Mattermost vs Threema Work (2026): which should you pick?

Pick Mattermost if

• Fits if your chat has to stay on your own servers or on an air-gapped network
• Works for technical teams who can run and maintain their own server

Look elsewhere if

• Skip it if nobody on the team wants to run a server, as it's self-hosted by design
• Not for you if you want to see a price before talking to anyone, because every paid license is quoted by sales
• Tight if you rely on the free Entry mode, which only shows the latest 10,000 channel messages and has community support
• Watch out: Team Edition has no single sign-on, and the vendor doesn't recommend it for sensitive work
• Pricey if you need workflow automation or boards, as both start on Enterprise, sold as prepaid annual seats

Pick Threema Work if

• Fits if your company wants chat with servers in Switzerland and no phone number needed
• Makes sense if you want central user management for up to 200 people

Look elsewhere if

• Tight if you have more than 200 users, as Core stops at 200
• Pricey if you want broadcast, automation or the API, which need Professional at $5
• Watch out: syncing users with Azure AD costs extra
• Watch out: the page converts CHF and EUR figures one-to-one into USD
• Watch out: self-hosting (OnPrem) is sold through sales with no published price

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.

Threema Work

• Core is limited to 200 users; Broadcast, automation and API access need Professional.
• Syncing users with Azure AD costs extra, according to the feature table on the pricing page.
• Pricing is shown per user; the page marks it annual payment and says USD figures are converted one-to-one from CHF and EUR.
• The pricing page names the app, web client and a desktop app but lists no platform detail beyond iOS, Android and web.

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.

Threema Work

Central user management

A management cockpit lets admins preconfigure contact lists, revoke IDs, see active users and manage people with tags.

Calls and group chats

Text and voice messages, voice, video and group calls, group chats, polls and emoji reactions are listed on every business plan.

Broadcast messaging

Threema Broadcast sends one-to-many messages through distribution lists, feeds and bots; Professional includes it, with the Broadcast API.

Privacy design

Usage without a phone number, SIM card or email address is listed, and Threema says it is GDPR-compliant and avoids metadata.

Automation and API

Professional adds an API for automated administration and for the Threema Gateway, with unlimited gateway credits.

Self-hosted option

Threema OnPrem runs on your own infrastructure with full control of data, and the OnPrem plan adds air-gapped operation and white-labeling.

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.

Threema Work

• Core$3.00

  per user / month, billed annually

  Central user management for up to 200 users, 99.5% availability SLA and 24-hour support response.

• Professional$5.00

  per user / month, billed annually

  Unlimited users, Threema Broadcast, automation and API access, 99.9% SLA and 6-hour support response.

• OnPremCustom

  Self-hosted Threema with full white-labeling, air-gapped operation and premium support. Sold through sales.

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.

Threema Work

No public discounts listed.