Managed Mattermost hosting

Collaboration and identityOn-prem or your region

Team chat, channels and calls on a server in the country you choose, with the message history stored in your own database. Pilae runs it on your own servers, or in Zurich, Switzerland, and eleven other Pilae Cloud regions.

Talk to us about Mattermost

Licence: AGPL-3.0 (source), MIT (compiled Team Edition)
Runs on: Your own hardware, or any of 10+ Pilae regions — six of them in Switzerland and the EU
Upgrades: Pinned, tested against your configuration, applied in your window
Upstream: mattermost.com

Running Mattermost in production: what it takes

Pin and deploy
A Mattermost release we have tested, on a dedicated machine or your own hardware, with PostgreSQL and file storage separated from the application from the first day.
Connect identity
Sign-in through Keycloak or Entra ID where your Mattermost plan includes it, or email and password with enforced second factor where it does not.
Back up and restore
The database and the file bucket are backed up daily, encrypted and stored at a second site in the same jurisdiction. Once a month we restore both into a scratch server and open a channel against the restored copy.
Watch the server
Probes every 60 seconds on the web and websocket endpoints, plus disk, memory and database metrics. Alerts reach a Pilae engineer around the clock.
Upgrade in your window
Mattermost publishes regular feature releases and extended support releases. We follow the track you choose, test each upgrade against a copy of your data, and apply it in your window after you approve the plan.

What Mattermost is, and who runs it

Self-hosted Mattermost, operated for you

Mattermost is team chat you run yourself: channels, threads, direct messages, file sharing, calls and a searchable history. It looks and behaves close enough to Slack that most people find their way around on the first day. The difference is where the messages live. With Mattermost, the history sits in your own PostgreSQL database, on a machine in the jurisdiction you choose, and no chat vendor holds a copy.

We operate it as a service: on a dedicated machine in any of 10+ Pilae Cloud regions, six of them in Switzerland and the EU, or on your own hardware, on premises or air-gapped. The server answers on your private network, with one hardened gate on port 443 for mobile clients. You receive backups, monitoring, upgrades and support under one contract.

A Slack alternative with the history kept

Most teams move from Slack for one of three reasons: the per-seat bill, message retention limits, or a requirement that internal conversations stay in Switzerland or the EU. The move itself is covered in the migration steps above and on the Slack alternative page. Our migration service runs it at a fixed price, with Slack kept read-only until you decide to close it.

Mattermost single sign-on and licences

The free Team Edition covers chat, channels, file sharing and integrations. Where your requirements need single sign-on, we connect Mattermost to Keycloak or Entra ID through our identity service and state the Mattermost licence position in your proposal.

Upgrades you approve

The Pilae Agent plans each Mattermost upgrade, takes a verified backup, waits for your approval and applies it in your window. Every step is recorded in the audit log in the console. Managed operations include a monthly availability commitment with service credits from the Business plan. See pricing, or talk to us about the workspace you want to move.

Mattermost source code is published under AGPL-3.0, the web app and configuration files under Apache-2.0, and the compiled Team Edition that Mattermost builds under MIT. Mattermost positions the free Team Edition for teams under 250 activated users and has removed single sign-on from it. Sign-in through SAML, OpenID Connect or Active Directory, compliance exports and high availability are features of the paid Mattermost plans, which Mattermost licenses directly. We tell you in the proposal which features your requirements need and whether that means a Mattermost licence alongside our operation.

Mattermost system requirements

Before anything is deployed, this is what has to exist. We size it with you in the first session, and we say so when your own hardware is already enough.

CPU and memory: 2 vCPU · 4 GBSized for a team of a few hundred people. Mattermost is a Go server and grows with concurrent connections more than with total accounts.
Database: PostgreSQLEvery message, channel and user lives here. It is backed up daily and restored in a test every month.
File storage: S3-compatible bucketAttachments and images, kept apart from the database so each can be sized and restored on its own.
Mail: SMTP relayFor invitations, password resets and notification emails when someone is offline.
Push notifications: Push proxyMobile notifications pass through a push proxy run by Mattermost. Keeping even notification metadata in-house means running your own proxy with your own build of the mobile apps, which we scope in the proposal.
Access: Private network or gate on 443Staff reach it over your private mesh; mobile clients come through the one hardened gate.

Migrating from Slack to Mattermost

Leaving Slack starts with an export, and what that export contains depends on your Slack plan. Public channels, their messages and their files come out on every plan. Private channels and direct messages come out only where Slack allows a full export for your workspace, so we check that first. Mattermost reads the Slack export format through its own import tooling: users, channels, threads, reactions and attachments come across with their original timestamps. Integrations do not. Slack apps and workflows are rebuilt as Mattermost webhooks, slash commands or n8n flows, and we list each one before the move so nothing stops working silently. Users are matched by email address, which is how they keep their history.

