Jitsi vs WebRTC: What are the differences?

Introduction:

Jitsi and WebRTC are both communication platforms that enable real-time audio and video communication. While their purposes are similar, there are key differences between the two.

1. Architecture: Jitsi is a video conferencing platform that uses WebRTC for its real-time communication. It provides a complete conference solution with features like screen sharing and chat. WebRTC, on the other hand, is a free, open-source project that provides protocols and APIs for real-time communication directly between web browsers.

2. Customizability: Jitsi offers a high level of customizability, allowing developers to modify the user interface and add new features according to their requirements. WebRTC, on the other hand, provides a lower-level API that leaves more implementation details to the developers, providing them with greater flexibility but also requiring more expertise.

3. Scalability: Jitsi is designed for small to medium-sized conferences and can handle a limited number of participants efficiently. In contrast, WebRTC is more scalable and can handle a larger number of participants, making it suitable for larger conferences or applications with higher user loads.

4. Infrastructure: Jitsi requires its own dedicated infrastructure for hosting the video conference servers, which can be either on-premises or in the cloud. WebRTC, on the other hand, leverages the existing infrastructure of web browsers, eliminating the need for dedicated servers.

5. Integration: Jitsi provides integration options with popular messaging platforms like Slack and Microsoft Teams, allowing users to seamlessly incorporate video conferencing into their existing workflows. WebRTC, however, is a standalone technology that does not offer built-in integrations and requires developers to implement the necessary integrations themselves.

6. Ecosystem: Jitsi benefits from a robust and active community that continuously contributes to its development, adding new features and fixing bugs. WebRTC has a larger ecosystem as it is a core technology used by various real-time communication platforms, resulting in a wider range of available libraries, frameworks, and resources.

In summary, Jitsi is a video conferencing platform built on top of WebRTC, providing a complete conference solution with customization options and integrations. WebRTC, on the other hand, is a versatile technology that allows for real-time communication directly between web browsers, offering scalability and a larger ecosystem but requiring more development expertise.