Every European messaging tool reviewed
Pfaffikon, Switzerland
Founded 2012
CHF 4.99 one-time (mobile) / CHF 2/user/month (Work)
One-time purchase, no subscription
Best for: Privacy-conscious individuals and businesses wanting anonymous messaging
Threema is the most usable answer in this category, and it gets there by removing the one thing that ties a messaging account to a person.
Instead of a phone number or an email address, Threema issues a random Threema ID — so the account exists without an identity behind it, and there is no contact list to upload or address book to scan. That is a materially stronger position than Signal's, which encrypts perfectly but still requires a phone number.
Threema GmbH operates from Pfäffikon with Swiss hosting and Swiss jurisdiction, outside the EU and outside the intelligence-sharing alliances, under an adequacy decision. The apps are open source and independently audited.
The business model is the other unusual choice: CHF 4.99 once for the mobile app rather than a subscription, and CHF 2 per user per month for Threema Work — so the company is paid by users rather than by anything it might do with their data.
The honest limits are adoption and polish: a smaller user base than WhatsApp or Signal means convincing contacts, the one-off fee competes against free alternatives, and there are no sticker libraries or third-party integrations.
What Threema does well
- No phone number or email required — a random Threema ID instead
- One-off CHF 4.99 rather than a subscription
- Open source with published independent audits
- Swiss hosting and jurisdiction, outside the Eyes alliances
- Threema Work for businesses at CHF 2/user/month
Where Threema falls short
- Smaller user base than WhatsApp or Signal
- The one-off fee is a barrier against free competitors
- Occasional mobile-to-desktop sync issues
- Few extras: no sticker libraries or integrations
Standout feature. An account with no identity attached: Threema is the most usable messenger here where signing up requires neither a phone number nor an email address.
United Kingdom
Founded 2021
Free
Free, no account needed
Best for: Privacy maximalists who want no persistent identifier at all
SimpleX Chat is architecturally different from everything else in this category, including the other privacy messengers. Signal has your phone number, Session has a Session ID, Threema has a Threema ID — SimpleX has nothing.
There is no global user identifier of any kind; each conversation uses unique random identifiers that differ per contact, so the servers relay encrypted messages without ever knowing which conversations belong to the same person. If every SimpleX server were seized tomorrow, the social graph could not be reconstructed, because it was never recorded anywhere.
SimpleX Chat Ltd is based in the United Kingdom, open source under AGPLv3 and independently audited, using the Double Ratchet protocol with self-hostable relay servers so an organisation can run its own infrastructure.
It is free, with voice and video calls alongside messaging. The friction is the direct consequence of the design and SimpleX states it: there is no way to search for someone, so connections require exchanging a one-time invitation link through another channel, and backup means manually exporting your database because there is no account to restore.
Groups are less mature than on established platforms, and the UK jurisdiction may concern some — though the architecture protects regardless of legal environment.
What SimpleX Chat does well
- No user identifier at all — the strongest metadata position here
- Servers cannot link conversations to a single person
- Open source under AGPLv3, independently audited
- Self-hostable relay servers
- Free, with voice and video calls
Where SimpleX Chat falls short
- No way to find anyone — connections need invitation links
- Backup requires manual database export
- Groups less mature than established platforms
- UK jurisdiction, and a small user base
Standout feature. No user ID whatsoever: SimpleX is the only messenger here where a total server compromise still reveals nothing about who talks to whom.
Zug, Switzerland
Founded 2014
Free (personal) / from €5.83/user/month (business)
Free personal tier
Best for: Businesses that need encrypted collaboration including with outsiders
Wire is the team chat that solves the external-party problem properly. Guest Rooms let a client, contractor or partner join a conversation through a link in a web browser — no account, no installation — while keeping the same end-to-end encryption as registered users.
That closes the usual failure where secure collaboration quietly falls back to unencrypted email the moment someone outside the organisation is involved. Alongside it, Wire covers end-to-end encrypted group calls for up to 50 participants on the Teams plan, with encrypted screen sharing.
Wire Swiss GmbH is based in Zug with data processing in EU data centres in Germany and Ireland, and the platform is open source, built on the Proteus encryption protocol. Business plans start at €5.83 per user per month with a free personal tier.
