head to head
Slack vs Element
Element is the open source alternative to Slack — channel-based team messaging platform. Here is the honest comparison.
Yes — Element is a viable free replacement for Slack. Element is open source under AGPL-3.0, written in TypeScript, with 13,461 GitHub stars, 2,759 forks and 3,779 open issues; it was last pushed 6 hours ago. Slack costs from $8, while self-hosting Element carries no licence fee — the trade is your operational time instead of a subscription. 3 other open source Slack alternatives are tracked here, led by Mattermost at 39,093 stars. Element ranks #4 of 4 tracked open source Slack alternatives by stars. The tracked set, by adoption: Mattermost (39,093 stars), Jitsi (29,931 stars), Zulip (25,921 stars). Replacement criteria on this page: 4 reasons to move to Element and 3 reasons to stay on Slack.
choose Element if
- Your Slack bill is growing with seats or usage
- You need your data in a format and server you control
- Your compliance posture requires auditing the code that touches sensitive data
- You have (or can rent) a server and basic Docker comfort
stick with Slack if
- You need the polished onboarding and support SLAs of a commercial vendor
- Your team has zero capacity to operate software, even self-hosted-simple
- You depend on a Slack integration ecosystem that the OSS alternatives have not replicated
Side by side
| Element (open source) | Slack | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free (self-hosted) | $8.75-$12.50/user/month |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Proprietary |
| Source code | Public, auditable | Closed |
| Self-hosting | Yes — element-hq/element-web | Cloud only |
| Data ownership | Your server, your format | Vendor's cloud |
| Community | ★ 13K · ⑂ 2.8K | — |
| Built with | TypeScript | — |
Why people look for a Slack alternative
About Element
Element is a Matrix collaboration client for the web and desktop, and its tagline describes it as secure, decentralized messaging for teams and individuals. It is built with the Matrix JS SDK and lives in the Matrix ecosystem as an open alternative to Slack and Google Meet.
read the full Element overview →
Other open source alternatives to Slack
last updated nightly · ranking method: github stars, live-tracked
Frequently asked questions
Is Element a good replacement for Slack?
Element is an open source alternative to Slack (Channel-based team messaging platform). It is written in TypeScript and licensed under AGPL-3.0, with 13,461 GitHub stars.
Is Element free compared to Slack?
Yes. Element is open source — there is no licence fee, and you can self-host it. Slack is typically a paid subscription, so the trade-off is licence cost against the operational work of running it yourself.
How do I migrate from Slack to Element?
Migration effort depends on the data formats involved. Check Element's documentation for import options, and compare the feature table above to confirm the capabilities you depend on are covered before switching.