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Best Productivity ResourcesBy Shushant LakhyaniVerified creator

Web App

Mattermost

Self-hosted, open-source team chat with a free edition for small teams.

Visit Mattermost4.4

  • Rating

    4.4 / 5

  • Pricing

    Freemium

  • Difficulty

    Advanced

  • Works on

    Web, Windows, macOS

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What is Mattermost?

Mattermost is a self-hosted collaboration platform with channels, direct messages, threads, calls and playbooks, built for teams that want to run chat on their own servers. Team Edition is a free, open-source build for small teams, hobbyists and personal use, intended for fewer than 250 users and without SSO. The free Entry mode of the Enterprise Edition includes most paid features but shows only the latest 10,000 channel messages. Paid subscriptions are priced per seat through Mattermost's sales team.

Pros: what Mattermost does well

  • Free, open-source Team Edition you host yourself
  • Keeps all your chat data on your own servers
  • Familiar Slack-like channels and threads

Cons: where it falls short

  • You need to run and maintain your own server
  • Free Team Edition has no SSO and is meant for under 250 users

Who Mattermost is for

Technical teams that want Slack-style chat on infrastructure they control.

Who can skip it

Small teams that want a hosted chat app with no setup.

Compare Mattermost

See how Mattermost stacks up, side by side, plus the lists it made.

Mattermost alternatives

Not sold on Mattermost? These do a similar job, and each card says what it has in common.

All Communication resources

Zulip

Focus: threads. Shares team chat and open source with Mattermost. Rated 4.5 (Mattermost: 4.4).

Web AppFree planWeb, macOS
4.5Visit

Rocket.Chat

Focus: omnichannel. Shares team chat and self-hosted with Mattermost. Rated 4.2 (Mattermost: 4.4).

Web AppFree planWeb, Windows
4.2Visit

Element

Focus: matrix and messaging. Shares open source and self-hosted with Mattermost. Rated 4.3 (Mattermost: 4.4).

Web AppFree planWeb, Windows
4.3Visit

Pumble

Focus: messaging, channels and free plan. Shares team chat and slack alternative with Mattermost. Same 4.4 rating.

Web AppFree planWeb, macOS
4.4Visit

Twist

Focus: async communication and threads. Shares team chat and slack alternative with Mattermost. Same 4.4 rating.

Web AppFree planWeb
4.4Visit

Mumble

Focus: voice chat, audio and github. Shares self-hosted and open source with Mattermost. A desktop app, not a web app. Free (Mattermost: Freemium). Same 4.4 rating.

Desktop AppFreemacOS, Windows
4.4Visit

Free alternatives to Mattermost

Want to spend nothing? These free picks cover similar ground.

Docmost

Focus: wiki, documentation and confluence alternative. Shares self-hosted and open source with Mattermost. Free (Mattermost: Freemium). Rated 4.7 (Mattermost: 4.4).

Web AppFreeWeb, Cross-Platform
4.7Visit

Screenity

Focus: screen recorder, loom alternative and annotation. Shares open source with Mattermost. A browser extension, not a web app. Free (Mattermost: Freemium). Adds Chrome. Rated 4.7 (Mattermost: 4.4).

Browser ExtensionFreeChrome
4.7Visit

BookStack

Focus: wiki, documentation and github. Shares self-hosted and open source with Mattermost. Free (Mattermost: Freemium). Rated 4.6 (Mattermost: 4.4).

Web AppFreeWeb, Cross-Platform
4.6Visit

Gitea

Focus: git hosting, code review and issues. Shares self-hosted and open source with Mattermost. Free (Mattermost: Freemium). Rated 4.6 (Mattermost: 4.4).

Web AppFreeWeb, Linux
4.6Visit

NetBird

Focus: vpn, private network and wireguard. Shares open source with Mattermost. A desktop app, not a web app. Free (Mattermost: Freemium). Rated 4.6 (Mattermost: 4.4).

Desktop AppFreemacOS, Windows
4.6Visit

Wiki.js

Focus: wiki, documentation and github. Shares self-hosted and open source with Mattermost. Free (Mattermost: Freemium). Rated 4.6 (Mattermost: 4.4).

Web AppFreeWeb, Cross-Platform
4.6Visit
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