When JaaS fits and when self-hosting Jitsi Meet fits
Pick JaaS when your team wants working video quickly, has no one to run media servers, and can accept that recordings and transcripts live in 8x8's cloud for 24 hours before deletion. Pick self-hosted Jitsi Meet when meeting media, recordings or call metadata must stay inside infrastructure you control, or when a per-minute recording charge does not fit your budget model. The decision usually turns on one question: who has to hold the data, and for how long?
JaaS wins on operating simplicity. The 25-endpoint free tier covers small internal teams and pilots, and the iFrame API, webhooks, recordings and transcription arrive without building them. The condition that matters is retention: the JaaS FAQ says recordings and transcripts are held for 24 hours for retrieval by link or webhook, so your product must download and store them within that window. If your compliance owner needs a longer archive, JaaS does not meet that need on its own. Confirm with 8x8 whether a webhook-driven export fits your retention policy, and whether a business associate agreement is needed for HIPAA workloads.
Self-hosting wins when the constraint is location or sovereignty. JaaS cannot be installed in your data center, and its rooms run in the regions 8x8 operates, so air-gapped or sovereign deployments need Jitsi Meet on your own servers. Self-hosting also removes the per-minute recording charge of $0.01 per minute in exchange for compute, storage and staff time. Be aware that a self-installed Jitsi does not include call recording or PSTN dial-in out of the box. Recording requires Jibri, and dial-in requires Jigasi, and you must plan the hardware, certificates and support for both.
How 8x8 JaaS and self-hosted Jitsi Meet compare on the factors that decide the choice
This table sets JaaS and self-hosted Jitsi Meet side by side on licensing, cost, data location, retention, compliance statements, participant limits, dial-in and support. Where an answer depends on how you configure your own servers, the cell says so, so you know what to confirm before you decide.
| Factor | 8x8 JaaS (hosted) | Self-hosted Jitsi Meet |
|---|---|---|
| Licensing and ownership | Hosted service run by 8x8. Jitsi is a trademark of 8x8, Inc., and JaaS cannot be installed in your data center. | Jitsi Meet is Apache-2.0 licensed. You run and own the deployment on your own servers. |
| Free tier and recording charges | Free for unlimited minutes on up to 25 endpoints, with paid packages beyond that. Recording is charged at 0.01 US dollars per minute, per the JaaS FAQ. | No vendor usage charge for the software. Recording needs Jibri, which you install, host and maintain yourself. |
| Data center location | Runs in eight listed regions and picks the closest to the first participant by default. A region domain such as frankfurt.8x8.vc pins it, except rooms started by a PSTN caller use US-West. | Location is wherever you deploy it, including your own cloud account, data center or air-gapped network. Confirm the placement of each component. |
| Retention of recordings and transcripts | Held in the 8x8 cloud for 24 hours for retrieval by link or webhook, then deleted. Rooms are ephemeral. | Retention is set by your configuration and storage policy. Confirm how long recordings are kept and who can delete them. |
| HIPAA and GDPR statements | 8x8 states JaaS is GDPR compliant and has third-party validated HIPAA compliance, with business associate agreements available. | Jitsi Meet has no vendor HIPAA or GDPR statement. Your controls, agreements and evidence determine your position, so confirm with your compliance lead. |
| Participant limits | Up to 500 participants per meeting with no limit on concurrent meetings, per the JaaS FAQ. | Set by your videobridge sizing and network. Jitsi documents horizontal scaling by adding bridges, so confirm capacity by testing. |
| PSTN and SIP dial-in | Recording, transcription, PSTN and SIP in and out, and streaming to YouTube or RTMP are included. | Not included out of the box. Dial-in needs Jigasi and a SIP or PSTN provider that you arrange and operate. |
| Vendor support | 8x8 offers no commercial support, SLA or professional services for self-hosted Jitsi deployments. | Community support only from the project. Paid support, SLAs and operations come from your own staff or a service provider you contract. |
Where data lives, who can access it, and what compliance means in each model
The two models split responsibility differently. With JaaS, 8x8 operates the infrastructure and states its own GDPR and HIPAA positions, while you control region choice and retention settings. With self-hosted Jitsi Meet, you decide where every component runs and you produce the compliance evidence yourself.
