Mattermost Servers

Mattermost is an open-source online chat, voice, and collaboration software, serving as a self-hosted alternative to SaaS messaging tools like Slack. It is a free internal chat for teams and enterprises of all sizes while retaining total privacy and security.

As a self-hostable solution, Mattermost comes with numerous advantages over SaaS services such as Slack:

• It is free to use and offers features on par with Slack's premium paid offering.
• You can self-host Mattermost, offering complete and unparalleled levels of security and privacy.
• You can use your Mattermost server to host websites, password-sharing and file-sharing services, cutting costs.
• Mattermost scales with your business. Just 3-5 team members negate costs of fully managed Mattermost servers, compared to Slack's pro plans.
• Having managed Mattermost servers gives you a virtual IT team to assist you when you need help the most.

Mattermost is used for real-time one-to-one and group communication using channel-based text and voice chat, as well as file-sharing. Mattermost offers a desktop and mobile messaging platform full of features such as threaded messaging, mention notifications, syntax formatting, and reactions.

While file sharing, voice calls, and screen sharing are always available, video conferencing requires third-party integrations. Thankfully, plugins for video calls and more are available if needed without sacrificing the security of your private data.

Mattermost is ideal for businesses and organizations with strict compliance requirements. This includes HIPAA, GLBA, GDPR, CAN-SPAM, or CCPA. You have full control over your data, user roles, and customization options while retaining all the features of a typical team chat app.

Slack is a proprietary software offered as a service on a recurring monthly subscription, like any other SaaS product. The nature of this product, however, includes an unnecessary "per user" cost or offers a severely limited free variant. Mattermost, on the other hand, is an open-source product, meaning that the source code is available to anyone for free. They also offer a paid monthly subscription to cover the costs of their support, and unfortunately, it is also on an unnecessary "per user" monthly basis.

The most cost-effective solution then is to host Mattermost yourself. The typical downside with hosting it yourself is that smaller businesses may lack an IT team capable of installing and integrating this software with third-party tools you might require. Regular backups and updates are also mandatory to retain the highest level of security. Thankfully, fully managed Mattermost hosting offers you the best of both worlds. Your very own 24/7 white-glove virtual IT support team is ready to install, optimize, transfer, backup, and update your software for you while paying only a flat fee for the server. This allows you to grow your business from 10 employees to 1,000, and you'll not be punished. What's more, having only five users on a professional Mattermost plan or three users on a business Slack account covers the cost of a managed VPS server. If you have more than three employees, this is a no-brainer.

A Virtual Private Server, or VPS, is a virtual computer that runs as software on a physical computer or server. Virtual servers are isolated from one another and can either share resources or have resources dedicated entirely to them.

Similarly, dedicated Mattermost servers offer an entire physical server assigned to a single customer. These typically have much more dedicated resources than a VPS and are more expensive, making them ideal for larger enterprises.

Whether you choose a managed VPS or a managed dedicated server for your Mattermost hosting, you can freely scale up or down as needed and utilize those resources however you see fit. This means that in addition to Mattermost for your business, you can also host your website, databases and any other software and apps you require in a secure environment available exclusively to you. Moreover, as all of our services are fully-managed, at no additional cost, you have full access to the services of a 24/7 admin support team, ready to take care of all the heavy lifting for you.

There are many similarities between Mattermost and Slack, but the two come with a number of differences. The most obvious difference is that Mattermost is an open-source alternative to Slack, which you can self-host for many benefits. There are also several "hidden benefits" of choosing Mattermost as your chat platform of choice:

• Slack's paid model has a policy of deleting data after 90 days if not paid. This can be a major drawback for many businesses.
• In early 2024, users were left horrified to discover that Slack is using private corporate messages for AI training. Naturally, this is a deal-breaker for any company that takes privacy seriously.
• HIPAA-compliant data handling only comes with the highest "Enterprise grid" plan on Slack which doesn't publically show their pricing, meaning that it's likely significantly higher than $15 per user per month. With RoseHosting Mattermost, HIPAA compliance comes out of the box on our cheapest NVME 2 plan, making Mattermost a significantly better value.