BigBlueButton
Supports real-time sharing of audio, video, slides (with whiteboard controls), chat, and the screen. Instructors can engage remote students with polling, emojis, and breakout rooms.
High commit volume, frequent releases and growing activity.
Commit activity more than 87% of tracked projects; popularity more than 78%. How this is calculated.
Commits, last 11 months
| Stars | 9.2k |
|---|---|
| Latest release | v4.0.0-rc.3 · 11 Sept 2026 |
| Repo updated | 25 Sept 2026 |
| Licence | LGPL-3.0 |
| Built with | Java |
Is BigBlueButton actively maintained?
BigBlueButton is under active development: 1573 commits landed over the last 11 months, averaging roughly 129 commits a month in the most recent quarter.
The most recent tagged release, v4.0.0-rc.3, shipped within the last month — a current, installable version exists today.
Among the 10 communication - video conferencing projects we track, BigBlueButton currently has the highest health score.
What BigBlueButton actually does
BigBlueButton is a video conferencing platform built for online learning and remote classrooms. It facilitates real-time streaming of audio, video, and presentations with collaborative whiteboard controls, chat functionality, and desktop sharing. Instructors can also manage remote attendees using built-in polling, status emojis, and smaller breakout rooms.
Best fit: Educational institutions and organisations that require a dedicated virtual classroom environment with interactive teaching tools.
Worth knowing: Deploying and scaling a multi-media web conferencing server can demand significant system resources and network bandwidth compared to simpler chat tools.
Deployment notes
As a Java application, it typically requires a reverse proxy to handle TLS termination and sufficient server memory to support real-time media processing.
Links
BigBlueButton as a replacement for
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