Region pinning and the PSTN exception
JaaS runs from several regions and picks the one closest to the first participant by default. A region-specific domain pins rooms to one region, but rooms started by a PSTN caller are created in US-West. If EU-only processing matters to you, test a PSTN-started room and confirm the exception with 8x8 in writing before you rely on pinning.
Hosting location under self-hosting
A self-hosted deployment lives in the cloud account, data center or air-gapped network you choose. Media, signalling, the web app and any recordings stay where you place them, which gives you direct control over jurisdiction and subprocessors. The trade-off is that you also own the physical and network controls that 8x8 otherwise operates for you.
Ephemeral rooms and 24-hour retention
JaaS meeting rooms are ephemeral, and call recordings and transcripts sit in the 8x8 cloud for 24 hours before deletion, retrievable by link or webhook. Your own retention period is therefore fixed by the vendor. Self-hosted recordings persist until you delete them, so you must define a retention schedule, storage encryption and deletion procedure before go-live.
8x8 GDPR and HIPAA statements
8x8 states that JaaS is GDPR compliant and that HIPAA compliance has third-party validation, with business associate agreements available. Those are vendor statements, not a guarantee for your deployment. Ask 8x8 for the current agreement text, the validation scope and which features it covers, and have your counsel decide whether your use requires a business associate agreement.
Compliance evidence for self-hosting
Running Jitsi Meet yourself moves the evidence burden to you. You will need documented access controls, logging, hardening, backup and change records, plus proof that recordings and credentials are handled correctly. DeployOpen prepares these controls and evidence for your assessment, but it does not issue audit reports, attestations or certifications. Independent auditors and certification bodies provide those.
Access control and authentication choices
In self-hosting, you choose how users join rooms. The Jitsi handbook recommends JWT token authentication over the deprecated secure domain method, with a separate anonymous domain for guests. Docker deployments also list LDAP and Matrix verification options. Confirm which method fits your identity model, and confirm with counsel and the vendor which obligations apply to your meetings before you finalize access rules.
What a self-hosted Jitsi Meet deployment is made of
A self-hosted Jitsi Meet deployment is several cooperating services, and your team owns every one of them. A web server (nginx or Apache) serves the web app. Prosody is the XMPP server that handles signalling, Jicofo is the conference focus that allocates conferences, and one or more Jitsi Videobridge (JVB) instances route the media. Optional Jibri handles recording or streaming, and optional Jigasi provides SIP dial-in. Under JaaS, 8x8 runs all of this for you; self-hosting means you decide which of these pieces you need and how they are installed.
The Debian or Ubuntu quick start supports Debian 12 (Bookworm) or newer and Ubuntu 24.04 or newer, and requires OpenJDK 17. Ports 80/TCP, 443/TCP and 10000/UDP must be open. Port 5349/TCP is needed for TCP fallback and 3478/UDP for STUN, both optional. Confirm these ports against your firewall, load balancer and cloud security groups before you test. The official Docker setup instead runs separate web, prosody, jicofo, jvb, jigasi and jibri containers, configured through a .env file. Since stable-11146 the containers run rootless with read-only filesystems, so check that your container platform and storage policies allow that model before choosing it.
HTTPS with a certificate for a proper domain is a precondition, not an option. The Jitsi handbook says it is necessary for working audio and video and warns that self-signed certificates cause problems, especially with mobile clients. Plan certificate issuance, renewal and DNS ownership before installation. Horizontal scaling is done by adding videobridges: the default install is already configured for it, and the scalable setup guide describes adding more JVB instances behind the central server. The handbook's hardware suggestions are a starting point only, so size your bridges against your own participant and recording load in a proof of concept before you commit.
