> Source: https://meetrix.io/blogs/self-hosted-microsoft-teams-alternatives/ > Markdown copy of that page. Cite the URL above, not this file. Collaboration # Self-Hosted Microsoft Teams Alternatives: 9 Options [By Shalomi Umeshika](https://meetrix.io/blogs/authors/shalomi-umeshika/) • September 24, 2026 • 15 min read There is no single self-hosted replacement for Microsoft Teams. There are five or six good tools, and the real decision is which combination covers the parts of Teams your people actually use. For most teams, that means one chat tool, one meeting tool, and somewhere to keep files. Below are nine self-hosted Microsoft Teams alternatives, checked against each project's own docs and pricing pages on September 24, 2026, with what each costs per year for 100 people next to Teams itself. Price is rarely the whole story. Teams Essentials is $4 per user per month on annual billing, according to [Microsoft's own page](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-teams/essentials), which comes to $4,800 a year at 100 users. Plenty of teams pay that happily. The ones who leave usually care about where the messages live and who controls the licence. That cuts both ways, though: several "free" self-hosted tools now come with limits, and I've called each one out. The Quick Verdict Mattermost Closest to Teams for channels, threads, and integrations. Read the free-edition limits before you commit. Nextcloud Chat, video calls, and file sharing from one self-hosted server. The best fit if files matter as much as chat. Element (Matrix) Federated, end-to-end encrypted chat. The pick when sovereignty is the reason you're leaving. Jitsi Meet Only need to replace Teams meetings? Self-hosted Jitsi is free, Apache 2.0, and takes guests by link. ## Why Teams Users Self-Host The seat bill follows headcount. Teams Essentials at $4 per user per month is cheap on paper, and it grows with every hire. Bigger Microsoft 365 plans cost more per seat. Self-hosted tools that are free to license shift the cost to servers and admin time, which don't grow one-for-one with headcount. Your data lives where Microsoft puts it. Self-hosting puts messages, files, and call recordings on servers in a region and under a jurisdiction you choose. If that's a compliance requirement rather than a preference, it's the whole argument. Our piece on [sovereign video conferencing](https://meetrix.io/blogs/sovereign-video-conferencing/) covers the calling side of it. You don't control the roadmap. Features, limits, and prices are Microsoft's to change. With an open-source tool you can pin a version, and if the vendor changes course you keep the code you're running. Guests are awkward. Bringing in clients and partners means licences or guest accounts in someone else's tenant. Several of the tools below let a guest join a meeting from a link. If none of that describes you, staying on Teams is a perfectly reasonable answer. Self-hosting trades a licence bill for upgrades, backups, and someone to be on call. ## What You Have to Replace A self-hosted Teams alternative is chat, meetings, and file-sharing software that you run on your own servers instead of Microsoft's. Teams isn't one product. It's chat, meetings, file sharing, task boards, and sign-in, bundled together. No single open-source project does all of it well, and that's the reason the search results for this topic keep repeating "you'll need to combine tools." Here's how the pieces map: | Teams does this | Self-hosted options | | --- | --- | | Channels and chat | Mattermost, Rocket.Chat, Zulip, Element (Matrix), Wire | | Video meetings | Jitsi Meet, BigBlueButton, Nextcloud Talk | | File sharing | Nextcloud | | Boards and tasks | Wekan and other Kanban tools | | Single sign-on | Keycloak, authentik | | All of the above, in one package | openDesk | ## How to Choose Four questions narrow the list quickly. 1. **What does your team live in?** If it's channels, threads, and bots, look at Mattermost or Rocket.Chat. If it's documents, look at Nextcloud. If people mostly write long, asynchronous messages, Zulip's model fits. 2. **How big are you?** Several free editions have hard limits. Mattermost's Team Edition is meant for under 250 activated users, and Rocket.Chat's Community edition is documented for up to 100 concurrent users. 3. **Do you need SSO?** Mattermost removed SSO from its free Team Edition, so this can rule a tool out on day one. 4. **Who runs it?