Element icon
Element icon

Element

Provides secure collaboration with end-to-end encryption, supporting chat, voice, and video calls. Available on all major platforms, it enables digital sovereignty with a decentralized design and interoperability through bridges to systems like Slack and Teams. Includes enterprise-grade SaaS.

Element screenshot 1

Cost / License

Application type

Platforms

  • Mac
  • Windows
  • Linux
  • Online
  • Android
  • iPhone
  • Android Tablet
  • iPad
  • Self-Hosted
  • Snapcraft
  • Matrix.org
  • Flathub
  • F-Droid
  • Cloudron
  • OpenAPK
Element screenshot 1
Video calls for desktop and mobile
+3
Collaboration widgets
Element alternatives  
837likes
353alternatives
8articles

Features

Properties

  1.  Decentralized
  2.  Privacy focused
  3.  Clean design
  4.  Lightweight

Features

  1.  End-to-End Encryption
  2.  Federated
  3.  Encrypted Chat
  4.  Team Collaboration
  5.  Video Calling
  6.  Matrix Protocol
  7.  Voice Chat
  8.  Direct Messaging
  9.  Federation
  10.  Cross-Platform
  11.  Dark Mode
  12.  Cloud Hosting
  13.  Simple installation
  14.  Encrypted calls
  15.  Text chat
  16.  Ad-free
  17.  No Tracking
  18.  Community-based
  19.  Multi Device Support
  20.  Voice messages
  21.  Self-hosted search
  22.  Add-ons
  23.  VoiP Calls
  24.  Per-room avatars
  25.  Multiple languages
  26.  Custom widgets
  27.  Cloud Sync
  28.  Real time collaboration
  29.  File Versioning
  30.  Support for MarkDown
  31.  Support for @mentions
  32.  Two-factor Authentication
  33.  DRM Free
  34.  Mobile friendly
  35.  Video Conferencing
  36.  Moderation tools
  37.  Web-Based
  38.  LDAP support
  39.  Read receipts
  40.  User mentions
  41. Slack icon  Slack integration
  42.  Message redaction
  43.  Simple import
  44.  File Sending
  45.  Encrypted VoIP calls
  46.  Typing notifications
  47.  User Management
  48. Microsoft Active Directory icon  Active Directory integration
  49.  Chat Bot
  50.  Server Moderation
  51.  Server side history
  52. GitHub icon  GitHub Integration
  53.  Integrated File Sharing
  54.  Audio Conferencing

 Tags

Element News & Activities

Highlights All activities

Recent News

Recent activities

Comments and Reviews

   
Comment summary: Element is appreciated for its strong privacy features, decentralization, and constant updates. Users commend its end-to-end encryption, and multi-platform support. However, criticisms include a non-intuitive and complicated interface, resource-heavy desktop app, and some feature limitations compared to competitors like Discord and Slack. Users also note that UI improvements in recent versions enhance usability, but the app remains better suited for privacy-conscious and technically inclined users.
Top Positive Comment
John Fastman
17

This excellent project is in beta but it has already the following features:

  • end-to-end encryption
  • markdown support
  • private/public chatrooms
  • room members by link and/or invitation
  • themes
  • various notification levels
  • file sharing
  • voice & video conferening (I haven't tested this personally)

It's exciting to see what this will be in a year from now. There are still a few niggles to sort out:

  • not all files upload correctly (size limit for the beta?)
  • pasted text appears twice when you enter it in a chat room (but correctly once you hit enter)
  • not all webpages are previewed correctly
  • searching chat room text is slow (unencrypted rooms)
  • searching chat room text doesn't work (encrypted rooms)*

*Contrary to popular belief, it doesn't have to be like that. Turtl and other show text in encrypted clients can be searchable. Have an index file, decrypt it locally and search it locally. Don't understand why it's not done more often.

Also, I'm quietly hoping that ghastly green colour won't be the default and put people off. (Don't worry - you can pick different colours for different rooms.)

coth

Does it have Team Viewer-like remote control, Teams-like file history and ability to lock contact lists, i.e. contacts controlled by admin only? Looking for something for a little business.

igenn

#coth -no, it has no remote control (yet), but Wire has (or only viewer, i am not sure) try it

Top Negative Comment
Snow Code
2

I would like to like Element. It has some feature that I would like to get from Discord. Like the ability to get every channels you are interested in in one place.