Recording, dial-in and support: what you buy and what you build
With JaaS, recording and transcription are product features. The JaaS FAQ says recording ships with the service and is charged at 0.01 US dollars per minute, and recordings and transcripts sit in the 8x8 cloud for 24 hours for retrieval by link or webhook before deletion. Your cost scales with minutes recorded, and your retention decision is limited to downloading or forwarding files within that window.
- Metered billing: Recording is charged per minute at the rate the FAQ states, so cost rises with recorded hours, not with users or rooms.
- Short retention: Files are deleted after 24 hours, so any archive must be built by your systems through the retrieval link or webhook before then.
- Self-hosted recording needs Jibri: The Jitsi architecture places recording and streaming in the optional Jibri component, which you deploy, size and maintain.
- Storage and compliance are yours: Under self-hosting, you choose where recordings live, how long they persist and who can access them.
- Transcription is not built in: The Jitsi self-hosted setup described in the sources does not include transcription, so confirm any transcription tool separately.
Confirm with 8x8 whether the recording rate and 24-hour window apply to your contract and region, and confirm the webhook and retrieval mechanics before designing an archive.
JaaS includes PSTN and SIP dial-in and dial-out, along with streaming to YouTube or RTMP. A self-installed Jitsi does not include these out of the box. In a self-hosted deployment, dial-in is provided by Jigasi, which acts as the SIP gateway, so you need a SIP trunk or PSTN provider, telephony routing, and a plan for numbers, PIN handling and call quality.
- Included versus built: JaaS ships PSTN and SIP in and out as part of the service, while self-hosting requires you to deploy Jigasi and connect it to telephony.
- Carrier dependency: Your self-hosted dial-in depends on a SIP provider that you contract, monitor and replace if needed.
- Network and firewall work: SIP and media paths need correct firewall rules and reachable media ports alongside the Jitsi ports listed in the quick start.
- Streaming targets: YouTube or RTMP streaming in a self-hosted stack is handled through Jibri, so it carries the same deployment and testing work as recording.
- Regional behavior: The JaaS FAQ notes that rooms started by a PSTN caller are created in US-West, which matters for data residency planning.
Before committing, confirm with 8x8 which dial-in regions, numbers and streaming options your contract covers, and confirm with your telephony provider the call-routing, emergency calling and recording consent rules that apply to your jurisdictions.
The 8x8 JaaS FAQ states that 8x8 offers no commercial support, SLA or professional services for self-hosted Jitsi deployments. Support for JaaS is part of the hosted contract, while support for a self-hosted install comes from your own engineers, from the community, or from a services partner you hire. The responsibility for uptime, incident response and upgrades moves to you or your contracted provider.
- No vendor SLA for self-hosting: You cannot rely on 8x8 for commitments on a self-hosted deployment, so availability targets must be set by your team or contract.
- Internal operations: Your staff handle patching, certificate renewal, scaling videobridges and monitoring the component containers or packages.
- Partner option: A services partner can take on implementation, hardening, backup and support under a written scope, with fees set by that scope.
- Community channels: Community support can help with troubleshooting, but it carries no response commitment.
- Upgrade cadence: Jitsi Meet publishes stable release tags, such as stable/jitsi-meet_11248 published September 14, 2026, and you decide when to apply them.
Ask any provider for the written support hours, response targets, escalation path and upgrade responsibilities before signing, and ask who owns incidents that involve the recording or telephony components.
The practical split comes down to who owns each function over time. With JaaS, 8x8 operates the media infrastructure, recording pipeline and telephony gateway, and your team configures rooms, tokens and integrations. With self-hosted Jitsi, your team or a contracted partner owns the full stack, from Prosody and Jicofo to videobridges, Jibri and Jigasi. Illustrative example: a team that records sessions for compliance review must plan the archive, access controls and deletion schedule itself, while a team that only needs ad hoc meetings may never need recording at all.