** Some of these are one Docker Compose file. Others, such as openDesk and Wire, are Kubernetes projects. Be honest about the team you have. ## 1\. Mattermost: The Closest Match for Channels - Team chat - MIT (Team Edition) - Self-hostable [Mattermost](https://mattermost.com/) is built around channels, threads, file sharing, and search, with a strong lean toward developer workflows and integrations. If your team's habits are already "post in a channel, tag a person, hook up a bot," the move from Teams is the smallest here. ### Why switch - Team Edition is MIT licensed with no per-seat fee. - The Entry edition's feature set includes Calls, Playbooks, and Boards. - Enterprise scales to 50,000 concurrent users on Mattermost's own numbers. - Meetings can run through Jitsi. See our [Mattermost Jitsi plugin guide](https://meetrix.io/blogs/mattermost-jitsi-plugin/). ### Watch out for - Team Edition is meant for small teams under 250 activated users, and SSO is being removed from it, starting with GitLab SSO in v11. - The free Entry edition is under a commercial licence, capped at 10,000 messages of history, with 40-minute calls. Mattermost says it's best for teams under 50 users. - Professional and Enterprise are sold by quote, per activated user, on annual contracts. ### Pricing Team Edition $0 (MIT). Entry free under a commercial licence, with usage caps. Professional (up to 250 users) and Enterprise by quote. [Mattermost editions](https://docs.mattermost.com/product-overview/editions-and-offerings) ## 2\. Rocket.Chat: Team Chat Plus Customer Messaging - Team chat + omnichannel - MIT (Community) - Self-hostable [Rocket.Chat](https://www.rocket.chat/) does internal team messaging and can also bring customer conversations from WhatsApp, SMS, and live chat into the same place. That second job is unusual, and it's the reason to pick it over Mattermost. Our [Rocket.Chat vs Mattermost comparison](https://meetrix.io/blogs/rocket-chat-vs-mattermost-team-chat/) goes through the two in detail. ### Why switch - The Community edition is MIT licensed with no per-seat fee. - Omnichannel support alongside internal chat, useful if support and sales share the tool. - Video calls through Jitsi and BigBlueButton. - A free Starter plan adds premium features for up to 50 users. ### Watch out for - Rocket.Chat documents Community for basic use with up to 100 concurrent users and 10,000 push notifications a month. Concurrent means users online at the same time. - Video means running Jitsi or BigBlueButton alongside it. - Larger plans are custom-quoted, so budget by asking, not by reading a price page. ### Pricing Community $0 (MIT), up to 100 concurrent users. Starter free for up to 50 users. Larger plans by quote. [Rocket.Chat plans](https://docs.rocket.chat/docs/our-plans) ## 3\. Nextcloud: Files, Chat and Calls Together - Files + Talk - AGPL - Self-hostable [Nextcloud](https://nextcloud.com/) is a file sync and sharing platform. Its Talk app adds chat and video calls, so one server covers the SharePoint-and-Teams overlap that most alternatives ignore. If your files are half the reason you use Teams, start here. Our [Nextcloud developer guide](https://meetrix.io/blogs/nextcloud-developer-guide/) shows the AWS setup. ### Why switch - The Community edition is free, AGPL licensed and has no user cap. - Files, calendars, and documents live in the same app as chat and calls. - The paid Talk plan includes a SIP bridge for phone calls. ### Watch out for - Talk is chat and calls inside a files platform. Teams that live in channels and bots often prefer a dedicated chat tool. - Enterprise subscriptions have a 100-user minimum. - Talk and groupware cost extra on the Files plans. ### Pricing Community $0 (AGPL). Enterprise Talk Standard EUR 42 per user per year (EUR 31.50 at 250+ users). Files Standard EUR 71.29. Minimum 100 users. [Nextcloud pricing](https://nextcloud.com/pricing/) ## 4\. Element (Matrix): Federated and Encrypted - Matrix chat - AGPL or commercial - Self-hostable [Element](https://element.io/) is the main client and commercial steward of Matrix, an open protocol where servers federate with each other. Its Synapse homeserver is what you run. Federation is the point: your users can talk to people on other Matrix servers without giving up your own. ### Why switch - Federation, so partners on their own servers can join your rooms. - The Element Server Suite bundles Element Call for meetings. - We have a step-by-step [guide to self-hosting Matrix with Synapse](https://meetrix.io/blogs/self-host-matrix-synapse/), and one for [Element Call](https://meetrix.io/blogs/self-host-element-call-matrixrtc/). ### Watch out for - Synapse is dual licensed: AGPL for free use, or an Element commercial licence. - ESS Community is free but, in Element's words, not intended for production