Messaging · United Kingdom (GB)
Element (Matrix)
Secure, decentralised team chat.
The switch
Slack→Element (Matrix)also replaces Microsoft Teams, WhatsApp
About
London-built client for the open Matrix protocol. End-to-end encrypted chat used by the German army, French government and many others.
Why we recommend it
- Federated
- End-to-end encryption
- Self-hostable
EU vs USA
Element (Matrix) vs Slack
Side-by-side on jurisdiction, data residency, and the rules that decide who can actually read your data.
Criteria
🇪🇺 Element (Matrix)
🇺🇸 Slack
Headquarters
London, United Kingdom
San Francisco, USA
Jurisdiction
UK / EU
USA
Data location
Self-hostable
US (EU residency paid tier)
GDPR-native
Yes
No
CLOUD Act / FISA exposed
No
Yes
Ad tracking
Yes
No
End-to-end encryption
Yes
No
Open source
Yes
No
Ownership
Element / Matrix.org
Salesforce
Founded
2014
2013
Compare head-to-head