Element vs Mattermost

Element

• Governments and regulated organizations that self-host encrypted chat
• Organizations that need air-gapped deployments
• Groups that want to federate with other Matrix servers
• Individuals and communities who want a free encrypted messenger

Mattermost

• Organizations that must keep chat on their own servers or air-gapped networks
• DevOps and security teams that run incident response from chat
• Small technical teams comfortable hosting their own server

Element

• No prices are published: Enterprise is priced per seat per month and Sovereign per deployment, both through sales, and Enterprise starts from 100 users.
• The free Community server edition covers 1 to 100 users and, the vendor says, is not intended for production in commercial environments.
• For organizations, the pricing page lists only self-hosted and air-gapped deployments; it does not list a plan hosted by Element.
• Whitelabelled apps and the cross domain gateway are sold as add-ons.

Mattermost

• No prices are published: Professional, Enterprise and Enterprise Advanced are quoted by sales and sold as prepaid annual seat subscriptions.
• Entry shows only the latest 10,000 channel messages and has community support only; the vendor suggests it for teams of fewer than 50 users.
• It is self-hosted by design; the only vendor-hosted option described is single-tenant Mattermost Cloud Enterprise, arranged through sales.
• Team Edition has no single sign-on, and the vendor does not recommend it for government or sensitive commercial workloads.

Element

End-to-end encryption by default

The platform is end-to-end encrypted by default, including voice and video, and devices are verified by QR code or an emoji string.

Rooms and messaging

Rooms organize team discussions, with threads, read receipts, attachments, voice messages, polls, reactions, invite-only private rooms and unlimited history.

Element Call

End-to-end encrypted voice and video for 1:1 and group conversations. Element Call is also included in the free Community server edition.

Matrix federation

Built on the Matrix open standard, so separate organizations can communicate across servers and frontends. Administrators can enable or block federation.

Element Server Suite

The self-hosted backend. Pro adds the Synapse Pro homeserver, auto-scaling, high availability, an admin interface, LDAP and SCIM integration, and auditing.

Widgets and integrations

Interactive apps can be embedded in rooms, including a whiteboard (NeoBoard) and project management tools such as OpenProject and Jira, alongside bots.

Mattermost

Channel-based messaging

1-1 and group messages, public and private channels, threaded discussions, file sharing and search across web, desktop and mobile, in 20 languages.

Playbooks

Repeatable playbooks for incident response, change management and compliance, with conditional checklists and escalation. The pricing page lists workflow automation from Enterprise.

Calls and screen sharing

1:1 audio calls with screen sharing are in every paid package, and group calls support about 50 concurrent users per self-hosted server. A 40-minute call limit is planned for Entry.

Boards

Kanban, table, calendar and gallery boards for assigning and tracking tasks next to the conversation. The pricing page lists work management from Enterprise.

AI agents

Agents summarize conversations and take actions using an LLM provider the customer chooses, or a self-hosted model in air-gapped environments.

Integrations and API

A REST API with an OpenAPI 3.0 spec, webhooks, slash commands and a plugin platform, with prebuilt integrations for tools such as Jira, GitHub and GitLab.

Element

• Community$0

  Self-hosted Element Server Suite Community: open source under AGPL, for 1 to 100 users, with Element Call. Not meant for commercial production use.

• EnterpriseCustom

  Self-hosted Element Server Suite Pro from 100 users, priced per seat per month through sales: Synapse Pro, SSO, LDAP, auditing and SLA-backed support.

• SovereignCustom

  Air-gapped Element Server Suite Pro, priced per deployment, with a dedicated mobile push gateway and no dependence on internet connectivity.

Mattermost

• Entry$0

  Free mode of the Enterprise Edition: Enterprise Advanced features with 10,000 viewable messages, community support, and no compliance or high availability.

• Team Edition$0

  Open-source, MIT-licensed edition for small teams and personal use under 250 activated users, without single sign-on.

• ProfessionalCustom

  For teams of up to 250 users: single sign-on, AD/LDAP sync, guest accounts and next-business-day support. Sold as prepaid annual seats.

• EnterpriseCustom

  Adds workflow automation, work management boards, compliance and data retention tools, federated communications and high availability.

• Enterprise AdvancedCustom

  Adds zero-trust attribute-based access controls, classification banners, burn-on-read messages and support for air-gapped environments.

Element

No public discounts listed.

Mattermost

• Nonprofit

  3-year Professional license for $250

  Eligible nonprofit and open-source organizations can apply for a 3-year self-hosted Mattermost Professional subscription for up to 1,000 users for a $250 fee.