Element is a free, open-source messaging and collaboration app for Mac that connects to the Matrix protocol — a decentralised, end-to-end encrypted network you actually own.
What is Element?
Element is the flagship desktop client for Matrix, an open standard for real-time, federated communication. Unlike Slack or Discord, no single company controls the servers: you choose where your data lives, whether that's a self-hosted homeserver, the default matrix.org, or a managed provider. The result is a communication platform that genuinely belongs to its users rather than to a VC-backed business with changing terms of service.
I've been running Element as my primary team chat for several months, and the thing that keeps me here isn't the feature list — it's the feeling that I'm not one policy change away from losing years of conversation history.
What does Element do best?
Element's strongest suit is privacy-first, cross-organisation communication. Every room can be end-to-end encrypted with the Signal-grade Olm/Megolm protocol. Because Matrix is federated, someone on your company's private homeserver can message a friend on matrix.org exactly the way email works across providers — no inviting people into a walled garden.
- Spaces — hierarchical room groupings that replace the traditional "workspace" metaphor without locking you into one vendor's infrastructure.
- Threads — keep side-conversations from derailing main room timelines, a feature Slack charged for until recently.
- Voice and video rooms — persistent audio spaces powered by Element Call, no Zoom link needed.
- Bridges — connect Matrix rooms to Slack, Discord, Telegram, IRC, and WhatsApp channels simultaneously, so you can consolidate notifications without migrating everyone.
- Cross-signing — verify device identity across sessions so encryption doesn't break when you log in on a new laptop.
The Mac app is a proper Electron wrapper around the Element Web client, which means it benefits from every web-platform improvement while still living in the dock with native notifications and a real menu bar.
Is Element free?
Element is completely free to download and use. The Matrix.org foundation runs a public homeserver at no cost that anyone can register on. Element also offers paid hosted homeservers through Element Matrix Services for organisations that want SLAs and managed infrastructure, but those plans are entirely optional — the app itself carries no subscription fee and no feature gating for personal use.
Who should use Element?
Element rewards users who care about data sovereignty, long-term archive access, or communicating across organisational boundaries. Security researchers, open-source communities, journalists, and privacy-conscious teams all tend to cluster here. If you're already paying for Slack and your team is happy, this won't pull you away overnight. But if you're frustrated that your company's entire communication history disappears the moment you cancel a Slack subscription, or if you need to collaborate with external partners without creating yet another Slack account for them, Element is worth the setup cost.
Solo power users who want a personal, encrypted, self-archiving chat history across devices will also find it compelling — think of it as the Signal philosophy applied to group collaboration.
What are the best Element alternatives?
The most obvious alternatives are Slack and Discord — both more polished, both proprietary, both free at a basic tier. For encrypted team chat, Signal covers the messaging side but has no proper desktop-first workspace concept. Mattermost is another open-source option with a self-hosted story, but it lacks Matrix's federation — everyone still has to be on your server. Beeper uses Matrix under the hood and packages it more accessibly, but it trades away some control for convenience. If federation and ownership are your priorities, nothing else on macOS competes with Element today.
How does Element compare to Slack?
Slack wins on polish, third-party integrations, and ease of onboarding. Element wins on data ownership, encryption defaults, cost at scale, and the ability to talk across organisational boundaries without everyone needing a shared account. Slack's message history limits on free plans remain a genuine pain point that Element simply doesn't have. The trade-off is real: Element's UX has rough edges — key verification prompts confuse new users, and room discovery is less intuitive — but for teams willing to invest an afternoon in setup, the long-term benefits are substantial.
