Mattermost
CommunicationSelf-hosted team messaging built for security-conscious organizations — a Slack alternative.
About this project
Mattermost is an open-source, self-hostable messaging and collaboration platform — a Slack/Microsoft Teams alternative built for technical and security-conscious teams. It offers channels, DMs, threads, calls, integrations, and workflow automation, all on infrastructure you control.
Market opportunity
The team-collaboration market is worth $30B+. Slack and Teams charge $7–$12+ per user/month — costs that balloon for large orgs and are a non-starter for air-gapped or regulated environments (defense, finance, healthcare). Self-hosted Mattermost is purpose-built for those buyers.
Technical overview
- Stack: Go backend (high performance, single binary), React/TypeScript web client, PostgreSQL.
- Scale: runs tens of thousands of users on modest hardware; supports high availability and clustering.
- Extensible: plugins, slash commands, incoming/outgoing webhooks, and a full REST API.
Who's it for
Government, defense, fintech, and any enterprise that needs chat behind its own firewall.
How to use it
Get started
Docker (preview):
docker run --name mattermost-preview -d --publish 8065:8065 mattermost/mattermost-preview
Visit http://localhost:8065, create the admin account and your first team. For production, use the PostgreSQL-backed deployment behind Nginx with TLS.
💡 How to make a business with it
How to make money with it
1. Secure-comms hosting for regulated industries. Sell managed, compliance-aligned (HIPAA/SOC2) Mattermost to clinics, law firms, and fintechs.
- Example: 10 firms × 40 users × $5/user/month managed fee = $24k/year.
2. Integration & migration services. Charge to migrate teams off Slack, build custom bots/plugins, and connect Mattermost to internal tools.
3. Vertical collaboration product. Bundle Mattermost with industry workflows (e.g. IT incident response) and sell it as a focused SaaS.
Need technical help?
Want help setting up Mattermost, customizing it, or building your product on top of it? Knock me — let's talk.