PrivacyTools.io
Reviewed by Marco Wollank
Element logo

Element

element.io
1 rating so far*
Audit GitHub ★ 13k
Website →
Team Chat Open SourceE2E encryptedSelf-hostedDecentralizedWindowsmacOSLinuxAndroidiOSFree United Kingdom
Rate Element:
No account needed

A modern alternative to IRC or Discord. Good for team chats and groups.

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

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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
Stars
13,288
+ 98 this week
Last commit
12d ago
healthy
License
AGPL-3.0
Latest release
v1.12.22
21d ago
Stars, last 35d
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
Mozilla Observatory web-check urlscan.io SSL Labs Security Headers

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

Rocket.Chat Professional approach for real-time conversations with your colleagues, other companies or customers.
Zulip Open-source team chat built around topic-based threading, fully self-hostable with managed hosting also available.
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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