The open-source Slack alternative
Same features you love. No per-seat pricing. No data on someone else's servers. Enzyme is open-source, self-hostable, and gives your team a home for chat that you actually own.
Why teams choose Enzyme over Slack
No per-seat pricing
Slack's Pro plan starts at $7.25/user/month. For a 50-person team, that's over $4,000/year. Enzyme costs whatever your server costs — often under $10/month total.
Your data stays yours
Every message, file, and conversation lives on your infrastructure. No third-party access, no data mining, no compliance headaches about where data is stored.
No message history limits
Slack's free tier limits searchable message history. Enzyme keeps everything — forever. It's your data on your server, why would it disappear?
Truly open source
Read every line of code that handles your messages. MIT licensed — no "open core" bait-and-switch where the features you need are behind a paywall. Fork it, modify it, contribute back.
Feature comparison
| Feature | Enzyme | Slack |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free forever | $7.25+/user/mo |
| Self-hosted | ✓ | ✕ |
| Open source | ✓ MIT | ✕ |
| Message history | Unlimited | 90 days (free) |
| Channels & threads | ✓ | ✓ |
| File sharing | ✓ | ✓ |
| Reactions | ✓ | ✓ |
| External dependencies | None | N/A (SaaS) |
| Integrations & apps | Limited | Extensive |
| Video/voice calls | Not yet | ✓ |
Enzyme is honest about where it's still catching up. We'd rather be transparent than oversell.
The benefits of self-hosting
Data sovereignty
Your conversations never leave your network. Meet compliance requirements without expensive enterprise contracts.
Predictable costs
No surprise bills as your team grows. Server costs are fixed and usually a fraction of per-seat SaaS pricing.
Full control
Customize, extend, or modify anything. You have the source code and full access to your database.
Ready to make the switch?
Get Enzyme running on your server in under five minutes. No credit card, no signup, no vendor lock-in.