BigBlueButton vs Galène: which one to choose in 2026?
Both are open source alternatives to Zoom. We compare license, tech stack and features to help you decide which fits your team best.
| BigBlueButton | Galène | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Video Conferencing | Video Conferencing |
| License | LGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| GitHub stars | ~5k | ~2k |
| Tech stack | Java, HTML5, WebRTC | Go, WebRTC |
| Replaces | Zoom | Zoom |
BigBlueButton has more GitHub stars, which usually indicates a larger community (not necessarily that it's the best option for your use case).
BigBlueButton
Education-focused video conferencing, an alternative to Zoom.
ℹ️ BigBlueButton isn't installed with a single-container docker-compose: bigbluebutton/bbb-install isn't a real Docker image (bbb-install.sh is a bash script), and the officially supported production install uses that script on Ubuntu. A full, community-maintained Docker deployment exists (bigbluebutton/docker on GitHub) that generates its own multi-container docker-compose, but it isn't this single-service one.
Pros
- Built specifically for education: collaborative whiteboard, breakout rooms and class recording
Things to consider
- Production installation is more complex than a simple docker-compose
Galène
Ultra-lightweight video conferencing server, an alternative to Zoom on modest hardware.
ℹ️ The Galène project doesn't publish any official Docker image, only the Go binary — dscheirer/galene doesn't exist on Docker Hub. We use byteonabeach/galene, a third-party image that rebuilds the official stable release (1.0), but it isn't maintained by the Galène project itself: review its Dockerfile before trusting it in production.
Pros
- Runs on much more modest servers than Jitsi/BBB
Things to consider
- More basic interface, fewer features than Zoom
- No official Docker image from the project (see note above) — the one used here is from an external maintainer
Key features
BigBlueButton
- Multi-user collaborative whiteboard
- Breakout rooms
- Polls and class recording
Galène
- Extremely lightweight (a single Go binary)
- Supports hundreds of participants per room
- Local session recording
Already know which one you prefer?
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