Instead of
Free alternatives to Slack
Why look elsewhere
Slack's free plan hides older messages, and your team's conversations live on Slack's servers.
What to compare
How much self-hosting you want, how conversations are organised (Zulip's topics versus channels), whether you need federation with other organisations (Element, on Matrix), and the quality of the mobile apps.
Side by side
| Resource | Pricing | Type | Licence | Platforms | Popularity | Last commit | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mattermost | Open source | Tool | — | web | ★ 39k | 4 Oct 2026 | ✓ |
| Rocket.Chat | Open source | Tool | — | web | ★ 46k | 3 Oct 2026 | ✓ |
| Zulip | Open source | Tool | Apache-2.0 | self-hosted | ★ 26k | 3 Oct 2026 | ✓ |
| Element | Open source | Tool | AGPL-3.0 | web · android · ios | ★ 14k | 3 Oct 2026 | ✓ |
| Threadli | Open source | Service | — | web | ★ 28 | — | ✓ |
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