Two things to weigh honestly: the integration ecosystem is far smaller than Slack's with no comparable app marketplace, and there have been questions about the ownership structure following venture capital funding — Wire has reaffirmed its privacy commitment and clarified that the holding structure does not affect Swiss operational jurisdiction, and the open-source code means the community can watch for changes.
What Wire does well
- Guest Rooms give externals encrypted access with no account
- End-to-end encrypted group calls up to 50 participants
- Encrypted screen sharing
- Open source, Swiss company, EU data centres
- Free personal tier alongside business plans
Where Wire falls short
- Far smaller integration ecosystem than Slack
- Questions raised about ownership after VC funding
- Personal users struggle to bring contacts across
- No app marketplace
Standout feature. Guest Rooms: Wire is the only tool here where someone outside your company joins an encrypted conversation from a browser without creating anything.
London, United Kingdom
Founded 2016
Free self-hosted / from about €5/user/month (managed)
Free self-hosted
Best for: Organisations wanting decentralised chat with full data sovereignty
Element is the reason European governments run Matrix. Built on the open Matrix protocol, Element federates rather than centralises: an organisation runs its own server, users on different servers still talk to each other, and the messages never touch a vendor's infrastructure. For a public body that must guarantee where communications live, that is the only architecture that delivers it — and it is why Matrix has seen government and enterprise adoption where SaaS chat products could not qualify.
Element (New Vector Ltd) is based in London, open source, free to self-host with managed hosting from about €5 per user per month including European options.
The distinctive practical feature is bridges: Matrix can connect to Slack, Discord, Telegram, WhatsApp, Signal and IRC, so an organisation consolidates communications without forcing everyone to switch at once — a migration path rather than a cliff edge, though bridges add complexity and inherit each platform's API limits.
The costs are stated plainly: a steeper learning curve than centralised tools, federation delays, encryption key management that confuses non-technical users who must verify devices and manage backups, and a resource-intensive Synapse server that needs deliberate infrastructure planning at scale.
What Element does well
- Matrix federation with full self-hosting and data sovereignty
- Bridges to Slack, Discord, Telegram, WhatsApp, Signal and IRC
- Open source, with government and enterprise adoption
- Free self-hosted, or managed with European hosting
- End-to-end encryption across federated servers
Where Element falls short
- Steeper learning curve than centralised platforms
- Federation can delay message delivery
- Key management confuses non-technical users
- Synapse is resource-intensive at scale
Standout feature. Bridges to everything else: Element is the only tool here that lets an organisation move without making everyone else move first.
Switzerland
Founded 2020
Free
Free, no account needed
Best for: Users wanting anonymous messaging on a decentralised network
Session protects the pattern rather than only the contents. Every message is routed through three random nodes before reaching its destination, each node knowing only the previous and next hop — onion routing borrowed from Tor — so no single node ever knows both who you are and who you are talking to.
Your ISP and any network observer see that you are using Session, not with whom or when. There is no phone number: an anonymous Session ID is the whole account.
Session is run by the Session Technology Foundation, based in Switzerland, open source under GPLv3, and free. The network is decentralised across community-operated nodes, which means there is no company storing metadata logs that could be subpoenaed — a structural answer rather than a policy one.
Features cover disappearing messages, open groups and cross-platform apps. The costs follow from the architecture: decentralised routing is slower than a centralised service, especially under congestion, onion routing adds latency, voice and video quality varies with network conditions, and the anonymous Session ID makes finding and verifying contacts harder than a phone number would.
What Session does well
- Onion routing through three nodes hides who talks to whom
- Anonymous Session ID — no phone number or email
- Decentralised, so no company holds subpoena-able metadata logs
- Open source under GPLv3 and free
- Disappearing messages and open groups
Where Session falls short
- Slower delivery, especially under network congestion
- Onion routing adds latency to every message
- Session IDs make finding and verifying contacts harder
- Voice and video quality varies with conditions
Standout feature. Onion routing on a community-run network: Session is the only messenger here where there is no company holding metadata logs, because there is no company in the delivery path.
