Why Teams Look for Mattermost Alternatives in 2026
Mattermost is one of the best known self-hosted chat tools. It gives you Slack-style channels on your own servers, with Playbooks for incidents, Boards for tasks, and a large plugin platform. Defense groups, government teams and DevOps shops use it because the data never has to leave their network.
Three things in the last year pushed many teams to look around.
The free edition shrank. Mattermost version 11 cut the free, open-source Team Edition from 1,000 users to 250 and removed GitLab SSO from it. Mattermost also launched a new default free edition, Mattermost Entry, which is aimed at teams under 50 users and caps visible message history at 10,000 messages. Older messages are kept but cannot be viewed or searched. Mattermost's docs list more Entry limits (push notifications, board cards, playbook runs, call length and AI queries) that "will take effect in a future release."
Paid prices are not public. Professional, Enterprise and Enterprise Advanced are all "contact sales," sold per activated user on prepaid annual terms. If your active users go over your licensed seats, you buy extra seats on a quarterly "true forward" basis. Each server needs its own license key, including test servers.
Mobile push on the free edition is not production grade. Free Team Edition uses Mattermost's Test Push Notification Service, which has no production SLA. The hosted push service is for paying customers, or you run your own push proxy.
None of this makes Mattermost a bad product. For regulated and air-gapped work it is still one of the strongest options. But if you are a 300-person company on the free edition, or you want a price you can see before a sales call, it is worth comparing the alternatives.
This guide compares Mattermost with six options: Slack, Rocket.Chat, Zulip, Element, Microsoft Teams and Twist. We split them into two groups, because the first question is not "which app is nicer" but "do we need to host it ourselves?"
- Self-hosted and open source: Rocket.Chat, Zulip, Element
- Cloud only: Slack, Microsoft Teams, Twist
All prices below come from each vendor's own pricing page in October 2026, in US dollars.
Mattermost review
Mattermost is a self-hosted collaboration platform built around channels, threads and direct messages, with audio calls and screen sharing on web, desktop, iOS and Android. It runs as a single Linux binary with PostgreSQL for Team Edition, and Mattermost also sells a single-tenant managed cloud through sales.
Key features
- Self-hosted by default. You run it on your own servers or private cloud.
- Security and identity. SSO, MFA and AD/LDAP user sync from Professional up.
- Compliance. Compliance export, eDiscovery, data retention and audit logs on Enterprise.
- Scale and isolation. High availability and horizontal scaling on Enterprise. Air-gapped and DDIL (disconnected, intermittent, limited bandwidth) environments, zero trust controls and classified information controls on Enterprise Advanced.
- Operations tools. Playbooks for incident response and Boards for tasks.
- AI. AI agents with bring-your-own and multi-LLM support. Entry will cap agent queries at 250 a month.
- Extensibility. Plugin platform, REST API, an MCP server, webhooks and slash commands.
Pricing
- Team Edition: free, open source, aimed at teams under 250 users where SSO is not required (SSO is being removed from it). Mattermost's docs say it is not recommended for government or sensitive commercial workloads.
- Mattermost Entry: free, commercial license, best suited for teams under 50 users. Mattermost describes it as Enterprise Advanced with limits: a 10,000-message history limit, no compliance features or high availability, and community support only.
- Professional: contact sales. Up to 250 users. Adds SSO, MFA, AD/LDAP sync and guest access.
- Enterprise: contact sales. Adds compliance, high availability and 24x7 support.
- Enterprise Advanced: contact sales. Adds air-gapped and DDIL support.
All paid plans are prepaid annual, per activated user. There is no monthly option.
Pros
- Self-hosting is the core of the product, not a side option.
- One of few chat tools that supports air-gapped and DDIL use.
- Playbooks and Boards suit DevOps and incident teams.
- Open-source core and a large plugin platform.
Cons
- No public prices; you need a sales call to budget.
- Free Team Edition dropped from 1,000 to 250 users in version 11.
- Free mobile push has no production SLA.
Who should use it
Defense, government, critical infrastructure and DevOps teams that must keep chat inside their own network and want incident tooling in the same app.
Who should look elsewhere
Teams over 250 users that want to stay free, teams that need a visible price, and teams with no one to run servers.
Slack review
Slack is the most widely known team chat app. It is cloud only: Slack's pricing and enterprise pages list no self-hosted or on-premises option. For many teams leaving Mattermost, that is the real question. If you were self-hosting because it was free rather than because you had to, Slack removes the server work.
Key features
- Channels, threads, DMs and huddles.
- Slack Connect for chatting with other companies.
- Up to 10 apps on Free and unlimited apps on paid plans.
- Data residency in 12 regions, including Frankfurt, Paris, London, Tokyo, Sydney and Montreal. Slack's help center lists it for Business+ and Enterprise plans, while the pricing page lists it under Enterprise+, so confirm with sales.