- Operator roles: A platform team typically owns server build, updates and capacity, while an application team owns integration and token setup.
- Recording owner: Someone must own the recording policy, storage location, retention period and deletion process.
- Telephony owner: Someone must own SIP trunk relationships, number management and dial-in support.
- Incident owner: Someone must be on call for outages affecting meetings, recordings or dial-in.
- Skill requirements: Self-hosting requires Linux administration, networking and certificate management skills in addition to Jitsi-specific knowledge.
Before choosing, list each function in this tab and assign it to a named owner, then check whether you can staff or contract that ownership for the expected life of the deployment.
Several figures and terms in this comparison depend on your contract, region and deployment choices, so they need confirmation before a decision. Use the list below to request written answers from 8x8 or a services provider, and check the self-hosted items against your own environment and testing.
- JaaS pricing and terms: Confirm the recording rate, package beyond the free 25-endpoint tier, and whether charges apply to dial-in and streaming minutes.
- Data handling: Confirm the 24-hour retention window, deletion behavior, and the webhook or retrieval process for any archive you need to keep.
- Regional pinning: Confirm how region-specific domains behave for your users and for PSTN-started rooms.
- Self-hosted scope: Confirm which components, including Jibri and Jigasi, a partner will build, test and support, and which remain your responsibility.
- Support commitments: Get written hours, response targets and escalation paths for whichever model you choose.
Document the answers in your decision record so that the recording, dial-in and support assumptions are visible to security, compliance and finance reviewers.
What your team runs in each model
This table lists the recurring operating tasks for each model and shows which ones 8x8 carries under JaaS and which fall to your team when you self-host Jitsi Meet. Read it as a responsibility split, and where a cell says to confirm, ask 8x8 or your own staff in writing before assuming coverage. The main takeaway is that JaaS removes most server work but leaves recording retention and export decisions with you.
| Operating task | 8x8 JaaS | Self-hosted Jitsi Meet |
|---|---|---|
| Certificates and domain | 8x8 hosts the service. Confirm with 8x8 how custom domains and certificates are handled for your embed. | You issue and renew a certificate for your domain. Self-signed certificates cause problems, especially with mobile clients. |
| Updates and security patches | 8x8 operates and updates the hosted service. Confirm its change notice practice in writing. | You apply releases such as stable/jitsi-meet_11248 and test them before rollout. |
| Videobridge scaling | 8x8 manages capacity. The FAQ states up to 500 participants per meeting and no limit on concurrent meetings. | You add videobridges as load grows. The scalable guide suggests 4 or 8 CPUs with 8 GB RAM per bridge. |
| Jibri and Jigasi operation | Recording, transcription, PSTN and SIP dial-in ship with JaaS. Recording is charged at 0.01 US dollars per minute. | You deploy and run Jibri and Jigasi yourself. A self-installed Jitsi does not include recording or PSTN dial-in out of the box. |
| Backups and retention | Recordings and transcripts are held for 24 hours, then deleted. You must retrieve them by link or webhook within that window. | You own backup scope and retention for recordings, configuration and secrets. Confirm the tooling and storage you will use. |
| Monitoring | Confirm which usage, analytics and status data you can export into your own alerting. | You monitor the web server, Prosody, Jicofo and each videobridge, and set your own alert thresholds. |
| Authentication setup | Confirm which token and domain options your JaaS account supports and how signing keys are managed. | You configure internal XMPP accounts, JWT, LDAP, Matrix or the hybrid mode in the .env file. |
| Incident response and on-call | 8x8 offers no commercial support, SLA or professional services for self-hosted deployments. Confirm hosted support terms in writing. | Your team owns on-call and fault diagnosis, or a partner such as DeployOpen covers it under a written scope. |
Moving between JaaS and self-hosted Jitsi Meet
This sequence moves meetings, recordings, dial-in and authentication between JaaS and a self-hosted Jitsi Meet without losing captured recordings or breaking embedded calls. It ends with a tested domain cutover that your users and client code can rely on.
