cross-posted from: https://programming.dev/post/26910708
My small company (less than 30 employees) has been using Skype for internal group meetings and messaging. Since it’s closing, we’re looking for alternatives.
I think few people in the company are privacy minded (one of the higher ups had to get scolded to stop using some random AI to listen to all his meetings and write summaries), so we need something with a low barrier to entry.
We have basically no IT department, so self hosting would be a challenge. We do self host a redmine server via docker, and we have to connect to it via VPN when we’re off-site (we have several full time remote employees).
Our feature requirements are: Group and individual messaging Screen sharing Meetings up to 2 hours Inexpensive Meetings with up to 10 participants Windows (some people use Skype from their phones also, but not a requirement) Minimal friction to setup and use Minimal bugs (mature)
Some of the ideas floated: Teams Discord Google Meet Signal Telegram Jami
I really don’t think we could pull off Matrix, but am I wrong? Which of these ideas bothers you the least? Is there something else I’m overlooking?
Matrix doesn’t require self-hosting. There’s a very good host out there etke.cc. They take care of everything, are European, and you just have to connect. It’s 20€/month for hosting a medium sized server that can handle room with up to 3000 users (if I understand it correctly). They can bridge your server to other client services likes Google and Slack, and they can even bridge to WhatsApp and Signal meaning that people in your company could be added to rooms from WhatsApp or Signal. They even have an email bridge with which you can allow email users to chat in matrix rooms!
There is of course no limit to how long meetings can be, matrix has a wide range of clients (of which element is the most popular).
I would’ve recommended Element.io, but they have a “minimum number of users” 🤷
Anti Commercial-AI license