- Enterprise+ adds enterprise search, legal holds, information barriers and the Discovery API.
- GovSlack for public sector agencies.
Pricing
- Free: 90 days of message history (upgrading restores the previous 12 months), up to 10 apps, 1:1 huddles only.
- Pro: $7.25 per user per month billed annually, $8.75 monthly.
- Business+: $15 per user per month billed annually, $18 monthly.
- Enterprise+: $45 per user per month billed annually, bought through sales.
Pros
- The most polished chat experience here.
- The largest app ecosystem.
- Public prices for Pro and Business+.
- Data residency for teams that need data stored in a region.
Cons
- No self-hosting at all.
- The free plan hides messages older than 90 days.
- Costs add up quickly at 100 or more users compared with free self-hosted tools.
Who should use it
Teams that can accept a vendor-hosted chat and want the best user experience and integrations.
Who should look elsewhere
Anyone who needs on-premises or air-gapped chat, or full control of their data.
Rocket.Chat review
Rocket.Chat is the closest like-for-like alternative to Mattermost. Both are open-source, self-hosted chat platforms aimed at regulated organizations. Rocket.Chat leans harder into government and defense, with federation over Matrix and XMPP.
Key features
- Starter: free for up to 50 users, self-hosted, with AD/LDAP, SSO, MFA, read receipts and unlimited push notifications.
- Community: free, MIT-licensed, up to 100 concurrent users and 10,000 push notifications a month. Video calls through Jitsi and BigBlueButton.
- Deployment choice on paid plans: on-premises, private cloud, isolated VPC or VPN, air-gapped, or a dedicated cloud run by Rocket.Chat.
- Compliance: HIPAA support with a BAA, FINRA and MiFID II, NIS2 and DORA, GDPR and CCPA.
- Federation: Matrix on the Government plan; native XMPP and Matrix on Defense.
- Defense plan: air-gapped and SCIF-ready, Iron Bank, and DoD authorization up to IL6.
Pricing
- Starter: free, up to 50 users.
- Community: free, up to 100 concurrent users.
- Commercial, Government, Defense: custom quotes.
- Pro: closed to new purchases on April 29, 2026.
Pros
- Starter gives a team of up to 50 people SSO, LDAP, MFA and unlimited push for free.
- Federation lets separate organizations connect.
- Flexible hosting, including a vendor-managed dedicated cloud.
- Strong defense credentials.
Cons
- No public prices.
- Air-gapped deployment is paid only.
- Several items on the pricing page, such as STIG hardening, post-quantum encryption and MCP support, are marked "planned for release in 2026."
Who should use it
Small teams under 50 users that want free self-hosting with SSO, and government or defense teams that need federation.
Who should look elsewhere
Teams that want public prices, or a large team that wants to stay free (Community caps at 100 concurrent users).
Zulip review
Zulip is a fully open-source chat app under the Apache 2.0 license. It has no open core: the free self-hosted edition includes every feature. Its signature is topic-based threading. Every message in a channel belongs to a named topic, so a channel reads like an organized inbox instead of one long stream.
Key features
- Topic threads in every channel, good for async and remote teams.
- Self-host behind your firewall or on an air-gapped network, or use Zulip Cloud.
- SAML SSO, Microsoft Entra ID SSO, AD/LDAP sync, full and compliance exports and retention policies on self-hosted Business.
- OIDC SSO, group sync and SCIM on self-hosted Enterprise.
- Free Cloud Standard for eligible open-source projects, research groups, most non-profits and communities.
- Slack import tools.
Pricing
Zulip Cloud
- Free: 10,000 messages of search history, 5 GB total storage.
- Standard: $6.67 per user per month billed annually, $8 monthly.
- Plus: $10 per user per month billed annually, $12 monthly, 10-user minimum. Adds SAML SSO, SCIM and a custom domain.
Self-hosted
- Free: all features, mobile push for up to 10 users.
- Basic: $3.50 per user per month, unlimited mobile push.
- Business: $6.67 per user per month billed annually, $8 monthly, 25-user minimum.
- Enterprise: quote.
Pros
- Every feature is in the free self-hosted edition.
- Public prices on almost every plan, with monthly and annual billing.
- Topic threads make catching up after time off much easier.
- Air-gapped hosting is supported.
Cons
- Free self-hosted push notifications cover only 10 users. Beyond that you need Basic or higher.
- Mobile push uses Zulip's push service, which needs outbound HTTPS from your server (a proxy is supported). Plan for this on locked-down networks.
- The topic model feels different from Mattermost and Slack, so expect some retraining.
Who should use it
Teams that want open-source self-hosting with clear prices, open-source communities and research groups, and remote teams that work async.