Inventory embedded calls and iFrame API use
List every application, portal and website that embeds a meeting through the iFrame API, along with the room naming scheme, the options passed on join and any event handlers that read participant or recording state. Your application owners and front-end developers should do this together, because the iFrame code is where a move breaks first. The step is done when each embed has an owner, a documented set of options and a test case that joins a room. Confirm with 8x8 which iFrame API features your current JaaS plan exposes, since the API is the part you must reproduce on your own domain.
Decide the target region or data location
Decide where meeting media, signalling and any recordings must live before you build anything. JaaS can be pinned to a region through a region-specific domain, but PSTN-initiated rooms are created in US-West, so a region pin does not cover every call path. A self-hosted Jitsi Meet runs in the infrastructure you choose, which moves residency decisions to your cloud account or data center. Compliance, legal and privacy owners sign off on the location in writing. The output is a one-page data location decision that names each call type, its region and who approved it.
Rebuild authentication on the new domain
Plan the authentication model for the self-hosted deployment. Jitsi's handbook recommends JWT token authentication and marks the older secure domain method, with username and password room creation, as deprecated for new installations. Your identity team issues the signing keys, configures the token claims your applications will send, and sets up a separate anonymous domain for guests. The Jitsi Docker guide also lists LDAP and Matrix-based options if your user directory points that way. The step closes when a token-signed test user can create a room, a guest can join through the anonymous domain, and an expired or invalid token is rejected.
Move webhook consumers and recording retrieval
Before any cutover, capture every recording and transcript that JaaS still holds. JaaS keeps call recordings and transcripts in the 8x8 cloud for 24 hours for retrieval by link or webhook and then deletes them, so this is a time-critical task that must run on a schedule, not at the end of the project. Build a retrieval job that downloads each artifact into your own storage, logs its source room and checks its integrity. Then point webhook consumers at your new endpoints. The output is a reconciliation report showing that every recording from the retrieval window exists in your archive before the JaaS copy expires.
Stand up recording, dial-in and streaming on your servers
Recreate the paid JaaS features that a self-installed Jitsi does not include out of the box: call recording, PSTN and SIP dial-in and dial-out, and streaming. In the Jitsi architecture these are the Jibri and Jigasi components, which you deploy, size and maintain yourself. Confirm the SIP trunk provider, phone number routing and recording storage with your telephony and storage teams. Your support staff should also plan who handles failed recordings and dial-in faults, since 8x8 offers no commercial support or SLA for self-hosted deployments. The step is done when a test call dials in, is recorded and the file lands in your archive.
Test PSTN, recording and failover paths
Run a scripted test plan that covers each call path your users depend on: browser joins, mobile clients, guest access, PSTN dial-in, recording start and stop, and transcript output if you use it. Test with real network conditions from each office and remote region, not only from the build network. For the self-hosted side, confirm HTTPS with a publicly trusted certificate on your domain, because the Jitsi handbook says self-signed certificates cause problems, especially on mobile clients. Record results against each test case and fix failures before scheduling a cutover. The output is a signed test report with every path marked passed or accepted as a known risk by the owner.
Cut over domains, certificates and client code
Switch the production embeds to the new domain in a planned window. This changes the auth domain, the certificates and the client integration code together, so release them as one change with a rollback plan. Keep the JaaS embed available for the agreed rollback period, and remove the old domain only after the reconciliation report confirms no recordings are waiting in the 24-hour window. Update your privacy notices and records of processing to name the new hosting location. The step closes when all production embeds load from the new domain, rollback has been rehearsed and the old JaaS calls have stopped.
