Parletto vs Slack, Mattermost and Rocket.Chat

If you are choosing team chat for a small team, Slack, Mattermost and Rocket.Chat are probably on your list. This post sets out how Parletto differs from each of them and who each one suits. Every fact about another product links to that product’s own pricing page or docs, as they stood in November 2026. Plans change, so check those pages before you decide.

What Parletto is

Parletto is open-source team chat. It has channels and threads, direct messages and files, message search, bots and webhooks, and admin and security controls, including two-factor sign-in, an audit log and a message retention setting for owners.

There are two ways to run it:

Managed, at app.parletto.com. It is free during early access, and we will give notice before billing starts. See pricing.
Self-hosted, on your own server. It is one Docker container with SQLite for app data, cache, background jobs and WebSockets, so you don’t need Redis or an external database. The source opens shortly under the MIT license. Until then, the managed service runs the same software. The Docker Compose post covers what a server needs.

Parletto is a young product. The features page lists what it does today. If something isn’t listed there, Parletto doesn’t have it yet.

Parletto vs Slack

Slack is a hosted service from Slack. Its pricing page lists four plans: Free, Pro, Business+ and Enterprise+. On the Free plan, Slack gives 90 days of access to message and file history, and it permanently deletes content more than a year old.

How Parletto differs:

Where it runs. You use Slack as a hosted service. Parletto will also run on your own server once the source opens.
Source. Parletto is open source under the MIT license.
Retention. In Parletto, owners can set a message retention period of 30, 90 or 365 days.
Integrations. Parletto’s incoming webhooks are Slack-compatible, so a script that posts to a Slack incoming webhook can post plain-text messages to Parletto too.

Slack suits teams that want an established product with apps from the Slack App Directory and don’t need to host their chat themselves. Parletto suits teams that want simple chat they can host themselves, or a managed service built from that same open-source code.

Parletto vs Mattermost

Mattermost is built to be self-hosted. Its pricing page lists Professional, Enterprise and Enterprise Advanced plans, aimed at engineering and operations teams, regulated enterprises and national security organizations. Mattermost’s editions page describes two free options:

Team Edition, open source under the MIT license, self-hosted as a single Linux binary with PostgreSQL, and meant for small teams, hobbyists or personal use under 250 activated users.
Mattermost Entry, under a commercial license, with limits such as 10,000 channel messages of viewable history.

How Parletto differs:

What the server needs. Mattermost needs PostgreSQL. Parletto keeps everything in SQLite inside one container, so there is no separate database to run.
Scope. Mattermost’s paid plans cover far more than chat, for organizations with strict compliance and security needs. Parletto is team chat, kept simple.

Mattermost suits larger or regulated organizations that need its enterprise features and can run PostgreSQL. Parletto suits small teams that want chat on one container and one volume.

Parletto vs Rocket.Chat

Rocket.Chat is also self-hostable. Its plans page lists Commercial, Government and Defense plans, priced through sales. Rocket.Chat’s plans docs describe two free options:

Starter, self-managed and self-hosted, for up to 50 users.
Community, the open-source (MIT) edition, for teams past Starter’s user limit that need only very basic capabilities.

How Parletto differs:

What the server needs. Rocket.Chat’s system requirements call for MongoDB, which you install and maintain separately even when you deploy with Docker or Kubernetes. Parletto needs only Docker.
Scope. Rocket.Chat’s paid plans target enterprises, the public sector and defense. Parletto is team chat for small teams.

Rocket.Chat suits organizations that need its government or defense plans, or want its wider feature set and can run MongoDB. Parletto suits small teams that want the least to run.

Which should you pick?

You want a hosted service with an app directory: Slack.
You are a larger or regulated organization hosting chat yourself: Mattermost or Rocket.Chat, both of which offer enterprise plans.
You are a small team that wants simple chat, hosted for you or, once the source opens, on one container you run yourself: Parletto.

To try Parletto, sign up on the managed service, or read the self-hosting guide to see what running it yourself involves.