Mattermost Alternatives 2026: 6 Free Options
Mattermost alternatives: Rocket.Chat, Zulip, Element, Slack and 2 more. Prices and licenses checked October 23, 2026.
•3 min read•Team Chat, Meetings & Phone
Verdict:People leave Mattermost for two opposite reasons: they want the same self-hosted model with a different licence or feature mix, or they want to stop running a server. For the first group, Rocket.Chat is the nearest match, with an MIT core and a free self-managed workspace, though some enterprise parts carry a separate licence. Zulip is free to self-host with every feature and is the better pick when conversations get long, because topics keep threads readable. Element brings the Matrix network: you can federate with other servers, but the interface and admin model are different from Mattermost's. For the second group, Slack's free plan is a real option for small teams, with 90 days of history, 1:1 huddles and up to 10 apps, and Teams Free gives group meetings up to 60 minutes and 100 participants. Discord can cover a community or hobby group but not a company with admin and audit needs. The main trade-off is control versus convenience. Self-hosted tools keep data on your servers and need someone to patch and back them up. Hosted free plans remove that work and limit history or integrations. Stay with Mattermost if you already run it and your team depends on its playbooks and integrations.
Quick comparison
| Tool | Price | Platforms | Best for | Tested |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rocket.Chat | Free (Free self-managed workspace; no user cap stated) | Web, Self-hosted | Self-hosted team chat | Docs only |
| Zulip | Free (Cloud Free: 10,000 messages of search history, 5 GB storage; self-hosted free with all features); paid from $6.67 per user/month, Cloud Standard, billed annually ($8 billed monthly) | Web, Self-hosted | Threaded discussions for larger teams | Docs only |
| Element | Free (Element Server Suite Community: free front end and back end) | Web, Self-hosted | Federated chat across organisations | Docs only |
| Slack | Free (90 days of message history, 1:1 huddles only, up to 10 apps); paid from $7.25 per user/month, Pro, billed annually ($8.75 billed monthly) | Web, Desktop, Mobile | Hosted chat with many integrations | Docs only |
| Microsoft Teams | Free (Teams Free: group meetings up to 60 minutes and 100 participants) | Web, Windows, macOS, iOS, Android | Teams already inside Microsoft's tools | Docs only |
| Discord | Free; paid from $2.99 per per month (Nitro Basic; Nitro $9.99); cost varies by country | Web | Community chat rather than workplace chat | Docs only |
Independent comparison. Paid placements are labelled separately; editorial links earn no affiliate commissions. Learn more.
Good fit if
- You want another self-hosted chat server (Rocket.Chat is the pick)
- Conversations are long and need topic threads (Zulip is the pick)
- You want to federate with other organisations (Element is the pick)
- You want hosted chat and many integrations (Slack is the pick)
- Your company already uses Microsoft 365 (Microsoft Teams is the pick)
Not ideal if
- You rely on Mattermost features or integrations that these tools do not replicate
Mattermost today: See pricing page (Mattermost pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Why people look for Mattermost alternatives
Mattermost lists three paid editions, Professional, Enterprise and Enterprise Advanced, with no published price; Professional and Enterprise are prepaid annual per-seat subscriptions and the page names no free production tier. Each server needs its own license key, including staging servers. Legal hold, eDiscovery export and data retention are Enterprise and above, and group calls top out around 50 concurrent users per self-hosted server.
Rocket.Chat
Compared with Mattermost: MIT-licensed core, free to self-manage with no user cap stated. Like Mattermost, it keeps messages on your server, though some enterprise features sit in a separately licensed folder.
Price: Free (Free self-managed workspace; no user cap stated) (Rocket.Chat pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web, Self-hosted. MIT core with a separate license for the ee folder (open source).
Project activity: 46.3k GitHub stars · latest release 8.9.0 (Oct 5, 2026) · last commit Oct 28, 2026
Best for: Self-hosted team chat.