Europe (distributed team)
Founded 2018
Free and open source
Free
Best for: Activists and journalists who need messaging when networks fail
Briar has no servers, and that is not a technical curiosity — it is the entire point. Messages pass directly between devices, routed over Tor when the internet is available, so there is nothing to hack, nothing to subpoena, no company that can be pressured and no central point a censor can block. Even if the project's own development infrastructure were seized, existing users would keep communicating without interruption.
The capability that no other messenger in this category has is working with the internet switched off.
When connectivity is censored, damaged or absent, Briar syncs between nearby devices over Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, letting messages hop device to device until they arrive — which is why it exists for protests where mobile networks are disabled, for disaster zones, and for remote areas.
Briar is a non-profit project developed by a distributed European team, open source under GPLv3 and free, with forums and blogs alongside messaging. The trade-offs are severe and honestly documented: Android only, no iOS because Apple restricts the background processes P2P requires, a desktop version still in beta, messages syncing only while the app is open with the battery cost that implies, and contacts exchanged in person. Briar is not for casual messaging with friends and family, and says so.
What Briar does well
- No servers at all — nothing to hack, subpoena or block
- Works over Wi-Fi and Bluetooth when the internet is unavailable
- Tor routing hides metadata from network observers
- Non-profit, open source under GPLv3, free
- Forums and blogs alongside private messaging
Where Briar falls short
- Android only; no iOS due to Apple background restrictions
- Messages sync only while the app is open, costing battery
- Contacts must be exchanged in person
- Not designed for everyday messaging
Standout feature. Messaging with the internet switched off: Briar is the only tool in this category that keeps working when the network is deliberately shut down.
Latvia
Founded 2026
See website
See website
Best for: Professionals wanting a European messenger built for DMA interoperability
BirdyChat is a bet on a rule change rather than on a feature. The EU Digital Markets Act requires large messaging platforms to open up to interoperability, and BirdyChat is built around that era arriving — a European messenger designed from the start to talk across apps rather than to become another walled garden. If interoperability lands as intended, an app architected for it has an advantage that no amount of feature development buys.
BirdyChat is based in Latvia, so EU-established with intra-EEA processing and GDPR compliance by jurisdiction rather than by arrangement, and is aimed at professional and team messaging rather than consumer chat.
It is also very new — launched in 2026 — and the honest assessment is that this is an early-stage product whose proposition depends on a regulatory outcome that has not fully arrived. There is no open-source code to inspect, the feature set is still forming, and pricing is published on the site rather than fixed here. Promising rather than proven.
What BirdyChat does well
- Built around EU Digital Markets Act interoperability
- Latvian company, EU jurisdiction, intra-EEA processing
- Aimed at professional and team messaging
- GDPR compliance by establishment rather than arrangement
- A genuinely different bet from the walled-garden messengers
Where BirdyChat falls short
- Launched 2026, so early-stage and unproven
- Not open source
- Feature set still forming
- Its core advantage depends on how DMA interoperability lands
Standout feature. Designed for interoperability: BirdyChat is the only messenger here built on the assumption that messaging apps will have to talk to each other.
Lübeck, Germany
Founded 2024
Free for 10 users / from 99 EUR per month per workspace, flat
Free for 10 users
Best for: EU SMEs and agencies wanting German hosting without per-seat pricing
HansaChat removes the link between headcount and invoice, and for a growing team that is the whole argument.
Slack and Microsoft Teams scale with users, so onboarding a seasonal team, a group of contractors or a warehouse shift becomes a budget decision rather than an access decision. HansaChat charges per workspace: 99 EUR per month on annual billing for up to 100 users with 25 GB storage, or 199 EUR for 500 users and 100 GB. Past roughly fifteen people that wins on cost, and it keeps winning as the team grows.
HansaChat runs on IONOS Cloud in the EU with a data processing agreement under Article 28 GDPR, operated from Lübeck, with encrypted backups in Sweden and the UK.
It covers channels, direct messages, file sharing, audio and video calls with screen sharing, SSO and webhooks, and is free for up to 10 users. Two things deserve stating plainly because HansaChat states them itself.
There is no end-to-end encryption — TLS in transit and AES-256 at rest, the same posture as Slack — so a team that needs E2E should choose Wire instead. And HansaChat is operated by a single person, which is a real continuity risk to weigh against the pricing advantage rather than discover later.
