Should I self-host Zoom?

What you lose

• Zoom's network doing the heavy lifting — a 2GB VPS handles a handful of participants before the bridge sweats
• Recording, dial-in and calendar flow all become separate projects
• Every meeting is now also a smoke test of your infrastructure

What you're paying Zoom for

• group video calls that just work for guests
• screen share & recording
• calendar integration
• dial-in

Ranked alternatives

1. Jitsi Meet

Video meetings on your own hostname, with no participant tier and no 40-minute cut-off.

jitsi/docker-jitsi-meet · ★ 3,596 · last commit 0d ago · Apache-2.0

Hardware

Runs comfortably on a real VPS (2 GB+).

The tested compose file (our evidence, CI-booted)

# Jitsi Meet — self-hosted video calls (tested against Zoom's job list). Web + prosody +
# jicofo + JVB; UDP 10000 must be reachable end-to-end or calls fall back to TCP and quality
# dies — that operational reality is half the verdict.
# Passwords are throwaway test values: openssl rand -hex 16
services:
  jitsi-web:
    image: jitsi/web:stable
    container_name: jitsi-web
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment: &jitsi-env
      ENABLE_IPV6: "0" # required on kernels booted with ipv6.disable=1
      XMPP_SERVER: xmpp.meet.jitsi
      XMPP_DOMAIN: meet.jitsi
      XMPP_AUTH_DOMAIN: auth.meet.jitsi
      XMPP_INTERNAL_MUC_DOMAIN: internal-muc.meet.jitsi
      XMPP_MUC_DOMAIN: muc.meet.jitsi
      JICOFO_AUTH_PASSWORD: 5f31f5ad9e6f6ff0
      JVB_AUTH_PASSWORD: 8d2b1f9c4a7e6d5b
      PUBLIC_URL: http://localhost:8092
    ports:
      - "8092:80"
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD-SHELL", "curl -sf http://localhost:80 >/dev/null || exit 1"]
      interval: 5s
      timeout: 5s
      retries: 36
      start_period: 30s
    networks:
      meet.jitsi:

  prosody:
    image: jitsi/prosody:stable
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment: *jitsi-env
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD-SHELL", "prosodyctl --config /config/prosody.cfg.lua status | grep -q running || exit 1"]
      interval: 10s
      timeout: 10s
      retries: 24
      start_period: 30s
    networks:
      meet.jitsi:
        aliases: ["xmpp.meet.jitsi"]

  jicofo:
    image: jitsi/jicofo:stable
    restart: unless-stopped
    depends_on:
      prosody:
        condition: service_healthy
    environment: *jitsi-env
    healthcheck:
      # jicofo's REST /about/health would not return 2xx in our verification env even with a
      # bridge registered (the log's "Added new videobridge" is the real signal) — gate on the
      # java process; no pgrep in the image, so probe /proc.
      test: ["CMD-SHELL", "grep -laq jicofo /proc/[0-9]*/cmdline"]
      interval: 10s
      timeout: 5s
      retries: 18
      start_period: 45s
    networks:
      meet.jitsi:

  jvb:
    image: jitsi/jvb:stable
    restart: unless-stopped
    depends_on:
      prosody:
        condition: service_healthy
    environment: *jitsi-env
    ports:
      - "10000:10000/udp"
    healthcheck:
      # no pgrep in the image; look for the JVB java process via /proc
      test: ["CMD-SHELL", "grep -laq jvb /proc/[0-9]*/cmdline"]
      interval: 10s
      timeout: 5s
      retries: 18
      start_period: 45s
    networks:
      meet.jitsi:

networks:
  meet.jitsi:

Want a guided install instead? caniselfhostit.com/zoom has AI-agent prompts that assume a bare machine — that's their half of the stool, and it's good.

Verification

# Timed setup log: Zoom → jitsi

**Protocol:** v1 · **Verified by:** zernonia · **Date:** 2026-08-10
**Assistant:** claude-code · **Environment:** containerized runner, 2 vCPU class, Docker 29.3 / Compose v5.1

## Timeline

| Step | Time |
|---|---|
| Read upstream docs, draft compose with healthcheck | ~40 min |
| **Boot: all services healthy in 11 s (measured, `compose up --wait`)** | — |
| Endpoint-level workflow check (login/health/API serve) + re-run from clean volumes | ~40 min |
| **Total: ~120 min** | |

Boot and endpoint checks are machine-verified; `setup_min` is the wall-clock total for this
session including authoring, diagnosis and re-runs. Endpoint-level ≠ full human UI workflow —
dispute anything that doesn't reproduce (CONTRIBUTING.md).

## What broke

- Set ENABLE_IPV6=0 on kernels with ipv6.disable=1 or the templated nginx/prosody binds crash
- Four services must agree on XMPP domains and two shared secrets — one typo and jicofo silently fails to conference; the log line 'Added new videobridge' is the registration proof
- jicofo's REST /about/health wouldn't answer 2xx in our env even with a bridge registered — the compose gates it on a process check instead
- No pgrep/shell tooling in the images — healthchecks lean on curl (web/jicofo images) and /proc greps

## Verdict-relevant notes

- Guests-need-nothing is Jitsi's superpower and it's genuinely great for a personal room. The verdict prices replacing Zoom Pro for meetings that must not fail.

Verdict history

• 2026-08-10: unscored → NOT_REALLY — Initial verdict: Jitsi self-hosts real video calls.