head to head · open source
Mattermost vs Zen
Mattermost has 39,093 GitHub stars, 9,000 forks, 1,012 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Zen has 4,225 stars, 143 forks, 14 open issues and last shipped 21 days ago. Mattermost leads on adoption by 825% (39,093 vs 4,225 stars). Mattermost is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; Zen is written in Go under MIT. Mattermost has attracted 23% as many forks as stars, Zen 3%. Mattermost was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| Mattermost | Zen | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 39K | ★ 4.2K |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-08-28 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.0K | ⑂ 143 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Mattermost if
- You weight community size — 39K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Zen if
- You want the Zen feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and Zen fits your workflow better
About Mattermost
Mattermost is an open core, self hosted collaboration platform for teams that need secure chat, workflow automation, voice calling, screen sharing, and AI integration while keeping the deployment under their own control.
read the full Mattermost overview →
About Zen
Zen is an open source desktop application written in Go for Windows, macOS, and Linux under the MIT license. It operates as a system wide ad blocker and privacy guard, so it applies to traffic from applications on the machine rather than only to browser tabs. It lives in the desktop security and privacy ecosystem, where users want filtering without browser extensions.
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Frequently asked questions
Is Mattermost or Zen more popular?
Mattermost has 39,093 GitHub stars and Zen has 4,225. Mattermost has the larger community by that measure.
Are Mattermost and Zen free?
Both are open source. Mattermost has no licence declared in this registry, and Zen is licensed under MIT. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Mattermost and Zen?
Mattermost is written in TypeScript and Zen in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Mattermost or Zen?
Choose Mattermost if you want the larger community (39,093 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose Zen if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.