A Microsoft Teams alternative you own

Team chat

Channels, threads and calls on a server in the country you choose, with the message history stored in your own database.

Replace Microsoft Teams Book a 30-minute briefing

Replacing: Microsoft Teams, by Microsoft Corporation
With: Mattermost, Jitsi Meet, Element
Runs on: Your servers, or Pilae Cloud in Switzerland and the EU
Migration: Included in onboarding, at a fixed price

Why teams leave Microsoft Teams

Chat holds what never reaches a document

Incident threads, decisions, names and figures shared in passing. With Mattermost on your own machines, that history sits in your Postgres and nowhere else.

Reachable only on your network

Mattermost answers on the private mesh, behind one hardened gate. Staff use the desktop and mobile apps; the internet does not see a login page.

Chat without the rest of the tenant

Mattermost does not depend on Microsoft 365. It works for teams that need chat inside their perimeter, and next to Teams for everyone else.

Microsoft Teams vs Mattermost operated by Pilae

What is being compared	Microsoft Teams	Pilae
Where messages are stored	In Microsoft datacentres, with an EU Data Boundary and in-country data residency for eligible customers.	In your Postgres and object storage, on your premises or on dedicated machines in any of 12 Pilae Cloud regions, six of them in Switzerland and the EU.
Chat and channels	Chat, teams and channels, with files stored in SharePoint and OneDrive.	Channels, threads, direct messages and file sharing, with desktop and mobile apps.
Meetings	Scheduled meetings, webinars, town halls, phone system and meeting rooms.	Scheduled video meetings in Jitsi Meet, with guests joining from a browser, and voice and screen-share calls in Mattermost. Large webinars and telephony are not part of it.
Office integration	Deep integration with Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Loop.	Links to files in Nextcloud, with previews. No equivalent of co-editing inside a chat window.
Sign-on	Microsoft Entra ID, with conditional access.	SAML or OpenID Connect through Keycloak or Entra ID. In Mattermost, single sign-on is part of the paid plans licensed by Mattermost.
Operation	Fully run by Microsoft as a SaaS product.	Daily encrypted backups with monthly restore tests, planned upgrades by the Pilae Agent, 60-second probes.
Pricing	Per user, per month, as part of Microsoft 365 or as a standalone Teams plan.	On request, for the operated platform. The Mattermost licence your requirements need is shown separately in the proposal.

Self-hosted team chat instead of Teams

Microsoft Teams comes with Microsoft 365, and for many organisations that settles the question. It bundles chat, meetings, telephony and Office integration in one client, and nothing self-hosted replaces all of that in one product.

Mattermost replaces the part where most sensitive conversations happen: channels, threads, direct messages and calls, on machines you control. Pilae deploys it on your premises or on dedicated machines in Switzerland and the EU, reachable only through the private network. Where messages must be end-to-end encrypted, or shared with partner organisations on their own servers, Element on Matrix is the better fit. Files shared in chat can live in Nextcloud, as part of our sovereign workplace.

Moving off Teams, fully or in part

Some organisations move everyone, with meetings on Jitsi Meet. Others move the teams whose conversations must stay inside the perimeter and keep Teams for meetings. Both work, and we recommend one after looking at what Teams is used for. The move is part of our fixed-price migration, with sign-on set up through identity. Single sign-on in Mattermost needs a paid Mattermost plan, and we put that licence in the proposal rather than on a later invoice. Teams leaving Slack instead will find the details on the Slack alternative page.

After the switch, the Pilae Agent plans each Mattermost upgrade, waits for your approval and applies it in your window. Pricing is on request. Tell us how your teams work today and we come back with a plan.

Moving from Microsoft Teams to Mattermost

Look at what Teams is used for
Chat and channels, meetings, telephony, apps. The answer decides whether Mattermost replaces Teams for everyone or for the teams that need chat inside the perimeter.
Set up sign-on and channels
Mattermost is connected to Keycloak or Entra ID, and teams and channels are created to match the structure people use today.
Decide what happens to history
Teams has no export that Mattermost imports directly. Channel history is exported through Microsoft tools and kept as a searchable archive, or brought into Mattermost where the scope justifies it.
Switch on an agreed day
Desktop and mobile apps are rolled out ahead, bots and webhooks are repointed, and the moved teams stop posting in Teams on the day.

The apps that replace Microsoft Teams

Mattermost

Team chat, channels and calls on a server in the country you choose, with the message history stored in your own database.

Replaces Slack, Microsoft Teams

Jitsi Meet

Video meetings people join from a link in the browser, run in Switzerland, the EU or your own datacentre so the servers that route the calls stay in the jurisdiction you picked.

Replaces Zoom, Microsoft Teams meetings, Google Meet

Element

Encrypted team messaging on the Matrix protocol: the Element apps on a Synapse homeserver you own, run in Switzerland, the EU or your own datacentre.

Replaces Microsoft Teams chat, Slack, WhatsApp

Questions

Can we import our Teams history into Mattermost?

Not as directly as a Slack export. Microsoft does not provide an export format that Mattermost imports as it is. We export channel history through Microsoft tools and either keep it as an archive or import the channels that matter, and we agree which before quoting.

Does Mattermost replace Teams meetings?

For team calls with screen sharing, yes. Scheduled video meetings with outside guests move to Jitsi Meet, which we run beside Mattermost on the same machines. For webinars, town halls and telephony, no. Organisations that rely on them usually keep a service for those, and we say so in the proposal.

Can people sign in with Microsoft Entra ID?

Yes, through SAML or OpenID Connect. Those sign-in methods are part of the paid Mattermost plans, so we include the Mattermost licence question in the proposal. Keycloak can also federate your Active Directory directly.

Is Mattermost open source?

The source is: the server under AGPL-3.0, and the compiled Team Edition under MIT. Mattermost positions Team Edition for teams under 250 users and has removed single sign-on from it, so most organisations need a paid Mattermost plan. We tell you which one.

What happens to our messages if we leave Pilae?

They are in your Postgres and your object storage, and the compose files and runbook are in your repository. Mattermost also exports in its own bulk format.