therefore the server load is determined primarily by the network, not the CPU.

The project is actively developed: the stable build stable_11248 was released on September 14, 2026.

Usage options:

• meet.jit.si — the developers’ free public server. Since August 24, 2023, creating rooms anonymously on it is not possible: the organizer signs in via a Google, GitHub or Facebook account. For working with confidential data this option is no better than using someone else’s cloud.
• Self-hosted server — installation from packages or in Docker. All call data goes only through your server; you define access rules and authentication yourself.

What you need for your own server

According to Jitsi’s official documentation:

• OS: Debian 11 or newer, Ubuntu 22.04 or newer; OpenJDK 17 is required.
• Memory: 8 GB for a standard installation, 4 GB — for small meetings, 2 GB — only for testing.
• CPU: 4 dedicated cores are sufficient. Prosody uses a single core, so chasing a large number of cores makes no sense.
• Disk: about 20 GB, if verbose logging is not enabled.
• Network: the main resource. For one participant you need roughly 200 Kbit/s at 180p, 500 Kbit/s at 360p and 2.5 Mbit/s at 720p. For small deployments a 1 Gbit/s link is usually sufficient.
• Ports: 80/TCP (Let’s Encrypt certificate issuance), 443/TCP (web interface), 10000/UDP (audio and video), 5349/TCP (fallback channel for media over TCP), 3478/UDP (STUN, optional).

Hence the main limitation: there is no such thing as “unlimited number of participants” on your own server. The limit is set by the link and the videobridge. For large meetings Jitsi is scaled by adding videobridges, not by beefing up a single server.

How Google Meet works

Google Meet runs only in Google’s cloud. The organizer needs a Google account; guests can join by link if the organizer admits them.

Limits as of September 2026:

• Free personal account: up to 100 participants, group meetings (three or more people) — up to 60 minutes; one-on-one calls and calls from mobile devices are not time-limited.
• Google Workspace: Business Starter — up to 100 participants, Business Standard — up to 150, Business Plus — up to 500, Enterprise — up to 1000; meetings last up to 24 hours. Meeting recording to Google Drive is available starting with Business Standard.

You cannot pay for Workspace with a Russian bank card: Visa and Mastercard have not been processing Russian cards abroad since March 10, 2022. In addition, the service stores data on Google servers outside Russia.

Comparison

When to choose which

Jitsi Meet on your server is suitable if:

• you work with confidential conversations — healthcare, law, psychology, consultations — and do not want to pass them to a third party;
• the company needs data to remain in Russia or on its infrastructure;
• you need meetings without time limits and without accounts for clients;
• you have someone to maintain the server or you are willing to outsource it to a contractor.

Google Meet is more sensible if the company already uses Google Workspace, meetings are internal and routine, and there is no one to maintain your own server. For Russian companies this option is constrained by payment.

Common mistakes when installing Jitsi

• Port 10000/UDP is closed. The page opens, participants connect, but video and audio do not work. This is the most frequent problem.
• Weak network link. A server with 4 cores will cope, but a 100 Mbit/s link will not: at 720p about 2.5 Mbit/s is needed per participant.
• Open room creation. By default anyone who knows the server address can create a room. For production use you need organizer authentication.
• No updates. Jitsi is evolving quickly, and old versions stop working correctly with new browsers.

Practical guides on our site

• How to install Jitsi Meet on your server using Docker
• Jitsi Meet: configuring authentication and optimizing the server
• Jitsi Meet (Docker) behind an Nginx reverse proxy
• Connecting Jitsi Meet to Active Directory
• Recording meetings in Jitsi Meet: from Jibri to Notion and HLS

If you need a turnkey videoconferencing server — installation and setup of Jitsi Meet.