Reverse the process when moving back to JaaS
If you move from self-hosted Jitsi Meet back to JaaS, the same steps apply in reverse, and the auth domain, certificates and embed code change again. Plan the JaaS tenant, the iFrame API configuration and the webhook endpoints before cutover, and move any recordings you hold to your own archive first, since the self-hosted copies will not follow you. Confirm the recording charge and retention terms in the current JaaS FAQ with 8x8 before you commit. The output is the same reconciliation and test evidence used for the first move, so you can show auditors and users that both directions were controlled.
Questions buyers ask before choosing JaaS or self-hosting
What drives the cost of JaaS compared with self-hosted Jitsi Meet?
The main cost of JaaS is usage: the free tier covers up to 25 endpoints with unlimited minutes, paid packages apply beyond that, and recording is charged at 0.01 US dollars per minute according to the JaaS FAQ. Self-hosting shifts spend to servers, bandwidth, staff time and any outside help you buy for installation, recording, dial-in and upgrades. Ask 8x8 for the current package price for your endpoint count and expected recording minutes. For a self-hosted quote, ask a provider like DeployOpen for a fixed-scope written proposal that lists the servers, the components (Prosody, Jicofo, Videobridge, and optional Jibri and Jigasi), and the recurring upgrade and support terms.
How long does a self-hosted Jitsi rollout take?
The duration depends on your topology, the number of videobridges, the authentication model and how much recording, SIP dial-in and integration work is in scope. No timeline is fixed by the supplied facts, so treat any number a vendor gives as an estimate to confirm. A basic single-server install starts from a Debian 12 or Ubuntu 24.04 host with OpenJDK 17, a proper domain certificate and ports 80, 443 and 10000/UDP open. Ask for a written plan that separates the base install, the authentication setup (JWT or LDAP, for example), the recording pipeline and the testing with real clients before go-live.
Can our own team run Jitsi Meet without outside help?
A team with Linux, nginx or Apache, XMPP and TLS experience can run a basic Jitsi Meet deployment, but the work does not stop at installation. Jitsi itself offers no commercial support, SLA or professional services for self-hosted deployments, according to the 8x8 JaaS FAQ, so you own incident response. Check whether your team can handle certificate renewal, component upgrades, recording storage (Jibri), SIP gateway setup (Jigasi) and capacity planning as you add videobridges. Many organizations keep a retainer or a fixed-scope engagement for those recurring tasks.
What does JaaS 24-hour retention mean for compliance records?
JaaS holds call recordings and transcripts in the 8x8 cloud for 24 hours for retrieval by link or webhook, then deletes them, and it does not store user data after a call ends, according to the JaaS FAQ. If a regulation, contract or internal policy requires you to keep meeting records longer, you must download and store them in your own system within that window, typically by automating retrieval with webhooks. Confirm with your compliance lead what must be retained, for how long, and where, before choosing a hosted recording flow.
Can self-hosted Jitsi meet HIPAA or GDPR obligations, and who proves it?
Self-hosting does not give you a compliance status by default; your organization must design and operate the controls, and the evidence is produced by your own team and assessed by your auditors or regulators. The JaaS FAQ states that 8x8 says JaaS is GDPR compliant and has third-party validation of HIPAA compliance with business associate agreements available, which you should verify against 8x8's current documentation. For a self-hosted stack, ask for documented access controls, encryption in transit with a valid certificate, logging, backup and retention procedures, and a business associate agreement only where a hosting provider handles protected health information. DeployOpen prepares systems, controls and evidence for assessments but does not issue audit reports, attestations or certifications.
How might the 25-endpoint free tier and recording charge change over time?
The current terms are that JaaS is free for unlimited minutes on up to 25 endpoints, with paid packages beyond that, and recording costs 0.01 US dollars per minute, per the JaaS FAQ and Jitsi.org. Neither the supplied facts nor our research confirm how these terms will change, so check the live pricing pages before you commit and ask 8x8 in writing whether rates are fixed for your contract term. Model your cost at your expected peak endpoint count and recording minutes, and rerun that model whenever usage grows, since recording minutes tend to rise faster than meeting counts once teams adopt it.
