Element
European secure communications platform built on the open Matrix protocol. Used by NATO, the EU, French and German governments, and 47M+ users across 80,000+ deployments. Self-hostable with full end-to-end encryption.
Quick facts
It's built on the open Matrix protocol rather than a proprietary one, so you're never locked into a single vendor, and self-hosting is a real option used by organisations like NATO and the European Commission.
The interface has more moving parts than a simple app like Signal, since Matrix's flexibility – rooms, bridges, federation – comes with real complexity, and self-hosting well takes genuine server admin effort.
Why does it score 75?
Based in London, UK – outside the EU/EFTA, which caps the legal score even though the mission is deeply European.
Venture-backed, but no single non-EU company holds a controlling stake.
Element runs its own infrastructure across the UK and Germany rather than a third-party cloud.
Fully open source and GDPR-compliant, built on the open Matrix protocol that NATO and the European Commission both rely on.
See how they compare
Element
Imessage 
Slack 
Microsoft Teams 
Discord 
Whatsapp 
Wechat 
Dingtalk More European Team communication alternatives
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Swiss end-to-end encrypted messaging and collaboration platform for enterprise and government use. Backed by Schwarz Group (Lidl/Kaufland), hosted in the EU, and used by security-conscious organisations across Europe.