Mattermost vs ONCE Campfire

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

ONCE Campfire

• Campfire$0

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

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.

ONCE Campfire

No public discounts listed.