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Mattermost vs Rocket.Chat (2026): self-host requirements and licence

Mattermost and Rocket.Chat are team chat tools you can run yourself. Mattermost uses PostgreSQL [S1]. Rocket.Chat needs MongoDB, which "must be installed and maintained separately" [S3]. Figures were fetched 28 Oct 2026.

Mattermost vs Rocket.Chat at a glance

Mattermost and Rocket.Chat compared, from the vendors' own pages and the GitHub API
MattermostRocket.Chat
LicenceAGPL-3.0-only. Source is AGPL-3.0, official builds are MIT, admin tools, config files and the web app (webapp/) are Apache-2.0 [S2]MIT, open core, ee/ directories under a separate licence [S4]
Latest releasev12.0.1, 22 Oct 2026 [S2]8.9.0, 6 Oct 2026 [S4]
Server size1 vCPU and 2 GB RAM for up to 1,000 users [S1]2 vCPU and 4 GiB memory for up to 500 concurrent users, plus MongoDB [S3]
DiskNo figure published; S3 compatible storage, local storage or NFS [S1]20 GiB, plus 10 GiB for MongoDB [S3]
DatabasePostgreSQL 15.0+ [S1]MongoDB 8.0 or later [S3]
InstallDocker recommended on Linux [S1]Docker, Helm, Podman, OpenShift, Launchpad [S5]
PriceNo list price published; free Entry edition [S6]No list price published ('Get pricing'); free Starter and Community [S6]

Licences in detail

Mattermost offers its source "Under the Free Software Foundation's GNU AGPL v3.0, subject to the exceptions outlined in this policy" [S2]. GitHub API NOASSERTION; catalog override AGPL-3.0-only matches the source grant [S2]. The MIT grant for compiled builds adds rights on top [S2].
Rocket.Chat is open core, ee/ directories under a separate licence. Code outside "apps/meteor/ee/" and "ee/" is MIT [S4].

When to choose each

Mattermost suits you when you run PostgreSQL and want a small start of 1 vCPU and 2 GB [S1].
Rocket.Chat suits you when you already run MongoDB, or want Helm or OpenShift [S3][S5].

Self-host guides

Sources (fetched 28 Oct 2026 unless a date is given)