in commercial environments, and aimed at 1 to 100 users. - ESS Pro is priced per seat from 100 users, and the price isn't published. ### Pricing ESS Community free (AGPL), for non-commercial and small deployments. ESS Pro per seat per month from 100 users, price on request. [Element pricing](https://element.io/pricing) ## 5\. Zulip: Threaded Conversations - Threaded chat - Apache 2.0 - Self-hostable [Zulip](https://zulip.com/) organises every message under a topic inside a stream, which its README describes as combining "the best of email and chat." It suits teams spread across time zones, where nobody wants to scroll a channel to catch up. ### Why switch - Apache 2.0 licensed, with all features in the free self-hosted plan. - Runs on Ubuntu or Debian, in Docker, or from prebuilt images. - Video calls through Jitsi, BigBlueButton, or Zoom. ### Watch out for - Topics work differently from channels, so expect a learning curve for people coming from Teams. - On the free self-hosted plan, mobile push notifications are limited to 10 users unless you qualify as an eligible community organization. ### Pricing Self-hosted Free $0. Basic $3.50 per user per month. Business $6.67 per user per month billed annually ($8 monthly), minimum 25 users. [Zulip plans](https://zulip.com/plans/) ## 6\. Jitsi Meet: Meetings Without the Workspace - Video meetings - Apache 2.0 - Self-hostable [Jitsi Meet](https://jitsi.org/jitsi-meet/) replaces one thing, Teams meetings, and does it without accounts or per-host licences. Anyone with the link can join. Our [Jitsi vs Zoom and Google Meet comparison](https://meetrix.io/blogs/jitsi-vs-zoom-google-meet/) covers how it holds up against the commercial tools. ### Why switch - Free and Apache 2.0, with no per-host or per-participant fee. Capacity comes down to your servers and bandwidth, and you can set a participant limit yourself. - Guests join from a link, which suits client calls. - Recording with Jibri and embedding through the iframe API. ### Watch out for - It's a meeting app, not a workspace. There are no persistent channels or file storage. - Production needs videobridge sizing, TLS and, for users behind strict firewalls, a TURN server. Recording needs its own Jibri server. ### Pricing $0 licence. You pay for servers and bandwidth, sized by concurrent users. ## 7\. BigBlueButton: Built for Classes and Webinars - Web conferencing - LGPL-3.0 - Self-hostable [BigBlueButton](https://bigbluebutton.org/) describes itself as an open-source virtual classroom. If you use Teams mostly for training sessions and webinars rather than everyday chat, it fits better than a general meeting tool. Our [BigBlueButton vs Jitsi Meet comparison](https://meetrix.io/blogs/bigbluebutton-vs-jitsi-meet/) compares the two. ### Why switch - Multi-user whiteboard, breakout rooms, polling, shared notes, and recording with playback. - LGPL-3.0 licensed, with an install script for a standard server. ### Watch out for - It's a classroom tool. Day-to-day team chat and file sharing aren't its job, so you'll still need a chat tool. ### Pricing $0 licence (LGPL-3.0). You pay for servers. ## 8\. openDesk: A Whole Suite, From Germany - Full suite - Open-source components - Self-hostable [openDesk](https://www.opendesk.eu/en) bundles calendar, chat, contacts, documents, email, file storage, identity management, knowledge, notes, projects, tasks, and video calls into one package. It's developed by ZenDiS, a company of the German Federal Government, which took over development in January 2024. It's the closest thing here to a full Microsoft 365 replacement rather than a Teams-only one. ### Why switch - Chat, files, email, and video calls in one integrated product. - Platform agnostic, with container images and Helm charts. - Private-sector providers can now build their own openDesk enterprise offerings. ### Watch out for - It's designed for public administration, and it's a Kubernetes deployment. That's a bigger job than starting a chat server. - Pricing has two tiers. The Community Edition is free to download from openCode.de and run yourself. The Enterprise Edition adds extended functionality and professional support, comes self-hosted or as SaaS, and is priced on request. ### Pricing Community Edition free to download and self-manage. Enterprise Edition priced on request. [openDesk FAQ](https://www.opendesk.eu/en/faq) ## 9\. Wire: Encrypted Messaging for Regulated Teams - Secure messaging - AGPL-3.0 (server) - Self-hostable [Wire](https://wire.com/) is a secure messaging and collaboration platform that publishes its server code and offers cloud, private cloud, on-premises, and