Where do JaaS meetings run, and can we pin them to one region?
JaaS runs from data centers in Tokyo, Mumbai, Sydney, Frankfurt, London, São Paulo, Ashburn and Oregon, and by default picks the location closest to the first participant, according to the JaaS FAQ. You can pin meetings to one region through a region-specific domain such as frankfurt.8x8.vc, but rooms started by a PSTN caller are created in US-West. With self-hosting, the location is wherever you deploy the servers, which gives full control but also means you must size and place the media path yourself. Confirm with your data protection officer whether the US-West exception matters for your data residency rules.
Which team should choose which model
Product teams that embed meetings and have no infrastructure staff should usually start on JaaS. The deciding condition is that nobody on the team will run Prosody, Jicofo, Videobridge and the TURN and firewall work that a self-hosted install depends on. JaaS gives you the iFrame API that meet.jit.si no longer offers for embedding, plus webhooks, recordings and transcriptions, on a free tier of unlimited minutes for up to 25 endpoints. Before you commit, confirm with 8x8 which endpoint count you will reach, what the paid package beyond that costs, and how per-minute recording charges will be invoiced. Ask whether the 24-hour retention of recordings and transcripts fits your product, since your application must fetch them by link or webhook within that window.
Regulated teams that must keep meeting data, recordings and dial-in inside their own environment should plan for self-hosting. The condition is that JaaS is only available as a hosted service from 8x8 and cannot be installed in your data center, so data residency rests on the region you pin and on 8x8's contractual terms. JaaS can be pinned to a region through a region-specific domain, but rooms started by a PSTN caller are created in US-West, which may conflict with your residency position. Self-hosting moves recording (Jibri), SIP dial-in (Jigasi) and the operating work into your scope, and 8x8 offers no commercial support or SLA for self-installed Jitsi. Confirm with internal security and legal whether GDPR and HIPAA coverage described in 8x8's FAQ, and any business associate agreement, satisfies your obligations, and whether your auditors accept it as evidence.
Teams with mixed needs can start on JaaS to ship quickly and plan an exit that keeps the front end portable. The condition is that your application only uses the iFrame and JWT-based integration rather than 8x8-specific features that have no self-hosted equivalent. Document which recording, transcription and PSTN features you rely on, because a self-installed Jitsi does not include call recording or PSTN dial-in out of the box. Ask 8x8 for a written data export and deletion procedure, the exact retention behavior after a call ends, and the terms for leaving the service. Before deciding, run a short pilot with your legal and security reviewers so the exit path, data location and recording rules are settled on paper, not assumed.
How a self-hosted Jitsi Meet engagement is scoped
The sequence turns a choice between hosted JaaS and your own Jitsi Meet into a written scope, a sized architecture and a handover your team can run without us. Each phase ends with an artifact you can review before the next one starts.
Confirm requirements and data location
You and DeployOpen define the expected number of participants, whether calls must stay in a named region or data center, whether recordings, PSTN dial-in or SIP dial-out are needed, and which compliance obligations (such as HIPAA or GDPR) apply to meeting content. Ask your legal and compliance leads to confirm the data residency and retention rules in writing, since the hosted JaaS FAQ and your own policy may differ. The step closes with a requirements sheet signed off by your team and a written scope, deliverables and timeline agreed before any work starts.
Design architecture and size servers
DeployOpen maps the Jitsi components to your environment: the web server, Prosody for signalling, Jicofo for conference focus, one or more Jitsi Videobridge media routers, and optional Jibri and Jigasi if you need recording or dial-in. Sizing follows the expected concurrency and the vendor's scalable setup guidance, and the design states where each component runs in your cloud, data center or air-gapped network. The output is an architecture diagram, a sizing note and a firewall port list reviewed by your network and security teams.
