Centrifugo vs Mattermost
| Tagline | Language-agnostic real-time messaging server over WebSocket and SSE | Open-source, self-hostable Slack alternative for secure team messaging and collaboration |
| Category | Team Chat & Collaboration | Team Chat & Collaboration |
| Replaces | Slack, Microsoft Teams | Slack, Microsoft Teams |
| GitHub stars | 10k | 38k |
| Language | Go | Go |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Self-host difficulty | 3/5 Moderate | 3/5 Moderate |
| Deploy options | Docker Docker Compose Kubernetes Manual | One-Click Docker Docker Compose Kubernetes Manual |
| Managed hosting | ||
| Last updated | 2 days ago | today |
| View repo | View repo |
Where each falls short
The honest trade-offs — what you give up with each, versus the proprietary tools they replace.
Centrifugo
- Developer-facing infrastructure component, not an end-user chat application; requires custom UI.
- Managed hosting (Centrifugal Cloud) is still early and not yet a full Pusher replacement in pricing.
- Persistent message storage requires an external database; Centrifugo only provides a short-term history buffer.
- No built-in admin UI for channel management or user monitoring beyond basic metrics.
Mattermost
- Many advanced features (LDAP/AD, SAML/SSO, compliance exports, high availability) are gated behind paid Enterprise tiers
- Search and message UX feel less polished than Slack
- Voice/video calling is more limited than Teams' full meetings stack
- Smaller third-party app/integration marketplace than Slack
Bottom line
Both are a similar lift to self-host; choose Mattermost for the larger community and ecosystem. Mattermost has seen more recent development. Open each guide below for deploy steps and the full feature gap.
Mattermost
Open-source, self-hostable Slack alternative for secure team messaging and collaboration