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Software · Internet & communication

Element

Secure communications platform built around you.

  • Completely free
  • Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS
  • Open source

Overview

Element is a messaging program, available on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS.

Features described on its official website, in its Winget manifest and in its Flathub listing: end-to-end encryption, self-hosting on your own server, group chats and calls.

Services and protocols mentioned: Matrix.

Overview written by LicitPro from the documentation published by the authors and the cited sources; we have not tried the resource ourselves.

Excerpts that establish this information
  • “Element is a Matrix-based, end-to-end encrypted messenger and collaboration app, self-hosted for digital sovereignty and interoperable over the Matrix network.” — official website, 10 November 2026
  • “Element is a Matrix-based, end-to-end encrypted messenger and collaboration app, self-hosted for digital sovereignty and interoperable over the Matrix network.” — official website, 10 November 2026
  • “Element is a Matrix-based, end-to-end encrypted messenger and collaboration app, self-hosted for digital sovereignty and interoperable over the Matrix network.” — official website, 10 November 2026
  • “More than group chat: communication” — Flathub, 10 November 2026
  • “For GNOME, window decorations are currently missing and you'll have to use keyboard shortcuts instead to resize the window.” — Flathub, 10 November 2026
  • “Stay in touch wherever you are with fully synchronised message history across all your devices, including on the web at https://app.element.io” — F-Droid, 10 November 2026
  • “The application requires the android.permission.REQUEST_INSTALL_PACKAGES permission to enable the installation of applications received as attachments, ensuring seamless and convenient access to new software within…” — F-Droid, 10 November 2026

At a glance

All of Element is free: no feature is locked behind a paid plan, and its code is open.

Its licence (AGPL-3.0 / GPL-3.0) is a copyleft open source licence: you may use, study, modify and redistribute it, including commercially; modified versions must keep the same licence.

Plans and conditions

  • The publisher also offers paid plans (hosting, support or services); they are described on its website.

Strengths

  • Open source code
  • No advertising
  • Commercial use allowed

About

More than group chat: communication Communicate with your team and out of network colleagues more efficiently: use dedicated rooms which persist information from their creation and forever. Forget group emails: join or create rooms per topic, per team, per event… Decide the level of transparency you want to provide across the organisation or project. Cut through the noise by creating notifications that are customised by you and for you. Grab the attention of your colleague by calling out their name and don’t miss a thing with keyword alerts. Deploy bots for fun or practical use with our integrations store. Preliminary Wayland support since 1.7.25. To try running Element natively under Wayland, run: flatpak run im.riot.Riot --enable-features=UseOzonePlatform,WebRTCPipeWireCapturer --ozone-platform=wayland For GNOME, window decorations are currently missing and you'll have to use keyboard shortcuts instead to resize the window.

Description from Flathub — AppStream (Flathub)

Sources and checks

  • Facts collected from F-Droid (credit card, source code, publisher, licence, free status, platforms, ads, commercial use, version) —
  • Facts collected from Homebrew (platforms) —
  • Facts collected from Flathub (credit card, source code, publisher, licence, free status, platforms, commercial use, version) —
  • Facts collected from Official plan pages (pricing, licence, terms) (limits, commercial use) —
  • Facts collected from Comptoir du Libre (source code, licence) —
  • Facts collected from Winget (Windows Package Manager) (source code, publisher, platforms, version) —
  • Facts collected from Wikidata (licence, platforms) —
  • Last technical check: 5 November 2026
  • Description from Flathub — AppStream (Flathub)

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