What has changed with the free BigBlueButton service in Moodle?

Moodle includes a BigBlueButton activity, and for years it worked "out of the box" through a free hosted service run by Blindside Networks, a commercial BigBlueButton provider. That service has been tightened in several steps, which is why many sites now see errors or tight limits.

What we can confirm (checked 19 Oct 2026):

• Credentials are required. Since April 2024, the free service no longer works with the default test server details. A site administrator has to register and enter their own server URL and secret.
• Moodle 5.3 (released 5 Oct 2026) enables the BigBlueButton activity by default on new installations but no longer ships default credentials; administrators register through the BigBlueButton portal.
• Limits. The official Moodle and BigBlueButton pages still describe the free plan as limited to 60-minute sessions, 25 users, and recordings kept for 7 days without download.
• Reported further cut. A Moodle service provider reported in August 2026 that from 31 August 2026 the free plan allows 1 concurrent meeting, 5 participants, 30 minutes and no recordings. We could not confirm this on the official pages at the time of review.

What to check on your site:

1. Site administration › Plugins › Activity modules › BigBlueButton: are a server URL and shared secret set? 2. Test a session with more than 5 people and longer than 30 minutes. 3. Read the current terms of your provider.

Your options if the free plan is too small: a paid plan from the same provider, your own server (see the hosting question), a hosting provider, or a different tool that works with the same Moodle activity, such as plugNmeet through its BigBlueButton-compatible API.