What HansaChat does well
- Priced per workspace, not per seat — 99 EUR for up to 100 users
- German operator, IONOS Cloud in the EU, Art. 28 GDPR DPA
- Free for up to 10 users
- Channels, calls, screen sharing, SSO and webhooks
- Open about what it does not offer
Where HansaChat falls short
- No end-to-end encryption — TLS and at-rest only
- Operated by a single person, a genuine continuity risk
- Not open source
- Smaller integration ecosystem than Slack
Standout feature. A flat workspace price: HansaChat is the only team chat here where adding the fiftieth colleague costs nothing, which changes who gets an account at all.
Paris, France
Founded 2019
Free / Pro €4.99/user/month incl. tax (in-app) / Business €9.90/user/month excl. tax / Enterprise €9.90/user/month + €4,990/year
Free tier; 1-month free trial of the in-app Pro option
Best for: Individuals and organisations that want accounts with no phone number behind them and apps with a French security visa
Olvid is a French messenger, made by Olvid SAS in Paris, that needs no phone number and keeps no central user directory, so an Olvid account is not listed anywhere a stranger could search for it. The Olvid apps for Android and iOS are open source under AGPL-3.0, and Olvid has published the code of its distribution server as well, which means the part that moves messages can be read and not only the part that encrypts them.
Olvid holds ANSSI CSPN security visas for its iOS and Android apps, so the certification attaches to the software people install rather than to a data centre beneath it.
Olvid is free to use, with an in-app Pro option at €4.99 per user per month including tax and a one-month free trial of that option. For organisations, Olvid Business costs €9.90 per user per month excluding tax, and Olvid Enterprise costs €9.90 per user per month plus €4,990 a year and adds SSO and MDM.
The caveat with Olvid is the hosting. Olvid names Amazon Web Services as its host and does not say which AWS region the service runs in, so a French company sits on an American infrastructure provider in a location Olvid leaves unstated. Olvid states that its server only relays encrypted payloads, which limits what that provider holds, but a buyer whose procurement rules reach the subprocessor and the data location will have to ask Olvid for the region directly.
What Olvid does well
- No phone number and no central user directory
- Android and iOS apps open source under AGPL-3.0, with the distribution server code published
- ANSSI CSPN security visas for the iOS and Android apps
- Free tier, with a one-month trial of the in-app Pro option
- Business and Enterprise plans, with SSO and MDM on Enterprise
Where Olvid falls short
- Hosted on Amazon Web Services, a US infrastructure provider
- Olvid does not state which AWS region the service runs in
- No directory to search, so every contact has to be added deliberately
- Enterprise adds €4,990 a year on top of €9.90 per user per month
Standout feature. Certification on the client: Olvid holds ANSSI CSPN security visas for the iOS and Android apps themselves, which is where a messenger does its encrypting.
Munich, Germany
Founded 2014
Small Business €79/month for up to 25 users / Standard €3.45/user/month (25–500 users), billed annually / Professional on request
15-day free trial, no credit card
Best for: Public safety and healthcare organisations that want a business messenger hosted in Germany or on their own servers
Teamwire is a business messenger from Teamwire GmbH in Munich, founded in 2014 and aimed at public safety and healthcare organisations. Teamwire includes audit-proof archiving and integrates with LDAP, Active Directory and MDM systems, so accounts can follow the staff directory an organisation already maintains.
Teamwire hosts the service in Germany on IONOS Cloud, either in the public cloud or in a dedicated private cluster, and offers an on-premise installation for organisations that want the servers under their own roof.
With Teamwire the company is German and the servers are in Germany, and the on-premise route takes the hosting provider out of the chain altogether. Teamwire cites ISO 27001 and BSI C5 alongside its IONOS hosting, but the Teamwire hosting page does not make clear whether those certificates are held by Teamwire or by the data centre, so it is worth asking which entity the certificate names.
Teamwire Small Business costs €79 a month for up to 25 users, Teamwire Standard costs €3.45 per user per month for 25 to 500 users on annual billing, and Teamwire Professional is priced on request. Teamwire offers a 15-day free trial without a credit card. Teamwire is not open source, so what the Teamwire apps do with a message rests on Teamwire's own description rather than on code anyone can read.
