Mattermost Review

All in all, Mattermost is an ideal choice for legal teams looking for a comprehensive, affordable, and secure collaboration solution.

Mattermost Review
Photo by Alvaro Reyes / Unsplash

In the legal profession, collaboration and communication are key. But how can you ensure you equip your team with a secure, reliable platform for exchanging confidential data? Mattermost is a great solution for legal teams who need to stay organized and productive without worrying about data security or costly setup fees. You can think about Mattermost like Microsoft Teams, or Slack, but Mattermost integrates tightly with its own kanban board and checklist system in addition to all the normal features for a tool in its class. Perhaps the best feature is that it's built on open source principles!

Rating Summary

Mattermost is the perfect solution for legal teams who need to stay organized and productive. It provides a secure, reliable platform for exchanging confidential data and eliminates the worry of costly setup fees. With Mattermost, your team can interact with colleagues in private or public channels and easily share files, documents, videos, images, and more. The intuitive user interface makes it easy to navigate, while its advanced security features ensure that all data remains safe and secure at all times. Plus, with its mobile app version, team members can access the system anytime. All in all, Mattermost is an ideal choice for legal teams looking for a comprehensive, affordable, and secure collaboration solution.

Mattermost is the world’s most secure platform for developer collaboration. Deployable in on-prem (or air-gapped) environments, leading organizations in the highly-regulated industries such as Government, Healthcare, and Financial Services trust us to help their teams move fast without the lowest risk. Source.

While I wouldn't recommend using Mattermost for client communication, I am happy to say that Mattermost has achieved a 5-star rating.


Remember, there is one star per feature. One star each for ease of use, staying power of the solution, privacy and security practices, reasonable pricing, and usefulness.

Is Mattermost easy to set up?

Yes, however, if you opt for a self-hosted version of Mattermost, then a non-technical person would struggle to understand how to get Mattermost up and running. If you would like access to step-by-step walkthroughs on how to set up Mattermost and other services. Make sure to subscribe!

For the cloud version of Mattermost, the setup is as accessible as any other messaging service, such as Slack or Teams. Essentially, you sign up, you go through a few steps via registration, and you're good to go! While I personally prefer to self-host where possible, there is no urgent reason to skip the cloud version, so it's only fair that this rating reflects the easiest version of the setup available.

How technical is the setup?

Setting up Mattermost is surprisingly simple and non-technical. You don't need to be a tech expert or have any prior programming knowledge to get started — create an account and invite your team members. The setup takes only minutes, so you can quickly begin using channels for team conversations, file sharing, document sharing, and more. And since Mattermost has a mobile app version, it's easy for remote legal team members to stay connected. So even if you're not the most tech-savvy person in the office, you'll have no trouble getting set up with Mattermost!

Can a non-technical person manage the service effectively?

Yes, Mattermost is an excellent choice for non-technical people who need an efficient and reliable communication platform for their legal team. You will not get the most out of your installation without some technical knowledge, but you will still hit all of your basic needs and have a solid experience with the platform.

One star for easy setup.

Will Mattermost solutions still be available two years down the road?

Yes, Mattermost is here to stay. It's a reliable communication platform that has been in business for about eight years, with its communications software being central to the business model. It invests in projects that are value-adds to its core product; this means that two years down the road, Mattermost solutions will still be available and likely better than they are today.

How long has Mattermost been in business?

Mattermost has provided communication solutions since 2015. Since then, the company has grown exponentially, expanding its range of services to include everything from chat and video collaboration tools to secure document sharing and mobile support.

The recent addition of new features, such as team-level permissions and an improved user interface, demonstrate just how committed the team at Mattermost is to meet the needs of their customers. With close to ten years in business, Mattermost is a proven solution that continues to evolve with changing industry demands. Whether you need a communication platform for your legal team now or two years later, you can trust that Mattermost will be here for you.

How central is the service to the business?

Mattermost's chat platform is a central part of the business, and they continue to invest heavily in their products and services. The risk of a pivot away from the software is nonexistent.

One star for easy setup.

Is Mattermost protective of your firm's confidential data?

Mattermost is committed to protecting your firm's confidential data. With robust security measures and encryption capabilities, Mattermost ensures that only authorized personnel can access personal information. In addition, they have incorporated two-factor authentication, which requires users to enter a second layer of security before accessing the system. This added layer of protection makes it nearly impossible for unauthorized personnel to access sensitive data.

Self-Hosted (On-Premises) Products
This is the only section of the Privacy Policy that applies to end users of our self-hosted (on-premises) products. With self-hosted products, the Customer (defined below) that purchases the Mattermost product also controls the processing of end user data.

Mattermost Privacy Policy
At Mattermost, protecting customer privacy is a top priority. Read our privacy policy to see what we do with information we receive through Mattermost.

What data can they access?

The platform helps manage your communications and internal drafts, so it's important to be aware of how the platform handles your data.

Is the form of access to data invasive?

No, the form of access to data provided by Mattermost is not invasive. Mattermost provides a secure and private way for legal teams to store and share sensitive documents. When end users use Mattermost services, they collect information that is generated that provides context about the way end users use the services such as team and channel memberships, system preferences, features they use, content and links they interact with, the types of files shared and what third party services are used (if any). While the metadata is accessible by Mattermost, actual content is not. Furthermore, self-hosted installations have almost zero collection by Mattermost.

Mattermost additionally only shares data with processing partners who help them deliver their services. Those processing partners are restricted from sharing or using data beyond supporting Mattermost's software operations.

One star for easy setup.

Absolutely. My team at Promise Legal uses Mattermost every day for managing operations. It helps us keep our communications organized, lets us automate many of our internal processes, and is dead-simple to use.

How easily does Mattermost fit into your workday?

Mattermost is a straightforward tool to fit into your workday. It's cloud-based, so you can access it from any device without setting up any hardware. And with its secure encryption technology, you don't need to worry about sensitive documents or messages being shared without security or privacy measures. Plus, Mattermost offers excellent collaboration features so your legal team can easily stay on the same page with projects and tasks. Whether you're working on complex documentation or want a quick chat about something, Mattermost makes communication between your legal team fast and secure; you can use native plugins, such as the Zoom integration, and write up more complex and self-directed integrations to fit your exact needs.

One star for easy setup.

Is Mattermost reasonably priced?

Mattermost includes a free tier for up to ten team members on the cloud-hosted option, and is free for unlimited users on self-hosted installations. There is no lawyer tax present here.

How might Mattermost's pricing compare to a non-lawyer competitor?

Mattermost's pricing structure is incredibly competitive when compared to non-lawyer competitors. In addition, Mattermost offers a range of features and services at significantly lower prices than many competitors yet still offers excellent value in the provision of those services.

One star for easy setup.
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