Ask HN: Those who use self-hosted chat platforms, why not Slack? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Those who use self-hosted chat platforms, why not Slack?

7 pointshasztagg8 comments

We’re currently using Mattermost as our self-hosted chat, but outside of cost savings, there doesn’t appear to be a good reason why we don’t switch to a SaaS like Slack which has more features, integrations, better app, etc. What are your reasons to use Mattermost/RocketChat/other tools instead of Slack?

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Because only free software respects its users: https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html.

I don't believe in using proprietary software simply as a matter of principle. There are a handful of places in my life where I do out of necessity, but I try to avoid it as much as possible.

I use slack and have never used those alternatives you’re talking about but there is a case to be made that self hosted tech offers better privacy.

Sure, although better privacy comes with the liability of having to take care of securing the deployment by ourselves. It just seems easier when it’s out of the box on some SaaS solutions.

As an "enterprise" end-user of a SaaS solution you still have to secure the client devices, right? What's the point of using a secure service if the devices (phones, PCs, LANs) can be easily hacked and all information leaked?

I think securing a self-hosted server is a lot easier than making sure the end-users don't leak the data. Servers are usually built with security at their core and provide more safety tools (firewall, monitoring, etc.) than the client devices.

Not only better privacy, but more control. You aren't going to open it one day to a surprise redesign that changed everything, and you can't find that feature that your workflow requires (and the support forums say it'll be back in the next release in 2 months).

If you are in a regulated environment, it's likely because of either compliance or security concerns (I'll note that while Slack has HIPAA-compliant plastered over its website, the last time I checked only the Slack Enterprise was actually HIPAA-compliant).

In my last role we used Mattermost for a while, and the incubator portion of the office used Slack. Everyone wanted to use Slack, but it was mostly a brand/clout thing. We ended up on slack and it was a virtually identical experience.

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