Mattermost vs Rocket.Chat: Complete Comparison (2026)
Choosing between Mattermost and Rocket.Chat is a common decision for team communication buyers in 2026. Both Mattermost and Rocket.Chat are established players, founded in 2015 and 2015 respectively. Mattermost serves 800K+ users while Rocket.Chat has 25M+ users globally. Mattermost differentiates with self-hosted deployment and channels, while Rocket.Chat leads with self-hosted option and omnichannel inbox. In this head-to-head comparison, Mattermost earns a higher hiltonsoftware.co score of 86/100 — but the right choice depends on your specific needs, budget, and team size.
Quick Comparison
Feature-by-Feature Comparison
Pros & Cons at a Glance
After comparing Mattermost and Rocket.Chat across features, pricing, and user satisfaction, Mattermost takes the lead with a score of 86/100 versus Rocket.Chat's 84/100. Mattermost's key advantages include "full data control" and "strong security features". That said, Rocket.Chat has its own strengths — particularly "open source and free self-hosted" — making it a viable alternative for specific use cases.
Both Mattermost and Rocket.Chat offer free plans, lowering the barrier to entry. Mattermost's paid plans start at $10/user/mo (cloud) while Rocket.Chat begins at $7/user/mo (cloud). Evaluate which paid features — DevOps integrations, Compliance tools (Mattermost) vs Video conferencing, Federation (Rocket.Chat) — justify upgrading for your team.
Bottom line: Choose Mattermost if you need enterprises needing data sovereignty and self-hosting. Go with Rocket.Chat if your priority is teams wanting open-source slack alternative with self-hosting. Both are strong team communication tools — we recommend trying the free plan of each before committing.
Enterprises needing data sovereignty and self-hosting.
Teams wanting open-source Slack alternative with self-hosting.