Your own self-hosted Jitsi Meet server for private video calls

How much bandwidth will your meetings use?

More than most people guess, because of how Jitsi works. Its videobridge does not blend everyone into one picture; it receives each person's video and sends a copy to everybody else in the room. How heavy each copy is depends on the picture quality:

So a meeting of ten people all sending HD can need up to 90 copies going out at once: 10 times 9 times 2.5 Mbit/s, roughly 225 Mbit/s. Four such meetings together come close to a full 1 Gbit/s connection. Real calls usually use less, because not everyone is on screen in HD, but planning for the top end is what keeps a busy Monday morning from freezing.

Jitsi's guide sums it up: friends or a small organisation can often manage with 1 Gbit/s, and a serious service is better off with 10.

The rest of the server

• Processor: a basic server can manage with four dedicated cores. Prosody, the part that connects people to rooms, can only use one core, so fast cores help.
• Memory: Jitsi usually suggests 8 GB; small meetings can manage on 4 GB.
• Disk: around 20 GB is plenty for Jitsi itself.
• Operating system: Ubuntu 24.04 or newer, or Debian 12 or newer.

Setting it up

1. Point a name such as meet.yourschool.org at the server with a DNS A record. The free HTTPS certificate is issued for that name.
2. Open the firewall ports Jitsi needs: web traffic on 80 and 443, video on UDP 10000, SSH on 22, and the fallback port 5349. Port 3478 over UDP is optional.
3. Add the two package sources Jitsi's guide gives, one for Prosody and one for Jitsi itself, then install jitsi-meet. Jitsi needs Java, specifically OpenJDK 17.
4. When the installer asks, type your server's name and pick the Let's Encrypt certificate. Jitsi's phone apps refuse self-signed certificates.

sudo ufw allow 22/tcp
sudo ufw allow 80/tcp
sudo ufw allow 443/tcp
sudo ufw allow 10000/udp
sudo ufw allow 5349/tcp
sudo ufw enable

sudo add-apt-repository universe
sudo apt update
# add the Prosody and Jitsi package sources from Jitsi's quick-start guide, then:
sudo apt update
sudo apt install jitsi-meet

Keep strangers off your server

Fresh out of the box, anyone who finds your server can start a meeting on it, and Jitsi's guide says so plainly. A password on a room only protects that room once it exists. It does not stop someone else opening new rooms and using your bandwidth.

The fix is to require a login before a meeting can start. Jitsi's guide now points new installations to token-based login (JWT); its older method with Prosody user accounts is no longer advised for new setups.

The server that fits

Video lives and dies by the connection, which is why our unmetered servers suit Jitsi. The port belongs to your server alone at the switch, nothing counts your traffic, and there is no fair-use clause, so a week of all-hands meetings never turns into a bigger bill.

Start on a 1 Gbit/s port and, when meetings grow, we raise the port on the same machine, to 10 Gbit/s or beyond. Your IP address and your setup stay exactly as they are. Our own sizing rule is simple: multiply the people connected at once by what they receive, then keep that under 80% of the port. Pick a data centre near your people, whether Amsterdam, Bucharest, Miami, New York or San Francisco.

Recording, and when you outgrow one server

Recording uses a separate tool called Jibri, and Jitsi's guide is clear that it needs a whole machine per recording, with far more memory and processor than Jitsi itself. Even one 1080x720 recording needs at least 8 GB of memory, so keep it off your meeting server.

If one server's connection is no longer enough, Jitsi can spread meetings over extra videobridges, each with its own port. And if you only meet now and then, a hosted service will cost less than a server of your own.

Questions people ask

Is 1 Gbit/s enough for Jitsi Meet?

For a small organisation it often is, according to Jitsi's guide, which recommends 10 for anything serious. Work it out from your meetings: each HD stream is about 2.5 Mbit/s and the server sends each one to everyone else in the call.

Do I need a powerful processor?

Not especially. Jitsi says a basic server can get by on 8 GB of memory and four dedicated cores. The connection matters more than the processor.

Why does Jitsi need UDP port 10000?

That is the port the audio and video travel over. Without it open, people can reach the web page but their calls will not connect properly.

Can I stop people I do not know from using my server?

Yes. Set up a login so only your users can start meetings; Jitsi now recommends token-based login (JWT) for new installations. A room password by itself cannot prevent anyone opening a new room.

Can I record meetings on the same server?

Jitsi recommends against it. Recording needs its own machine for each recording in progress, and much more memory and processor than the meetings themselves.

Can I start small and grow?

Yes. Begin on a 1 Gbit/s port and we raise it on the same server when you need more, without changing your IP address or reinstalling anything.