Zulip, Mattermost, and Rocket.Chat

Close to the Chest

Conclusions

All three services presented here offer a simple approach to setting up self-hosted chat platforms for corporate communication. Even though Zulip might not have the prettiest UI, it provides the widest range of functions in the open source version. For one thing, it doesn't hide any features behind a paywall, and for another, it offers simple and open customization options for bots, API access, and customized webhooks.

The strength of Mattermost is playbooks. If used correctly, they make it very easy to model and implement complex workflows in a chat tool. It is a pity, though, that the provider selectively removed individual modules, or even selected functions such as the playbook appointment option, from the open source version.

Rocket.Chat, which sees itself primarily as a commercial option for Slack users, definitely comes with the biggest limitations in the open source version. In terms of functionality, the platform tries to keep up with the scope and look of its role model Slack, which it does well. However, the free version feels too limited in terms of the feature set and more like a demo version than a community solution.

In terms of installation variants, a containerized setup with Docker or Podman offers the greatest convenience. However, you do need to check very carefully which images are integrated into your environments. Containerized operation also makes it more difficult to use CLI tools, if the platform offers them. The classic setup on a VM with your package manager or a tarball offers more granular control over the configuration, version, and security of the individual components. A containerized setup in which the operator only allows tested and verified components would be ideal.

Infos

Zulip: https://github.com/zulip/zulip
Mattermost: https://github.com/mattermost/mattermost
Rocket.Chat: https://www.rocket.chat
"Manage Containerized Setups with Ansible" by Andreas Stolzenberger, ADMIN , issue 77, 2023, pg. 64, https://www.admin-magazine.com/Archive/2023/77/Manage-containerized-setups-with-Ansible/
Docker Compose file: https://github.com/zulip/docker-zulip/blob/main/docker-compose.yml
Database preparation for Mattermost: https://docs.mattermost.com/install/prepare-mattermost-database.html
Service setup for Mattermost: https://docs.mattermost.com/install/install-rhel.html @IE":

The Author

Andreas Stolzenberger worked as an IT magazine editor for 17 years. He was the deputy editor in chief of the German Network Computing magazine from 2000 to 2010. After that, he worked as a solution engineer at Dell and VMware. In 2012 Andreas moved to Red Hat. There, he currently works as principal solution architect in the Technical Partner Development department.

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