Teams usually come to self-hosted Mattermost for one of two reasons: the Slack bill, or a compliance person asking where the chat history lives. Either way, the answer is a Mattermost server in your own AWS account. Meetrix’s Mattermost AMI on AWS Marketplace gets you there without installing it by hand.
In short
Mattermost on AWS: what the Meetrix AMI includes
- A working server, not a recipe. Mattermost, its database and the web server are installed and configured on the image.
- CloudFormation launch. You fill in a domain, admin email and instance type; the template creates the instance and an IAM role so it can request Let's Encrypt certificates through Route 53.
- Automatic SSL for Route 53 domains, with manual steps in the developer guide if your DNS lives elsewhere.
- Email support from Meetrix at aws@meetrix.io, with replies within 12 hours.
Mattermost itself brings channels, threads, file sharing, voice calls and screen sharing, plus integrations with GitHub, GitLab, Jira and CI/CD tools through webhooks and plugins. Incoming webhooks also take alerts from self-hosted monitors such as changedetection.io. It's built for engineering and operations teams, and it shows. If you want video meetings inside it, our Mattermost Jitsi plugin guide adds them.
How to launch Mattermost on AWS
- Open the Mattermost listing on AWS Marketplace, subscribe and choose "Launch CloudFormation".
- Enter your admin email, a domain name and the instance type (t3.small to start).
- Wait for the stack to finish, then point the domain at the instance's public IP if it isn't in Route 53.
- Open the domain in a browser and create the first account; it becomes the system admin.
The full walkthrough with screenshots is in the developer guide.
Quick video guide
Secure Mattermost: what to do after launch
Self-hosting gives you control over the data, but nobody locks the doors for you. The first hour after launch is where most of the security work happens:
- Tighten the security group. Open 443 to everyone who needs chat, and 22 only from your own IP (or close it and use SSM Session Manager).
- Turn on multi-factor authentication and make it mandatory for admins at least.
- Close open sign-up. Allow new accounts only by invitation or from your company email domain.
- Back it up. Schedule EBS snapshots of the volume; that covers the database and uploaded files together.
- Stay current. Mattermost ships security fixes in its monthly releases, so plan to update rather than leave the server as launched.
Single sign-on with SAML or OpenID Connect, compliance exports and clustering are paid Mattermost features. The editions and offerings page lists what each license adds.
What Mattermost on AWS costs
On the recommended t3.small, the Meetrix software fee is $0.019 an hour and the EC2 instance is about $0.021 an hour on-demand in us-east-1. That's roughly $30 a month for the server, plus EBS storage and snapshots. There's no per-user charge for the free edition, which is the whole point for most teams leaving Slack.
Mattermost on AWS vs other team chat options
| Feature/Platform | Mattermost on AWS (Meetrix AMI) | Microsoft Teams (Gov Cloud) | Slack Enterprise Grid | Rocket.Chat (Self-hosted) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hosting | Self-hosted in your AWS account | Microsoft Gov Cloud | Slack's cloud | Self-hosted |
| Where data lives | Your EC2 instance and volume | Microsoft's cloud | Slack's cloud | Your servers |
| Deployment Time | Minutes via CloudFormation | Days to configure | Immediate (SaaS only) | Minutes with an AMI, longer by hand |
| Customization | Full (via APIs & plugins) | Limited | Limited | Full (via APIs & apps) |
| Customer-facing channels | No | No | No | Yes (Omnichannel) |
| Best For | Developer and ops teams that want control | Large regulated agencies | SaaS-first companies | Teams that also talk to customers |
For the head-to-head, read Mattermost vs Slack and our Mattermost vs RocketChat comparison. If you're shopping more widely, the roundup of the best collaboration tools on AWS Marketplace covers the other options, Zulip included.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I run Mattermost on AWS?
Subscribe to the Meetrix Mattermost listing on AWS Marketplace, launch the CloudFormation template with your domain, admin email and instance type, and point the domain at the server. SSL is issued automatically if the domain is in Route 53. The first admin account is created in the browser.
What instance size does Mattermost need on AWS?
A t3.small (2 vCPU, 2 GB RAM) is the recommended starting point and handles a small team comfortably. Move to a t3.medium or larger as users and integrations grow. Mattermost's own guide lists 1 vCPU and 2 GB for up to about 1,000 lightly active users.
How much does Mattermost on AWS cost?
On a t3.small, about $0.019 an hour in Meetrix software fees plus about $0.021 an hour for the EC2 instance in us-east-1, so roughly $30 a month before storage and backups. Mattermost's free edition has no per-seat charge.
How do I secure a self-hosted Mattermost server?
Keep TLS on, limit the security group to ports 443 and 22 (and 22 only from your own IP), turn on multi-factor authentication, restrict sign-ups to invited users or your email domain, and snapshot the volume regularly. Then keep Mattermost updated.
Does the Mattermost AMI include a paid Mattermost license?
No. It runs Mattermost without a paid license, so features like SAML or OpenID single sign-on, compliance exports and high-availability clustering aren't included. If you need those, buy a Professional or Enterprise license from Mattermost and apply it to the same server.
Launch Mattermost on AWS
A pre-configured Mattermost server in your own AWS account, with automatic SSL and email support from Meetrix.
Deploy on AWS Marketplace