air-gapped deployments. It's the one to look at when end-to-end encryption by default is a requirement, not a setting. ### Why switch - The wire-server code is AGPL-3.0 licensed. - Wire lists on-premises and air-gapped deployment, plus SSO. - End-to-end encryption by default, according to Wire. ### Watch out for - The README recommends Kubernetes for self-hosting, using wire-server-deploy. - Wire's published pricing covers its cloud plans: Free for up to 5 people, SMB at EUR 7.45 per person per month on annual billing for teams up to 100, and Enterprise (custom) above that. On-premises pricing isn't published, so you'll need to contact Wire. ### Pricing Cloud plans from Free (up to 5 users) to SMB at EUR 7.45 per user per month. On-premises pricing not published. [Wire pricing](https://wire.com/en/pricing) ## Self-Hosted Microsoft Teams Alternatives Compared Licences and limits as documented by each project on September 24, 2026. | Tool | Best for | Licence | Chat | Video | Free self-hosted limits | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Mattermost | Channels and integrations | MIT (Team Edition), commercial above | Yes | Calls | Team Edition: under 250 activated users, no SSO. Entry: 10,000 messages of history | | Rocket.Chat | Chat plus customer messaging | MIT (Community) | Yes | Via Jitsi or BigBlueButton | 100 concurrent users, 10,000 push notifications a month | | Nextcloud | Files plus chat and calls | AGPL | Talk | Talk | No user cap on Community | | Element (Matrix) | Federated, encrypted chat | AGPL or commercial | Yes | Element Call | ESS Community: 1 to 100 users, not for commercial production | | Zulip | Threaded, async chat | Apache 2.0 | Yes | Via Jitsi, BigBlueButton or Zoom | Push notifications for 10 users | | Jitsi Meet | Video meetings | Apache 2.0 | In-meeting | Yes | None | | BigBlueButton | Classes and webinars | LGPL-3.0 | In-session | Yes | None stated | | openDesk | Whole-suite replacement | Open-source components | Yes | Yes | Community Edition free; Enterprise priced on request | | Wire | Encrypted messaging | AGPL-3.0 (server) | Yes | Per Wire | No published on-premises price | Licences and plans change, so check each project's own page before you decide. "None stated" means the pages I checked list no limit, not that none exists. ## Yearly Cost for 100 Users Licence cost only, at list prices, for 100 users. Servers, backups, and admin time come on top for every self-hosted option, and they're a real cost. | Option | Free route | Paid route, 100 users per year | | --- | --- | --- | | Microsoft Teams EssentialsBaseline | None | $4,800 ($4 × 100 × 12) | | Mattermost | Team Edition, no SSO | By quote | | Rocket.Chat | Community, up to 100 concurrent | By quote | | Nextcloud Talk | Community, no cap | EUR 4,200 (EUR 42 × 100) | | Element | ESS Community, non-commercial | ESS Pro, price on request | | Zulip | Free, push for 10 users | $4,200 (Basic, $3.50 × 100 × 12) | | Jitsi Meet | Free, no limits | Not applicable | | BigBlueButton | Free, no limits stated | Not applicable | | openDesk | Community Edition, free | Enterprise, priced on request | | Wire | Cloud Free for up to 5 people; on-premises not published | EUR 8,940 (SMB cloud, EUR 7.45 × 100 × 12) | Teams Essentials is the Teams-only plan, billed annually in US dollars. Nextcloud and Wire are priced in euros and Zulip in dollars, so the columns aren't converted. Wire's figure is its cloud SMB plan, since on-premises pricing isn't published. Nextcloud's Talk plan has a 100-user minimum. $0for three of the nine, no user cap Jitsi Meet, BigBlueButton, and Nextcloud Community are free with no user cap. Mattermost Team Edition, Rocket.Chat Community, and Zulip's free plan are free too, but each has a limit that a growing team will meet. That's the honest headline, with a footnote: a licence that costs nothing still needs a server, backups, upgrades, and someone who understands the stack. For most teams under a few hundred people, that ops time is the real price of leaving Teams, not the seat fee. ## Self-Hosting on AWS With Meetrix - Mattermost, Rocket.Chat, Nextcloud, Jitsi Meet - Pre-configured images - Runs in your own cloud account The install is rarely the hard part of self-hosting chat. It's the TLS certificate, the database, the backups, and the upgrade path six months later. We package several of the tools above as ready-to-launch images so that part is done before you start: [Mattermost](https://meetrix.io/store/mattermost/) (Team Edition, MIT licensed), [Rocket.Chat](https://meetrix.io/store/rocket-chat/), [Nextcloud](https://meetrix.io/store/nextcloud/), and [Jitsi Meet](https://meetrix.io/store/jitsi-meet/) (in sizes for 50 to 500 concurrent users). Around them sit the supporting pieces a Teams replacement usually needs: [Wekan](https://meetrix.io/store/wekan/) for boards, [Keycloak](https://meetrix.io/store/keycloak/) or [authentik](https://meetrix.io/store/authentik/) for single sign-on, and [Coturn](https://meetrix.io/store/coturn/) when callers sit behind strict firewalls. Pairing a chat tool with Jitsi is a common combination, and our [Jitsi on AWS developer guide](https://meetrix.io/blogs/setup-jitsi-meet-aws-dev-guide/) walks through the meeting half. None of this is the only route. Every tool in this article is open source or has a free edition, and you can run them on any server you like. If your team has the skills, self-managing costs less than a packaged image. The images are for teams that would rather not learn the stack first. ## Where I'd Start Mattermost or Zulip If you need **chat first**: Mattermost for channels and integrations, Zulip if your team works across time zones. Check the user limits against your headcount. Nextcloud If **files matter as much as chat**: Nextcloud with Talk, on one server instead of two tools. Element with a commercial licence If **sovereignty or federation is the reason**: Element. For a business, plan on ESS Pro or a Synapse commercial licence, not the community edition. Jitsi Meet If you only need to **replace meetings**: self-hosted Jitsi, and leave chat where it is for now. And if Teams already works for you? Keep it. The sensible first move for most teams is to peel off one piece, usually meetings or files, and self-host that. Replacing all of Teams at once is how migrations stall. Move one thing, see what running it costs you in time, then decide about the rest. ## Frequently Asked Questions What is the best open-source, self-hosted alternative to Microsoft Teams? There isn't a single one. Mattermost is closest for channels, Nextcloud suits teams that share many files, Element suits federation and sovereignty, and Jitsi Meet replaces meetings. Most teams combine a chat tool with a meeting tool. Can you self-host Microsoft Teams? No. Teams runs as a Microsoft cloud service. To keep data on your own servers you need a different tool, or a combination of tools, covering chat, meetings and file sharing. Is there a free self-hosted alternative to Teams? Yes, with limits. Mattermost Team Edition is MIT licensed for under 250 activated users without SSO, Rocket.Chat Community is documented for 100 concurrent users, and Jitsi Meet and Nextcloud Community have no user cap. Which alternative is closest to the full Microsoft 365 suite? openDesk bundles chat, email, files, documents, tasks and video calls in one package from ZenDiS, a company of the German Federal Government. It's a Kubernetes deployment, so it suits teams with platform engineers. Can Jitsi Meet replace Teams meetings? For meetings, yes. Guests join from a link and there's no per-host licence. It has no persistent channels or file storage, so pair it with a chat tool such as Mattermost. Does self-hosting make me GDPR compliant? Not by itself. It keeps data on servers you choose, which helps with residency, but you still need a lawful basis, access controls, retention rules and security. Get advice for your own case. How much does it cost to self-host a Teams alternative? Many licences are free, but servers, backups and admin time aren't. Paid plans I checked run from $3.50 per user per month for Zulip Basic to EUR 42 per user per year for Nextcloud Talk, and several are quote-only. ## Run Team Chat in Your Own AWS Account Self-hosted Mattermost on AWS Marketplace from a pre-configured image, with your messages and files on infrastructure you control. [See the Mattermost Image](https://meetrix.io/store/mattermost/) Meetrix Store Mattermost Team chat, a self-hosted Slack alternative [Deploy it](https://meetrix.io/store/mattermost/) Meetrix Store New Deploy what this guide covers, pre-configured. - [Mattermost Team chat, a self-hosted Slack alternative](https://meetrix.io/store/mattermost/) - [Rocket.Chat Messaging, calls and omnichannel support](https://meetrix.io/store/rocket-chat/) - [Nextcloud File sync and sharing, a Drive alternative](https://meetrix.io/store/nextcloud/) - [Jitsi Meet Self-hosted video calls for 50 to 500 users](https://meetrix.io/store/jitsi-meet/) - [RustDesk Remote desktop AMI, a TeamViewer alternative](https://meetrix.io/store/rustdesk/) - [Coturn TURN/STUN for WebRTC, no per-minute relay fees](https://meetrix.io/store/coturn/) [Browse all products](https://meetrix.io/store/)