Who should look elsewhere
Teams that want the same flat-channel feel as Mattermost, or need built-in incident Playbooks.
Element review
Element is a secure chat app built on Matrix, an open standard for decentralized messaging. Its main selling points are end-to-end encryption by default and federation: separate Matrix servers run by different organizations can talk to each other, or you can block federation completely.
Key features
- End-to-end encryption by default, including Element Call voice and video.
- Matrix federation that you can enable or block.
- Air-gapped deployment on Enterprise and Sovereign.
- LDAP/AD, SCIM, auditing, retention policies and a secure border gateway on Enterprise.
- Custom mobile push gateway on paid plans; a dedicated push gateway on Sovereign.
- ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certified.
- Integrations such as Jira, OpenProject and the NeoBoard whiteboard.
Pricing
- Community (Element Server Suite Community): free, self-hosted, 1 to 100 users, for non-professional deployments and evaluations. Element says the Community Synapse server is not for production use.
- Enterprise (Element Server Suite Pro): from 100 users, priced per seat per month, contact sales.
- Sovereign: priced per deployment, contact sales.
Element does not list an Element-hosted cloud plan on its pricing page.
Pros
- End-to-end encryption by default, including calls.
- Federation lets departments or partner organizations run their own servers and still talk.
- Air-gapped Sovereign plan.
- Open source under AGPL.
Cons
- No public prices.
- The free edition is for evaluation, not production.
- Enterprise starts at 100 users, so small teams have no paid option.
Who should use it
Governments, public bodies and organizations where encryption and sovereignty come first, especially when several organizations need to talk securely.
Who should look elsewhere
Small businesses that need a production-ready free or low-cost plan, and teams that rely on many integrations.
Microsoft Teams review
Microsoft Teams is chat, calls and meetings inside Microsoft 365. Microsoft lists no self-hosted version. For regulated US public sector work, Teams runs in Microsoft's government clouds (GCC, GCC High and DoD), which need a Microsoft 365 Government plan.
Key features
- Chat, calls and video meetings with recordings, transcripts and captions.
- Office apps, email and storage on Microsoft 365 Business plans.
- Copilot on the "with Copilot" Microsoft 365 plans.
- Government clouds for US agencies. Third-party apps are not available in GCC High and DoD.
Pricing
- Free Microsoft Teams: meetings up to 60 minutes.
- Teams Essentials: $4 per user per month, paid yearly. Includes recordings with transcripts and 10 GB of cloud storage per user.
- Microsoft 365 Business Basic: $7 per user per month, paid yearly. Adds web and mobile Office apps and business email.
Business plans support up to 300 users. Microsoft offers a one-month free trial on business plans, with a credit card required.
Pros
- Many organizations already pay for it through Microsoft 365.
- Teams Essentials is cheap at $4 per user per month.
- Government cloud options for US public sector work.
- Chat, meetings and files in one place.
Cons
- No self-hosted option listed.
- Prices on Microsoft's pages are for yearly subscriptions only.
- Fewer integrations in GCC High and DoD.
Who should use it
Microsoft 365 organizations whose compliance needs are met by Microsoft's commercial or government cloud.
Who should look elsewhere
Teams that need chat on their own servers, air-gapped networks, or a non-Microsoft stack.
Twist review
Twist, made by Doist (the company behind Todoist), is a thread-first app for async teams. It is the opposite of a real-time chat tool: every conversation starts as a thread, and the app is designed so people can check in a few times a day.
Key features
- Thread-first design for async work.
- Free single-channel guests.
- Up to 500 members and 500 guests on the free plan.
- 50% off for nonprofits and education.
Pricing
- Free: 1 month of visible messages and comments (older content is stored but hidden), up to 5 integrations, 5 GB storage.
- Unlimited: $6 per user per month billed yearly, $8 monthly. Full history, unlimited integrations and storage, priority support.
Pros
- Calm, focused discussion that suits remote teams across time zones.
- Simple, cheap pricing.
- Free single-channel guests.
- Nonprofit and education discount.
Cons
- Cloud only.
- The free plan only shows 1 month of history.
- No compliance tooling to compare with Mattermost Enterprise. We could not find a public 2026 changelog for Twist, so ask about its roadmap before you commit.
Who should use it
Small remote teams that want async threads and no admin work.
Who should look elsewhere
Anyone who needs self-hosting, real-time chat, or compliance features.
Head-to-Head Comparison
Mattermost vs Rocket.Chat
These are the closest pair. Both are open-source and self-hosted, and both sell quoted plans to regulated and government buyers. For small teams, both have a free tier aimed at about 50 users. Rocket.Chat Starter includes SSO, LDAP and unlimited push. Mattermost Entry has the features of Enterprise Advanced, but hides messages beyond the latest 10,000 and comes with community support only. Mattermost's open-source Team Edition is losing SSO entirely. Rocket.Chat offers Matrix and XMPP federation on its government and defense plans. Mattermost has Playbooks and Boards for incident and DevOps work. If you live in incident response, Mattermost fits better. If you need Matrix or XMPP federation, Rocket.Chat is the better fit.
