These days, video calls are often tied to accounts, and since it’s the norm, almost no one questions it. Whenever I get a meeting link, I already expect some sign-in steps, permissions, apps, or setups even before I start the call.

I needed to understand what taking this part away actually feels like, so I ran Jitsi Meet myself. It ended up being more interesting than just having another video call. It’s made me realize that an account requirement doesn’t have to be a part of every conversation.

I started a meeting without making an account

And neither did the person I invited

When I opened my Jitsi instance, I created a room. After that, I landed at the point where I could invite someone to a meeting without having to first create an account. This whole process didn’t include entering an email address, choosing a password, or signing in on a page before getting started.

I copied the meeting link Jitsi Meet provided, then navigated to it on a browser on a different computer. The browser asked for camera and microphone permissions. I typed my display name, and that was it — I could join the call.

It was important that I tested this process properly. It’s easy to say the service doesn’t require accounts, simply because guests can join a meeting without an account even though the host still needs an account.

On my self-hosted instance, I configured it so neither the host nor the guest needed an account.

I was also never required to create a profile, which made the meeting feel more temporary. There was no account for me to create or maintain just to have that conversation. The meeting room was just a room, and the link was enough for anyone to connect.

This may feel quite minor, but when you have to meet with someone who doesn’t use the same collection of apps as you do, services like Jitsi Meet make a world of difference. Too many times, I’ve had people ask me whether I use Zoom or Teams. A simple Jitsi Meet link makes that question irrelevant.

The meeting link was all I had to send

I didn’t have to become tech support before the call

I also needed to know if there would be a new kind of hassle when the account requirement was removed. There weren’t any.

Whoever gets the meeting link doesn’t need to know how Jitsi works; they don’t need to understand how to self-host the service. There also isn’t a setup process afterward. A link and a compatible browser typically do the trick.

Once I was in my meeting room, I looked for those features that I often require during calls, and nothing I actually use was missing. There was a chat feature; I could mute, unmute, turn the camera on and off, and share my screen without digging through any menus.

The simplicity felt familiar. That mattered more to me than having many features that would require spending the first five minutes figuring out what does what.

There’s one distinction, however, when you have to use the public meet.jit.si. In that case, whoever is creating a room has to authenticate. But still those invited to join are not required to create an account. Once again, they just use the invitation link, give camera and microphone permissions, input their display names and join. So, while I was able to run Jitsi in a setup where neither side needed an account, that isn’t how every Jitsi deployment works. It depends on how the instance is configured.

Then I understood why Jitsi could do this

The software and the service don’t have to be the same thing

It was at this point my entire experiment became far more interesting than simply finding a Zoom alternative.

Jitsi isn’t simply a single site. It’s a collection of open-source projects for video conferencing, and the software can be self-hosted. You can use Jitsi from the public meet.jit.si service, but it’s not the only way of accessing these video conferencing tools. Once I understood this, the account-free model made more sense.

Using the hosted service implies accepting it handles access and room creation. However, the self-hosted option I use allows me to configure these decisions on the server. Jitsi’s documentation supports configurations where authenticated users create rooms while guests join anonymously, which is the model I used for my test.

I wouldn’t call Jitsi account-free, even though participants can often join without one. This is where the open-source part becomes more interesting, because it exposes the distinction between the software and the service. I have to accept someone else’s configuration when I use their server, but when I run the software myself, I can decide how authentication and access are configured.

So no account is part of it, but the bigger point is that Jitsi lets me have a say in where the meeting service lives.

I didn’t eliminate the hassle, I moved it

You get a lot of control, but there’s an obvious catch: you become responsible for what you run. If you use a hosted meeting service, it manages how the infrastructure stays available. With my self-hosted instance, that responsibility is shifted to me. It means I have to manage updates, networking, HTTPS, configuration, and security.

However, the most important discovery was that Jitsi gave me a meeting setup where the person I invited didn’t need another account, and neither did I.

OS

Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS

Supported Desktop Browsers

All

Developer(s)

8×8

Price model

Free

iOS compatible

Yes

Android compatible

Yes

Jitsi is a set of open-source projects that allows you to easily build and deploy secure video conferencing solutions. At the heart of Jitsi are Jitsi Videobridge and Jitsi Meet, which enable online conferences, while other community projects add features such as audio, dial-in, recording, and simulcasting.