Install and configure authentication
Engineers install Jitsi Meet using the method chosen in the design, either the Debian or Ubuntu packages or the Docker setup, with a valid domain certificate in place because working audio and video depend on HTTPS. Authentication is configured as agreed, usually JWT token authentication for your embedding applications and a separate anonymous domain for guests, rather than the deprecated secure domain method. The step is complete when test rooms join from browsers and mobile clients, and a token-authenticated meeting is rejected without a valid token.
Set up recording and dial-in if required
If the requirements include recording, streaming or PSTN and SIP dial-in, DeployOpen installs and configures Jibri and Jigasi and connects them to your telephony provider or SIP trunk. Your team confirms who holds recordings, where they are stored and how long they are kept, since a self-installed Jitsi does not provide these features out of the box. The step closes with a test recording and a dial-in call that your compliance lead has reviewed against the retention rules from step one.
Harden and configure backups
DeployOpen applies the hardening baseline agreed in scope, covering host access, TLS settings, patching cadence and logging, and sets up backups for configuration, secrets and any stored recordings. Restore is tested rather than assumed, so the output is a documented restore procedure and a record of a successful restore test. Your security team reviews the results against its own control catalog.
Test functionality, load and security
Testing covers functional checks across browsers and devices, load tests at the agreed concurrency, and security testing of the deployment and any embedding application, using the methods set out in the scope. Findings are logged with severity and owner, and fixes are retested before sign-off. The closing artifact is a test report listing what passed, what failed, what was fixed and what remains open with your acceptance.
Hand over and document operations
DeployOpen delivers runbooks for upgrades, scaling videobridges, rotating credentials, handling recordings and responding to incidents, along with the architecture, configuration and evidence packs your auditors will ask for. Your operators run a supervised session on the procedures and sign off the handover. Note that DeployOpen prepares evidence for compliance assessments but does not issue audit reports or certifications; independent auditors and certification bodies do that work.
Decide on optional retainer support
After handover, you choose whether to keep ongoing support, upgrades and continuous testing under a retainer, or to run the platform in-house. Ask for the retainer scope, response expectations and what is excluded in writing, because the JaaS FAQ states that 8x8 offers no commercial support, SLA or professional services for self-hosted Jitsi. The quote for each phase follows from the written scope, so the total cost depends on requirements, environment and recording or dial-in needs.
How DeployOpen scopes, delivers and supports self-hosted Jitsi
DeployOpen plans, implements, integrates, hardens, documents and supports self-hosted open-source platforms inside your own cloud accounts, data centers or air-gapped networks. For a Jitsi decision, that means we work from your recording, dial-in, region and identity requirements, then deliver a self-hosted Jitsi Meet installation that your team can operate after handover.
How we scope
- Engagements are fixed-scope, with scope, deliverables and timelines agreed in writing before work starts.
- The written scope lists which Jitsi components run in your environment, including Jibri, Jigasi and authentication choices.
- Scope also records your HTTPS certificate, domain, network port and region requirements so quotes follow from defined work.
How we build
- We install Jitsi Meet on your infrastructure using the documented Debian or Ubuntu packages or the official Docker setup, as agreed in scope.
- We configure authentication, such as JWT tokens or LDAP, and separate guest access according to your written requirements.
- We test audio, video, scaling by adding videobridges and recording behavior against the acceptance criteria in the scope.
How we hand over
- You receive documentation of the architecture, configuration, network ports and certificate handling for your Jitsi deployment.
- Runbooks cover upgrades, recording storage, backups and the steps your operators follow when a component fails.
- Handover includes a walkthrough with your platform and security team so they can run the system without us.
How we support
- Ongoing support, upgrades and continuous testing are available as retainers, scoped in writing separately from the build.
- Retainers can cover Jitsi version upgrades, component patching and periodic security testing of the deployed service.
- Ask any provider, including us, to confirm which parts of recording, dial-in and support are included before you compare quotes.
