Element vs ONCE Campfire

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

ONCE Campfire

• Teams that want group chat without a recurring subscription
• Organizations that must keep chat data on their own servers
• Air-gapped or high-security networks with no internet access
• A separate private chat for a board, an event or a community

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.

ONCE Campfire

• There is no hosted version: someone has to install and maintain it on a server you control.
• There are no native iOS or Android apps; phones use the mobile web or a Progressive Web App.
• Slack and Teams data cannot be imported.
• The site describes text chat only and mentions no voice or video calling.

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.

ONCE Campfire

Rooms and direct messages

Rooms can be open to everyone in the organization or private to some members, with direct messages alongside. Rooms with unread messages are highlighted.

@mentions and search

@mentions call out specific people, and previous searches are saved to the sidebar so they can be run again.

Mobile web app

Works in a mobile browser or as a Progressive Web App launched from the home screen, with icon badges and push notifications.

One-command installation

Installed through the ONCE CLI with a single command on a laptop, an office server or a cloud host. 2 GB of RAM and 1 CPU are listed for 250 concurrent users.

Automatic updates

Each installation checks for updates once a day and installs them automatically; this can be switched off to update by hand.

Chatbots over an HTTP API

Bots can be built for an instance with a simple HTTP API for sending and receiving messages and attachments.

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.

ONCE Campfire

• Campfire$0

  Easy installation, free updates and the full source code. Self-hosted only.