Check the export
Which channels your Slack plan lets you export, how large the file archive is, and which apps and workflows post into channels today.
Import into a staging server
The Slack export is converted and imported into a copy first. Your team leads open their busiest channels and confirm the history reads correctly.
Rebuild the integrations
Incoming webhooks, slash commands and bots are rebuilt against Mattermost, one per line of the inventory, with an owner named for each.
Switch on a chosen day
A final delta import, desktop and mobile apps pointed at the new server, and Slack set to read-only until you decide to close it.

What comes across from a Slack export


Public channels	Public channels	Every Slack plan
Private channels	Private channels	Needs a full Slack export
Direct messages	Direct and group messages	Needs a full Slack export
Threads and reactions	Threads and reactions	Original timestamps kept
Files	Attachments in object storage	Included in the export archive
Apps and workflows	Webhooks, slash commands, n8n flows	Rebuilt, not imported

An example mapping from a Slack export to Mattermost, as we present it before a move. The right-hand column is what we check with you before anyone commits to a date.

What Pilae is responsible for

A pinned version

A version we have run, not whatever latest resolves to that day.

A runbook

What it depends on, how it fails, what to do about it. In your repository.

A restore drill

Backups restored on a schedule. A backup nobody has restored is a file.

A patch window

Security updates in a window you agreed, with a rollback ready.

Someone watching

Every endpoint probed on the minute. An alert reaches a person, not a dashboard nobody opens.

Where it runs: zur1, fra1, fal1, gra1, ams1, hel1, lon1, ash1, hil1, sin1, tok1, syd1, on-premZurich, Frankfurt, Falkenstein, Gravelines, Amsterdam, Helsinki, London, Ashburn, Hillsboro, Singapore, Tokyo, Sydney, Your own hardware
Who holds the credentials: You do. Ours are separate, named, logged and revocable with one command. We ask before anything changes outside an agreed window.
If you leave: The machine, the data, the compose files and the runbook are already yours. Nothing stops when our access does.

What running Mattermost costs

On Starter, Mattermost runs in Pilae Cloud for CHF 449EUR 479USD 559 a month, hosting and onboarding included. On Business, it is one of up to three apps for CHF 1,590EUR 1,690USD 1,990 a month, on your own servers or in Pilae Cloud. Enterprise is quoted. The plans set what each includes; these are the inputs that move the price around them.

Instance size: The CPU, memory and, where a model runs, the GPUs the app needs for your users and your data.
High availability: One machine with tested restores, or a replicated setup that keeps serving when a node fails.
Storage and backups: How much data it holds, how long backups are kept, and point-in-time recovery for its database.
Plan and support: Starter, Business or Enterprise: support hours, response times in the contract and how often we review the service with you.
Region: Your own hardware, where the infrastructure is already yours, or a Pilae Cloud region, where machines are priced per month. On Starter, Pilae chooses the site.
Sign-on and integrations: Single sign-on, directory sync, mail relays and the other systems the app has to reach.

Mattermost: common questions

Can we import our Slack history into Mattermost?

Yes. Mattermost imports the Slack export format, including threads, reactions and files, with original timestamps. Private channels and direct messages come across only if your Slack plan allows a full export, which we check first.

Does Mattermost work on phones and desktops?

Yes. Mattermost publishes desktop apps for Windows, macOS and Linux and mobile apps for iOS and Android. They connect to your server address, not to a Mattermost cloud.

Can people sign in with Keycloak or Microsoft Entra ID?

Yes, through SAML or OpenID Connect. Those sign-in methods are part of the paid Mattermost plans, so if you need them we include the Mattermost licence question in the proposal. The free Team Edition signs users in with email and password and is intended for teams under 250 activated users.

Where are our messages stored?

In a PostgreSQL database and an object storage bucket on dedicated machines in the Pilae Cloud region you choose, from 10+ regions, six of them in Switzerland and the EU, or on your own hardware. Backups are encrypted and stored at a second site in the same jurisdiction.

Is Mattermost a replacement for Microsoft Teams as well as Slack?

For chat, channels and calls, yes. Teams also bundles meetings with large audiences and deep Office integration, which Mattermost does not replicate. We look at what your teams use Teams for before recommending the move.

Back to apps

Bring us your Mattermost. We will tell you what it takes.

Thirty minutes on the deployment you already have, or the one you are about to start.

Start with one workload Book a 30-minute briefing