Notes 
A modern alternative to IRC or Discord. Good for team chats and groups.
Reviewed by Marco Wollank
Element
element.io 4 ratings so far*
Team Chat Open Source E2E encrypted Self-hosted Decentralized Windows macOS Linux Android iOS Free United Kingdom
Rate Element: No account needed
Threat level
Covered
A covered pick. Anyone can use it as a private drop-in, with no setup or know-how. Enough for most people. Threat levels
Our take
If you want a self-hostable team chat you actually control, Element on Matrix is the strongest open option here, closer to a Slack replacement than a Signal one. The honest cost is operational: running your own homeserver is a real commitment, and on hosted servers the metadata story is weaker than the encryption marketing suggests. Best for groups and organizations willing to administer it, overkill for one-to-one private chats.
GitHub at a glance
element-hq/element-web AGPL-3.0 hacktoberfestmatrix
Stars
13,640
+20 this week
Forks
2,814
219 watching
Last commit
today
healthy
Latest release
v1.12.33
7d ago, 100+ total
Star history
Issues
86% closed
3,586
open
22,170
closed
+80 / -115
opened / closed, last 4 weeks
Opened vs closed, last 12 weeks
Commits, last 26 weeks
1,646 commits, active 26 of 26 weeks
335 contributors since Jul 2015
Languages
- TypeScript 94.4%
- CSS 4.3%
- HTML 0.5%
- Other 0.8%
Updated daily from the GitHub API. Star tracking since Jun 10, 2026.
Website at a glance
element.io
D score 30
Weak website security headers
Graded by Mozilla HTTP Observatory, tested 3d ago
Inspect this site yourself
Measures the security configuration of the tool's own website, not the privacy of the product itself. A strong tool can still score low here.
Element alternatives
Element license, in plain English
AGPL-3.0 Strong copyleft · network
Free to use, even commercially. Changes must be published under the same license, and running a modified version as a network service counts as distributing it.
Permits
- Commercial use
- Modification
- Distribution
- Patent use
- Private use
Requires
- Disclose source
- Network use is distribution
- Same license
- State changes
- License and copyright notice
Does not provide
- Liability cover
- Warranty
Why it matters: The network clause is the point. Anyone who runs a modified version as a hosted service has to publish those changes, so the code handling your data stays inspectable. This is why privacy-first projects reach for AGPL.
Plain-language summary of the project's license, not legal advice. Read the full text for the exact terms.
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