Alternatives to Mattermost
Self-hosted Slack alternative for engineering teams
Mattermost ranks #1 of 8 in Team chat, with an Alt Score of 89. It is proprietary, open source with paid hosting from Free and available on Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android and Web. 12 of 12 checklist rows are verified against a public source.
IT and security teams at organizations that need to self-host or run air-gapped team messaging, including government, defense, critical infrastructure, and other regulated or compliance-heavy environments; also fits any technical team that wants a Slack alternative it fully controls.
An open-source, self-hostable messaging platform with channels, threads, and calls/screensharing, plus playbooks for workflow automation and incident response. It supports on-premises, sovereign-cloud, or air-gapped deployment with encryption, audit trails, and fine-grained access controls. Optional AI integrations (triage, briefing, translation) can run without sending data to third-party services.
You deploy Mattermost on your own infrastructure or a sovereign cloud, then teams communicate through channels and threads much like Slack, with playbooks tying messages to structured, trackable workflows and integrations/bots extending it via APIs and webhooks.
Why people leave Mattermost
Dashed reasons are sourced facts; the rest are opinions. Vendors can dispute.
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Ranked alternatives
Ordered by Alt Score. Click any score to see the breakdown.
Feature comparison
How Mattermost compares with its alternatives, feature by feature.
| Team chat checklist | Mattermost | Microsoft Teams | Zulip | Rocket.Chat | Element | Discord |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | ||||||
| Starts at | ||||||
| License | ||||||
| Platforms | ||||||
| Message history limit (free) | ||||||
| Threads | ||||||
| Huddles / audio rooms | ||||||
| Video calls | ||||||
| Guest access | ||||||
| Federation | ||||||
| Self-hostable | ||||||
| E2E encryption | ||||||
| Integrations count | ||||||
| Workflow automations | ||||||
| Search quality (filters) | ||||||
| Compliance exports |
Every fact and feature listed for Mattermost is verified against its own pages. Each alternative is sourced on its own page.
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Starts at Free verified 2026-07-10
Free self-host tier; paid tiers quote-based.
Get started for free with a limited-use edition of Enterprise Advanced for technical evaluation. Try Mattermost Entry
https://mattermost.com/pricing/ -
Platforms Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, Web verified 2026-07-10
Desktop + mobile + web clients listed on the apps page.
Windows ... macOS ... Linux ... iOS ... Android
https://mattermost.com/apps/ -
License Proprietary verified 2026-07-10
Dual: compiled binaries MIT, self-built source AGPLv3/commercial.
You are licensed to use compiled versions of the Mattermost platform produced by Mattermost, Inc. under an MIT LICENSE ... 1. Under the Free Software Foundation's GNU AGPL v3.0 ... or 2. Under a comme
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mattermost/mattermost/master/LICENSE.txt -
Pricing model OSS + paid hosting verified 2026-07-10
seats"."
Mattermost Professional and Mattermost Enterprises licenses are sold as prepaid annual subscriptions based on the number of annual seat licenses purchased, or
https://mattermost.com/pricing/ -
Status active verified 2026-07-10
Mattermost is an open source platform for secure collaboration across the entire software development lifecycle.
https://github.com/mattermost/mattermost -
Message history limit (free) Yes verified 2026-07-10
Free Entry edition cap (v11); MIT Team Edition uncapped but ≤250 users, no SSO.
10,000 Channel messages history across all channels (older messages remain in the database but aren't viewable or searchable)
https://docs.mattermost.com/product-overview/editions-and-offerings.html -
Threads Yes verified 2026-07-10
Threads are core to the messaging experience in Mattermost, allowing users to organize conversations about various topics within a channel.
https://mattermost.com/blog/collapsed-reply-threads-generally-available/ -
Huddles / audio rooms Yes verified 2026-07-10
Start secure audio calls in a click
https://mattermost.com/channels/ -
Video calls Yes verified 2026-07-10
Message, meet, talk and screen share within fully secure, searchable channels
https://mattermost.com/channels/ -
Guest access Yes verified 2026-07-10
Guest accounts in Mattermost are a way to collaborate with individuals, such as vendors and contractors, outside of your organization by controlling their access to channels and team members.
https://docs.mattermost.com/administration-guide/onboard/guest-accounts.html -
Federation Partial verified 2026-07-10
Mattermost-to-Mattermost Connected Workspaces only; no open federation protocol built in.
Communicate across organizations, as well as external partners and vendors using Mattermost by synchronizing messages, emoji reactions, and file sharing in real-time through secured, connected Matterm
https://docs.mattermost.com/administration-guide/onboard/connected-workspaces.html -
Self-hostable Yes verified 2026-07-10
Self-hosted (on-premise) or Cloud Enterprise
https://mattermost.com/pricing/ -
E2E encryption No verified 2026-07-10
Transport/at-rest only; no native E2EE.
TLS encryption including AES-256 with 2048-bit RSA on all data transmissions between Mattermost client applications and the Mattermost server.
https://docs.mattermost.com/deployment-guide/encryption-options.html -
Integrations count Yes verified 2026-07-10
Integrates with every tool in your team's stack ... Explore the Marketplace
https://mattermost.com/integrations-overview/ -
Workflow automations Yes verified 2026-07-10
Streamline repetitive tasks with automated triggers and actions so your team can focus on what matters.
https://mattermost.com/playbooks/ -
Search quality (filters) Yes verified 2026-07-10
Mattermost in:town-square" only returns messages in Town Square that contain Mattermost."
Searching
https://docs.mattermost.com/end-user-guide/collaborate/search-for-messages.html -
Compliance exports Yes verified 2026-07-10
Mattermost Enterprise customers can archive history or transfer message data to third-party systems for auditing and compliance purposes with compliance exports.
https://docs.mattermost.com/administration-guide/comply/compliance-export.html
FAQ
Yes. Microsoft Teams, Discord and Twist have a free tier or are fully free. Free-tier limits in the comparison table are verified and dated.
Zulip, Rocket.Chat and Element — every license claim links its source.