Worth knowing: Commercial plan pricing is quote-only.
Zulip
Compared with Mattermost: Apache-2.0 and free to self-host with every feature. Its topic-based threads differ from Mattermost's channel view, and cloud Standard is $6.67 per user a month billed annually.
Price: Free (Cloud Free: 10,000 messages of search history, 5 GB storage; self-hosted free with all features); paid from $6.67 per user/month, Cloud Standard, billed annually ($8 billed monthly) (Zulip pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web, Self-hosted. Apache-2.0 (open source).
Project activity: 26.1k GitHub stars · latest release 12.3 (Sep 21, 2026) · last commit Oct 27, 2026
Best for: Threaded discussions for larger teams.
Worth knowing: Self-hosted Basic is $3.50 per user/month billed monthly.
Element
Compared with Mattermost: Matrix client with a free community server suite under AGPL-3.0. You lose Mattermost's Slack-style layout and gain federation, so separate servers can talk to each other.
Price: Free (Element Server Suite Community: free front end and back end) (Element pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web, Self-hosted. AGPL-3.0, GPL-3.0 or a paid commercial license (open source).
Project activity: 13.6k GitHub stars · latest release v1.12.33 (Oct 27, 2026) · last commit Oct 27, 2026
Best for: Federated chat across organisations.
Worth knowing: Enterprise is priced per seat but the figure is not published.
Slack
Compared with Mattermost: Free plan keeps 90 days of history, 1:1 huddles only and up to 10 apps. It removes self-hosting and gains a large app directory, while Pro is $7.25 a user a month annually.
Price: Free (90 days of message history, 1:1 huddles only, up to 10 apps); paid from $7.25 per user/month, Pro, billed annually ($8.75 billed monthly) (Slack pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web, Desktop, Mobile. Proprietary.
Best for: Hosted chat with many integrations.
Microsoft Teams
Compared with Mattermost: Teams Free allows group meetings up to 60 minutes and 100 participants. It replaces the self-hosted model with Microsoft's hosted service and suits organisations already in that ecosystem.
Price: Free (Teams Free: group meetings up to 60 minutes and 100 participants) (Microsoft Teams pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web, Windows, macOS, iOS, Android. Proprietary.
Best for: Teams already inside Microsoft's tools.
Discord
Compared with Mattermost: Free to use, with Nitro Basic at $2.99 a month. It is built for communities, not company chat, so you lose Mattermost's admin and self-hosting controls.
Price: Free; paid from $2.99 per per month (Nitro Basic; Nitro $9.99); cost varies by country (Discord pricing, checked 2026-10-23).
Platforms and license: Web. Proprietary.
Best for: Community chat rather than workplace chat.
Which one to pick
- You want another self-hosted chat server: Rocket.Chat
- Conversations are long and need topic threads: Zulip
- You want to federate with other organisations: Element
- You want hosted chat and many integrations: Slack
- Your company already uses Microsoft 365: Microsoft Teams
Limits of this review
Docs-only for Rocket.Chat, Zulip, Element, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Discord: we did not install or run them, so feature claims come from vendor pages and we did not test import from Mattermost. Vendor prices and free limits change; confirm on the linked pricing page before you buy or migrate.
More in Team Chat, Meetings & Phone
- Discord alternatives
- Slack alternatives
- Microsoft Teams alternatives
- Discord vs Mattermost 2026: Price, Free Plan & Verdict
Sources
Kevin Fan
Kevin Fan is a SaaS founder. He runs Free Instead Of, which tracks free and open-source alternatives to paid software and checks each price and free-plan limit against the vendor's own pages.
Methodology
Based on official pricing and product pages checked between 2026-10-22 and 2026-10-23: Mattermost, Rocket.Chat, Zulip, Element, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Discord. Prices, free limits and licenses are the figures shown on those pages on those dates. No tool on this page was installed or run. No accounts were created.