My problem is that it's very complicated to understand and VERY VERY bloated. It doesn't even work on my computer. I don't even talk about the Electron app. I am only speaking of the website. Each time I switch from a chat to another Firefox freeze.

aiflix
0

It takes privacy & security seriously and its video-call features are especially great despite not being widely known as a Discord alternative.

Review from a new or low-activity account — shown here, but not counted in the app rating.
Jerste01
0

THE replacement for Teams

coffee415
0

I like Element because it is not an alternative to Discord. Wait, that doesn't make sense? It does. Here's why:

It's not for your average user. Even for technical people like me, it takes time to set up. Inviting your average Discord user to Element as a Discord alternative is counterproductive to the goal. Element is the least user friendly Discord alternative and it will likely drive people away from finding an alternative if introduced to any Matrix client.

Key takeaways:

  • Element is a mature and stable Matrix client. Compared to the other options, this is the best choice out of all of them as of this review.
  • Government entities and highly technical workspaces will thrive in Element

Why I didn't rate it 5 stars: It's a headache to set up. Otherwise, solid platform.

Alstroemeria
0

It's killer features are its privacy, and perhaps its reimagining of spaces, but it lacks core features of more popular programs it gets advertised to replace, such as custom emojis, or even customized name-color (both after almost a decade), and having a very weird permission structure. The overall philosophy around space & room creation makes the active use feel obtuse, and it gives the idea that the people developing don't actually use it.

It's neat that you can give each room its own profile picture, and put spaces within spaces, but if it actually seeks to be the program for even the hardcore PC user, it's in its infancy yet.

Rynux
0

Element is realy very good. Is open-source, super secure, modern... but element don't have many users

Review from a new or low-activity account — shown here, but not counted in the app rating.
7 of 46 comments

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Official Links

AppStores & Other Links

Download from Google Play Store
Download from iPhone App Store

What is Element?

Element is a Matrix-based end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) secure collaboration and messaging app.

It provides instant messaging, voice and video calls, screen sharing and file sharing; for 1:1s to huge chat rooms. It’s available to use across Web, Android, iOS, macOS, Windows & Linux.

Its decentralised design delivers digital sovereignty, enabling deployment on-premise or through any cloud provider.

Element Matrix Services (EMS) is the most popular SaaS for corporate use of Element. EMS provides fast performance and enterprise-grade add-ons.

Being Matrix-based, Element provides interoperability between traditional siloed apps. It can bridge into proprietary ‘walled garden’ systems such as Slack, Microsoft Teams, WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram and Discord to enable easy connections between different organisations.

End-to-end encryption is provided by default to keep users’ conversations and files safe. Cross-signed device verification uses QR codes or emoji comparisons to guard against imposters and eavesdropping.

Element is built on the Matrix icon Matrix open standard which provides bridges to other systems such as Slack, IRC and a lot more soon.

Element information

  • Developed by

    GB flagElement

  • Licensing

    Open Source (AGPL-3.0) and Free Personal product.

  • Pricing

    Subscription ranging between $3 and $4 per month.

  • Written in

  • Rating

    Average rating of 4.4 (45 ratings)

  • Alternatives

    353 alternatives listed

  • News

    8 news article related to Element

  • Badge

    Get an embeddable badge for Element

  • Supported Languages

    • English
    • Albanian
    • Basque
    • Bulgarian
    • Catalan; Valencian
    • Czech
    • Danish
    • Dutch
    • Esperanto
    • Estonian
    • Finnish
    • French
    • German
    • Hungarian
    • Icelandic
    • Indonesian
    • Italian
    • Japanese
    • Korean
    • Latvian
    • Lithuanian
    • Norwegian Bokmål
    • Norwegian Nynorsk
    • Persian
    • Polish
    • Portuguese
    • Romanian
    • Russian
    • Chinese
    • Sinhala, Sinhalese
    • Slovak
    • Slovene
    • Spanish
    • Swedish
    • Thai
    • Ukrainian
    • Vietnamese
    • Welsh

AlternativeTo Categories

Social & Communications, Security & Privacy, Office & Productivity, Remote Work & Education, File Sharing, Online Services

Apple AppStore

  •   Updated 
  •   3.29 avg rating
View in AppStore

GitHub repository

  •  13,446 Stars
  •  2,754 Forks
  •  3779 Open Issues
  •   Updated  
View on GitHub

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Our users have written 46 comments and reviews about Element, and it has gotten 837 likes

Element was added to AlternativeTo by AmandineLP on and this page was last updated . Element is sometimes referred to as Vector, Vector.im, Riot, Riot.im, Element.io.