Mattermost vs Zulip
Zulip is the most open choice: Apache 2.0, every feature in the free self-hosted edition, and public prices. Self-hosted Basic is $3.50 per user per month and Business is $6.67 on annual billing. Mattermost keeps its compliance and high availability features in quoted plans. The trade-off is the interface. Zulip's topic threads are excellent for async work but different from Mattermost's channels, and Zulip has no equivalent to Playbooks.
Mattermost vs Element
Element wins on encryption and federation. It is end-to-end encrypted by default and built on Matrix, so separate organizations can each run their own server. Mattermost wins on day-to-day team features like Playbooks, Boards and its plugin platform. Both sell air-gapped plans by quote. Element's free edition is for evaluation only, so plan on a paid license (Enterprise starts at 100 users) for production.
Mattermost vs Slack
This is a hosting decision more than a feature one. Slack is the more polished app with the bigger integration ecosystem, but it is cloud only. Mattermost runs where you choose. If you are moving to the cloud anyway, Slack Pro at $7.25 per user per month (annual) has a public price, while Mattermost's paid plans need a quote.
Mattermost vs Microsoft Teams
If you already pay for Microsoft 365, Teams may cost you nothing extra. Teams covers US government needs through GCC, GCC High and DoD clouds. Mattermost is the choice when the requirement is your own servers, or an air-gapped network, rather than a government cloud.
How to Choose: Decision Framework
Step 1: Decide if you must self-host
Be honest about the reason. A legal or contract requirement (classified networks, air-gapped sites, data that cannot leave your country or your building) narrows you to Mattermost, Rocket.Chat, Zulip and Element. A preference for control or a wish to avoid per-seat fees opens up Slack, Teams and Twist too, and you should weigh server costs and admin time against their subscription prices.
Step 2: Count your users and check the free limits
- Under 50 users: Mattermost Entry, Rocket.Chat Starter, Zulip self-hosted Free and Element Community (evaluation only) are all options.
- 50 to 100 users: Rocket.Chat Community allows up to 100 concurrent users. Mattermost Team Edition allows up to 250. Zulip's free self-hosted edition lists no user limit, but push covers only 10 users.
- Over 250 users: plan to pay on almost every self-hosted option, or accept limits on mobile push.
Step 3: Check mobile push
Mobile push is the most common surprise in self-hosted chat. Check the table above, and test notifications on real phones during your trial.
Step 4: Decide on encryption and federation
If you need end-to-end encryption by default, Element is the clear pick. If you need chat between separate organizations, look at Element (Matrix) and Rocket.Chat's government and defense plans (Matrix and XMPP).
Step 5: Get quotes early
Mattermost, Rocket.Chat and Element do not publish paid prices. Ask each for a written quote for your exact user count, number of servers (including test servers) and support level. Zulip is the only self-hosted option here with public paid prices.
Red flags during evaluation
- A free edition that the vendor itself says is not for production.
- Features you need that are listed as "planned" rather than shipped.
- Per-server licensing that charges again for test or staging servers.
- Mobile push that depends on a test service or a small user cap.
What to test in a trial
- Import a real channel export from Mattermost and check threads, files and user mapping.
- Set up SSO with your identity provider.
- Turn on mobile push and test it on iOS and Android.
- Run a backup and restore.
- If you need it, test the app on your air-gapped or restricted network.
The Verdict: Final Recommendations
Mattermost is still the right tool for regulated teams that need air-gapped deployment and incident Playbooks, and that can budget for a quoted license.
Zulip is the best open-source alternative overall. Every feature is in the free self-hosted edition, prices are public, and it supports air-gapped hosting. Plan for paid push once you pass 10 users.
Rocket.Chat is the closest swap for Mattermost, with free SSO for up to 50 users and federation for government and defense.
Element is the pick when end-to-end encryption and federation come first.
Slack is the pick if you no longer need to self-host and want the best cloud chat.
Microsoft Teams is the pick for Microsoft 365 organizations whose compliance fits Microsoft's cloud.
Twist is the pick for small async teams that want something simple.
Conclusion
Most teams look past Mattermost for one of three reasons: the free edition no longer fits their size, they want a price they can see, or they want something different from the chat model itself. Start by deciding whether you truly need to self-host. If you do, compare Zulip, Rocket.Chat and Element on free limits, mobile push and quotes. If you do not, Slack, Teams and Twist will save you the server work.
Whatever you choose, run a trial with a real export, real phones and your real identity provider before you move the whole team.
Sarah Chen