At Brightscout, we know that in today’s digital world, the ability for businesses to connect and collaborate in an online environment has become a necessity. To meet this growing demand, Slack created a digital workspace back in 2013 for private and group messaging, sharing files, and integrating third-party programs. While helpful in many ways, it falls short of serving all of the needs of an enterprise, even with their Enterprise Grid offering.
That’s where the open source, private-cloud messaging platform Mattermost comes in to fill the gap. Mattermost is designed specifically for enterprises and offers all that Slack does and more. Here’s a look at Slack vs. Mattermost, and how to figure out which is best for your business.
Slack
Slack (an acronym for Searchable Log of All Conversation and Knowledge) is the cloud-based, Software-as-a-Service messaging system made to help organizations communicate online. It keeps a searchable archive of all conversations, allows for sharing files and integrating apps, and has an open API so developers can build new apps for it. Plans are available for teams as well as enterprises.
Key features
- Proprietary cloud app
- Persistent chat rooms organized by topic
- Private groups
- Direct messaging
- File sharing
- Machine learning
- Emojis
- All content is searchable
- Notifications
- Integrates with third-party services and community-built integrations
- Mobile apps for iOS, Android, Windows
- Slack app directory with over 1,000 apps
- Integrate with additional systems using Zapier and IFFFT
- Slack fund supports the building of Slack apps
- Unlimited workspaces
- Data encryption in transit and at rest
- Custom message retention
- SCIM provisioning
- Granular app management
- SAML-based SSO
- Support for Data Loss Prevention (Enterprise Grid)
- Enterprise Mobility Management (Enterprise Grid)
- e-Discovery (Enterprise Grid)
Recommended Use
Slack is helpful for businesses that want to streamline their workflow and improve communication amongst team members. It will be suitable for organizations that are not concerned about the ownership, privacy, and security of the communication that occurs on the platform. Further, it’s not ideal for those looking to scale the messaging solution significantly or deeply integrate it into their existing systems. Now, let’s take a look at the Slack-alternative, Mattermost.
Mattermost
Mattermost, Inc. provides messaging solutions specifically designed for enterprises and aims to be the primary way people communicate with enterprises and applications. It addresses many of the pain points that organizations experience with messaging products like Slack in terms of privacy, security, legal compliance, scalability, and configuration.
Key features
- Self-hosted one-to-one and group messaging
- File sharing and search
- Native apps for iOS, Android, Windows, Mac, Linux
- Unlimited search history & integrations
- Emojis
- Notifications
- New monthly improvements to Team EditionOpen source
- Data sovereignty
- Single-tenant deployment
- Enterprise-wide communication
- Secured behind your firewall
- Highly configurable
- Integrated with existing systems
- Complete white labeling
- Highly scalable
- Highly configurable
- Multi-lingual
- AD/LDAP SSO & Sync (E10)
- Advanced Access Control (E10)
- Multi-factor Authentication (E10)
- Tools for Custom Branding (E10)
- Commercial Support (E10)
- Horizontal Scaling (E20)
- High Availability (E20)
- Performance Monitoring (E20)
- Compliance Reporting (E20)
- Okta, ADFS, SAML SSO (E20)
Recommended Use
Mattermost’s solutions are recommended for enterprises that need more from their messaging solution. Here’s why: you can deploy it wherever you want; on public, private, or hybrid clouds. Install it behind your firewall in an environment with security parameters you trust. You won’t have to worry about SaaS services learning about your business matters or activities. Further, this setup also simplifies compliance with laws and regulations such as consumer data protection and GDPR.
Tesla Motors recently replaced Slack with Mattermost for its team of over 2,000 developers due to these very reasons; more privacy, private cloud security, and enterprise licensing. Mattermost solutions can also effectively scale and deeply integrate to specific use cases. Enterprises gain access to source code, APIs, drivers, open source integrations, samples, and more, giving them complete control to customize the platform as they see fit. Further, the single-tenant private cloud architecture offers horizontal scaling and high availability. Take, for example, the Uber case.
The company needed a new internal chat solution because its previous one was crashing and couldn’t keep up with the company’s growth. After testing many different options, Uber chose to build on Mattermost due to its scalability and redundancy, customization, privacy, and enterprise licensing. The new and improved solution supports 32,000 users and over 700,000 messages per day. The last point to note is that Mattermost gives you control and ownership over your data on the application itself including chat conversations, files shared, and all other content. Never worry about being paywalled out of your data.
The Verdict: Slack or Mattermost
The right messaging solution for your business really comes down to your specific needs and preferences. Small-scale operations that want an out-of-the-box solution may find Slack suitable for their needs, specifically if they aren’t sharing sensitive material. Further, some enterprises may find the Enterprise Grid to work for them. However, if your business is concerned about owning the content shared in communications, keeping it secure and private, and being able to scale and configure it as you grow, there’s no question; Mattermost is the way to go.
If you’d like help integrating Mattermost into your business, contact our experts today.
