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Catalog Video conferencing Houseparty
Discontinued Houseparty was discontinued in October 2021. The alternatives below are active products you can switch to. All discontinued →
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Alternatives to Houseparty

Drop-in group video hangouts

None of its 12 checklist rows are verified yet.

Drop-in group video hangouts. Houseparty has been discontinued; the active alternatives listed here are maintained products you can switch to.

Most compared with BigBlueButtonElement CallGather
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Who it's for

Casual, mostly younger users who wanted quick, spontaneous video hangouts with friends and friends-of-friends rather than a scheduled call.

What you get

Houseparty was a mobile and desktop app for group video chat, notable for showing when friends were 'in the house' so others could drop in without a formal invite. It supported multiple simultaneous chat rooms with several people each, and included simple built-in games like trivia and Heads Up-style prompts to play while chatting. It was owned by Epic Games and was shut down in October 2021.

How it works

Users opened the app to see which friends were currently online and available, then joined or started a room to begin a live video chat, with the option to lock rooms to keep them private or leave them open for friends to join in.

Why people leave Houseparty

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Ranked alternatives

Ordered by Alt Score. Click any score to see the breakdown.

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01

Open source virtual classroom.

LGPL-3.0 Web
02

E2E encrypted calls on Matrix.

AGPL-3.0 Web
03

2D virtual office spaces.

WebWindowsmacOSiOS +1
04

Browser-first meetings in Google Workspace.

Proprietary WebiOSAndroid
05

Business meetings from GoTo.

Proprietary WindowsmacOSWebiOS +1
06

Open source video meetings, no account needed.

Apache-2.0 WebiOSAndroid
07

Browser webinars and video engagement.

Proprietary Web
08

Self-hosted WebRTC video rooms.

AGPL-3.0 Web
09

Cisco's enterprise meetings suite.

Proprietary WindowsmacOSWebiOS +1
10

Browser meetings with embeddable API.

Proprietary Web
11

Affordable meetings and webinars.

Proprietary WindowsmacOSLinuxiOS +2
12

The pandemic-era default for meetings.

Proprietary WindowsmacOSLinuxiOS +2

FAQ

Yes. Element Call, Google Meet and Jitsi Meet have a free tier or are fully free. Free-tier limits in the comparison table are verified and dated.

BigBlueButton, Element Call and Jitsi Meet — every license claim links its source.

BigBlueButton, Element Call and Jitsi Meet can be self-hosted. Cells marked ? mean we have not verified a self-host path yet.