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Mattermost

Self-hostable team messaging.

What it is

Mattermost is team messaging you can run on your own infrastructure, with a Slack-like interface and strong compliance features. Self-hosting is the entire point: message history stays on servers you control, which is what makes it viable for defence, healthcare and regulated finance where a hosted chat service is simply not permitted. The interface is close enough to Slack that migration costs little in training, and the source is open, so the deployment cannot be discontinued from outside.

Mattermost pricing

Mattermost does not publish a plan ladder we could verify. Custom pricing — quote required.

Prices read from the vendor's own pricing page on 2026-09-09. Vendors change plans without notice — check the source before you budget.

Key features

  • Self-hosted

    Runs on your own servers or private cloud, with message data never leaving them.

  • Open source

    The server is open source, so a deployment cannot be withdrawn by a vendor.

  • Compliance export

    Legal hold, audit logging and export formats built for regulated environments.

  • Familiar interface

    Channels, threads and integrations close enough to Slack to keep training short.

Strengths and trade-offs

What works well

  • Fully self-hostable, including in air-gapped environments
  • Familiar channel-based interface
  • Open source core

Where it falls short

  • Ecosystem of integrations is smaller than Slack's
  • You carry the upgrade and backup burden
  • Mobile apps lag behind commercial rivals

Who it is for

Organisations that cannot put internal conversations on a third-party service.

Pick it or skip it

Pick Mattermost if

  • Teams that must self-host: Professional is self-hosted and supports a maximum of 250 users
  • Organisations needing scale — Enterprise scales to 50,000 concurrent users, Enterprise Advanced to 200,000
  • Regulated environments that need compliance export and eDiscovery, available from Enterprise

Skip it if

  • You need a published price — no per-user figure is listed; every tier requires contacting sales
  • You are above 250 users but only budgeted for Professional; that tier is capped there
  • You need SSO/SAML or guest accounts on the free edition — both start at Professional

Our verdict

The right call when self-hosting is non-negotiable. Otherwise the convenience gap with hosted chat is wide.

Closest alternatives we track

Same category, ordered by verified starting price.

Frequently asked questions

Does Mattermost have a free plan?
No free plan is listed on the vendor's pricing page. Mattermost is sold on a quote basis.
Who is Mattermost best for?
Organisations that cannot put internal conversations on a third-party service.
What are the closest alternatives to Mattermost?
In the same category we track Microsoft Teams and Slack. Each has its own review page with verified pricing, and the comparison links above show them side by side.
What are the main drawbacks of Mattermost?
The trade-offs we noted: Ecosystem of integrations is smaller than Slack's; You carry the upgrade and backup burden; Mobile apps lag behind commercial rivals.
When should you not use Mattermost?
Skip Mattermost if: You need a published price — no per-user figure is listed; every tier requires contacting sales; You are above 250 users but only budgeted for Professional; that tier is capped there; You need SSO/SAML or guest accounts on the free edition — both start at Professional.

What we checked

  • Public APIOffers a documented API you can build against.Yes
  • Mobile appHas a native app for iOS or Android, not just a mobile website.Yes
  • Open source / self-hostableSource is open and the tool can be run on your own infrastructure.Yes
  • SSO (SAML)Supports SAML single sign-on on at least one plan.Yes

“Not checked” means exactly that — we have not verified it, and we do not guess.

Evidence and freshness

Status: Official sources reviewedReviewed: 2026-09-09

  • Mattermost — Pricing ↗

    Checked 2026-09-09 · Supports: Professional self-hosted, maximum 250 users; SSO/SAML and guest accounts start here, Enterprise scales to 50,000 concurrent users; high availability starts at this tier, Enterprise Advanced scales to 200,000 concurrent users, Compliance export and eDiscovery available from Enterprise

Limit: Vendor pricing page was reviewed by an editor on this date; this record is not a ToolCompare benchmark. Prices and limits change. No per-user price is published on the pricing page; all tiers direct to sales.

Compare Mattermost with alternatives

Tools that do the same job as Mattermost

Same job, different pricing. Verified starting price first.

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More Communication tools: see the full Communication category

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