What Teamwire does well
- Hosted in Germany on IONOS Cloud, as public cloud or a dedicated private cluster
- On-premise installation for organisations that want their own servers
- Audit-proof archiving built in
- LDAP/Active Directory and MDM integration
- Flat €79 a month for up to 25 users, and a 15-day trial with no credit card
Where Teamwire falls short
- Unclear whether the ISO 27001 and BSI C5 certificates are Teamwire's own or the data centre's
- Not open source
- Per-user pricing from 25 users, and Professional only on request
- No free tier, only a 15-day trial
Standout feature. Three places to put the servers: Teamwire runs on IONOS Cloud in Germany, in a dedicated private cluster there, or on the customer's own hardware.
Munich, Germany
Founded 2020
ginlo Private free / ginlo Business from €3.57/user/month incl. 19% VAT (education €1.19)
Free (Private); 30-day free trial (Business)
Best for: Schools, practices and firms that want a managed messenger with servers only in Germany
ginlo is a messenger from ginlo.net Gesellschaft für Datenkommunikationsdienste mbH in Munich, offered as two editions: ginlo Private, a free app for personal use, and ginlo Business, a managed edition for schools, practices and firms.
ginlo Business costs from €3.57 per user per month including 19% VAT, with an education price of €1.19, and comes with a 30-day free trial. Administrators handle ginlo Business licences in a Management Cockpit. ginlo keeps its servers in Germany only, in an ISO 27001 (IT-Grundschutz) certified data centre.
The caveat with ginlo is who runs that data centre. ginlo does not name the operator anywhere on its site, so a buyer can confirm the country and the certificate but not the company operating the hardware. ginlo does not publish its source code either, so the ginlo apps have to be taken on the vendor's description.
What ginlo does well
- A free private app alongside a paid business edition
- Servers in Germany only, in an ISO 27001 (IT-Grundschutz) data centre
- ginlo Business from €3.57 per user per month including VAT
- Education pricing at €1.19
- Management Cockpit for licences, and a 30-day Business trial
Where ginlo falls short
- The operator of ginlo's data centre is not named
- The hosting chain can be checked as far as country and certificate, not provider
- Not open source
- Prices include 19% VAT, so compare them with care against net prices elsewhere
Standout feature. Private and business in one product line: ginlo gives private users a free app and gives schools, practices and firms a managed business edition, with servers only in Germany.
Freiburg, Germany
Free and open source
Free
Best for: People who would rather choose, or run, the server their messages pass through
Delta Chat is an end-to-end encrypted messenger built on email standards, from merlinux GmbH in Freiburg, and there is no central Delta Chat server: messages travel over chatmail relays or over any email server the user picks. With Delta Chat the operator of the server is whoever the user chose, which can be a public relay, a provider the user already trusts, or the user.
Delta Chat is free and open source: the core is published under MPL-2.0, the Android app under GPL-3.0 and the chatmail relay software under MIT, so an organisation can read the client core and the relay code and run a relay of its own. Delta Chat supports multiple profiles and multiple devices.
The caveat with Delta Chat is the default setting. The default Delta Chat relay, nine.testrun.org, is run by testrun UG i.G., also in Freiburg, which is a different company from merlinux, and the relay's privacy policy does not name the hosting provider underneath it. A Delta Chat user who accepts the default is therefore relying on a second company and an unnamed hoster, and one who picks another relay should check who runs that one instead.
What Delta Chat does well
- No central Delta Chat server; chatmail relays or any email server carry the messages
- Free and open source, with the core under MPL-2.0 and the Android app under GPL-3.0
- Relay software under MIT, so an organisation can run its own relay
- Multiple profiles and multiple devices
- Made by merlinux GmbH in Freiburg, under German jurisdiction
Where Delta Chat falls short
- The default relay is run by testrun UG i.G., a different company from merlinux
- The hosting provider behind the default relay nine.testrun.org is not named
- Where messages pass depends on the relay chosen, so the data-location answer varies per user
- Vetting a relay is left to the user
Standout feature. An operator you pick: Delta Chat has no central server, so the relay carrying a conversation is run by whoever the user chose, the user included.
