Communication
Wire
Open-source end-to-end encrypted team collaboration platform with free, SMB, enterprise and sovereign deployment options.
What it is
Wire is a proprietary commercial service built on open-source clients and backend components for end-to-end encrypted messaging, calls, conferences and file sharing. Current pricing offers Wire for Free to teams of up to five, Wire for SMB at €7.45 per person per month billed annually (€8.94 monthly) for up to 100 people, and custom Enterprise/partner arrangements. SMB adds conferences up to 150 participants, SSO, SCIM, administrative policy and external/guest roles. Private-cloud and on-premises deployments add license, setup, implementation and customer-operated infrastructure; air-gapped use is available only through appropriately scoped deployments.
Wire pricing
Wire does not publish a plan ladder we could verify. From $7.45/mo.
Prices read from the vendor's own pricing page on 2026-08-24. Vendors change plans without notice — check the source before you budget. Price verification log.
Key features
Encrypted collaboration
Combines multi-device messaging, calls, conferences, screen sharing and files under E2EE.
Enterprise identity
Adds SSO, SCIM, member lifecycle and policy controls on paid team plans.
External collaboration
Supports marked external users and password-protected browser guest rooms.
Deployment choice
Runs in Wire Cloud, a private cloud, on-premises or selected offline environments.
Strengths and trade-offs
What works well
- Messages, calls and files are end-to-end encrypted across supported multi-device clients.
- SMB includes SSO, SCIM, administration and guest/external controls at a public per-user price.
- Cloud, private-cloud and on-premises options address different sovereignty and operations needs.
- Open-source code and MLS-based group security provide inspectable protocol and implementation surfaces.
Where it falls short
- The free plan is capped at five team members and excludes multi-party conference initiation, SSO and policy controls.
- Private-cloud and on-premises total cost includes licenses, setup, implementation, infrastructure and ongoing customer maintenance.
- Federation, ID Shield, multi-tenancy and certain sovereignty features are Enterprise rather than SMB entitlements.
- APIs and SDK custom functionality is not fully supported as a standard deployment path and requires vendor scoping.
Who it is for
Security-sensitive teams and public-sector or enterprise organizations requiring encrypted collaboration, managed identity and optional data sovereignty.
Pick it or skip it
Pick Wire if
- Teams needing E2EE plus SSO and SCIM rather than a consumer messenger
- Organizations collaborating with controlled guests and external partners
- Sovereignty projects prepared to operate or fund private-cloud or on-premises infrastructure
Skip it if
- More than five users need a permanently free managed team
- The project assumes open source makes hosted operations free or automatically compliant
- On-premises patching, monitoring, capacity, backups, federation and incident response lack an owner
Our verdict
Wire combines real E2EE with useful enterprise identity and deployment choices. The public SMB price is competitive, but sovereignty is an operations project: verify MLS migration, device lifecycle, guests, SSO/SCIM and exports, and price the full private-cloud or on-premises service before signing.
Frequently asked questions
- How much does Wire cost?
- Wire starts at $7.45/mo as a flat monthly price. We verified this against the vendor's pricing page; see "What we checked" below for the date.
- Does Wire have a free plan?
- No free plan is listed on the vendor's pricing page. Wire is sold as a paid subscription.
- Who is Wire best for?
- Security-sensitive teams and public-sector or enterprise organizations requiring encrypted collaboration, managed identity and optional data sovereignty.
- What are the main drawbacks of Wire?
- The trade-offs we noted: The free plan is capped at five team members and excludes multi-party conference initiation, SSO and policy controls.; Private-cloud and on-premises total cost includes licenses, setup, implementation, infrastructure and ongoing customer maintenance.; Federation, ID Shield, multi-tenancy and certain sovereignty features are Enterprise rather than SMB entitlements..
- When should you not use Wire?
- Skip Wire if: More than five users need a permanently free managed team; The project assumes open source makes hosted operations free or automatically compliant; On-premises patching, monitoring, capacity, backups, federation and incident response lack an owner.
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: 2026-08-24
- Wire — Pricing ↗
Checked 2026-08-24 · Supports: five-user free plan, SMB annual and monthly prices, 100-person SMB boundary, 150-person conferences, SSO SCIM and administration, Enterprise quote and feature boundaries, device and chat limits
- Wire — Enterprise ↗
Checked 2026-08-24 · Supports: open-source positioning, messages calls and files E2EE, MLS, guest rooms and externals, SSO and SCIM, self-hosted cloud and air-gapped options, administrative controls
- Wire — Deployment options ↗
Checked 2026-08-24 · Supports: Wire Cloud private cloud and on-premises distinction, data-location models, scale guidance, first-year cost components, maintenance ownership, offline deployment
- Wire Support — Deployment scenarios ↗
Checked 2026-08-24 · Supports: public and custom app/backend combinations, cloud private and offline backends, web-version coupling, white-label path, API SDK support caveat
- Wire — Security whitepaper ↗
Checked 2026-08-24 · Supports: end-to-end encrypted platform architecture, cloud and self-hosted backend, private and disconnected deployment context, security design details
Limit: Official Wire pricing, enterprise, deployment, support and security sources were reviewed; ToolCompare did not create a free team, buy SMB, request an Enterprise/on-prem quote, inspect current source builds, send messages/files, test calls/conferences/MLS/device verification/backups/SSO/SCIM/guests/federation/ID Shield/APIs, deploy cloud/on-prem, load test, validate certifications or contact support. Vendor security and scale claims were not independently audited; prices, plan names, limits and deployment terms can change.
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