Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

GitHub Desktop VS Mattermost

Compare GitHub Desktop VS Mattermost and see what are their differences

Note: These products don't have any matching categories. If you think this is a mistake, please edit the details of one of the products and suggest appropriate categories.

GitHub Desktop logo GitHub Desktop

GitHub Desktop is a seamless way to contribute to projects on GitHub and GitHub Enterprise.

Mattermost logo Mattermost

Mattermost is an open source alternative to Slack.
  • GitHub Desktop Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-05-02
  • Mattermost Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-21

GitHub Desktop features and specs

  • User-Friendly Interface
    GitHub Desktop offers a clean, intuitive GUI that simplifies the Git process, making it accessible for beginners and less technical users.
  • Seamless GitHub Integration
    The application is tightly integrated with GitHub, allowing users to easily clone repositories, create branches, and submit pull requests directly through the desktop interface.
  • Cross-Platform Support
    GitHub Desktop is available on both Windows and macOS, offering a consistent experience across these major operating systems.
  • Simplifies Workflow
    Features like drag-and-drop to add files, visual diff tools, and easy branching help streamline the workflow for users.
  • Collaborative Features
    The app provides useful collaborative tools such as reviewing changes, creating requests, and viewing history, enhancing team productivity.

Possible disadvantages of GitHub Desktop

  • Limited Advanced Features
    While GitHub Desktop is great for basic tasks, it lacks advanced features found in other Git clients like GitKraken or the command line.
  • Dependency on GitHub
    The app is deeply integrated with GitHub, which can be limiting for users who want to interact with repositories hosted on other platforms like GitLab or Bitbucket.
  • Performance Issues
    Some users report performance issues when dealing with large repositories or a significant number of files, which can hinder productivity.
  • Customization Limitations
    GitHub Desktop offers limited customization options compared to other Git clients or the command line, which may be a drawback for power users.
  • Offline Limitations
    Certain features of GitHub Desktop require an internet connection to interact with GitHub, limiting its usability in offline scenarios.

Mattermost features and specs

  • Open Source
    Mattermost is open-source, which allows organizations to customize and extend the platform to fit their specific needs. This also means that the community can contribute to the development and improvement of the software.
  • Security
    Being self-hosted or hosted in a private cloud, Mattermost offers strong security controls, making it suitable for industries with stringent compliance requirements.
  • Flexibility
    Mattermost supports a wide range of plugins and integrations with other tools and services, providing a high degree of flexibility in customization.
  • Team Collaboration
    The platform provides comprehensive team collaboration features, including direct messages, group chats, and file sharing, which streamline communication and project management.
  • Scalability
    Mattermost is designed to handle large-scale deployments, making it suitable for enterprises with significant user bases.

Possible disadvantages of Mattermost

  • Complex Setup
    Setting up Mattermost can be complex and may require considerable time and technical expertise, particularly for self-hosted deployments.
  • Cost
    While the basic version is free, advanced features and enterprise-grade support come at a cost which can be expensive for smaller organizations.
  • Maintenance
    Self-hosting Mattermost requires ongoing maintenance, including updates and security patches, which can be resource-intensive.
  • Learning Curve
    New users may experience a learning curve due to the platform's comprehensive set of features and customization options.
  • Mobile Experience
    The mobile app, while functional, is often considered less polished and feature-rich compared to the desktop version, which might affect user experience on the go.

Analysis of Mattermost

Overall verdict

  • Mattermost is a strong choice for teams and organizations looking for a secure, customizable, and self-hosted collaboration tool. While it may require more setup than some cloud-based alternatives, the customization and control it offers can be a significant benefit.

Why this product is good

  • Mattermost is considered a good platform for its open-source nature, which provides flexibility and control over data, making it a popular choice for organizations with specific security and compliance needs. It offers robust features for team collaboration, including messaging, file sharing, and integrations with other services. The ability to customize and extend the platform to fit unique organizational workflows is another advantage.

Recommended for

    Mattermost is recommended for organizations that prioritize data privacy and security, need extensive customization options, or are looking to integrate a collaboration tool into existing systems. It is also suitable for teams in regulated industries requiring on-premises solutions.

GitHub Desktop videos

GitHub Desktop 2.0 -- Easy Mode Version Control

More videos:

  • Review - GitHub Desktop Quick Intro For Windows
  • Tutorial - Git and GitHub for Beginners: GitHub basics, and how to use GitHub Desktop

Mattermost videos

Mattermost - An Open Source, Self Hosted, Slack Chat Alternative

More videos:

  • Review - Demo of Mattermost Basics | Features end users love
  • Review - Getting Started with Mattermost

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to GitHub Desktop and Mattermost)
Git
100 100%
0% 0
Communication
0 0%
100% 100
Code Collaboration
100 100%
0% 0
Group Chat & Notifications

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare GitHub Desktop and Mattermost

GitHub Desktop Reviews

Best Git GUI Clients of 2022: All Platforms Included
Creating branches and switching to existing ones isnโ€™t a hassle, so is merging code with the master branch. Furthermore, you can track your changes with GitHub Desktop. Check out our detailed guide on how to use GitHub for more detailed information.
Boost Development Productivity With These 14 Git Clients for Windows and Mac
GitHub Desktop is the global standard for working with Git-related tasks in a graphical user interface (GUI). It is an open-source tool and hence completely free to use for all sorts of projects. It is available for both Windows and macOS desktops and laptops.
Source: geekflare.com
Best Git GUI Clients for Windows
GitHub Desktop is, perhaps, the most famous solution for working with Git in a visual interface. It is familiar to all developers keeping their repositories on GitHub (Git repository hosting service used for version-controlling IT projects). This free Git GUI is open-source, transparent, and functional. When you consider the Git graphical interface for Windows, GitHub...
Source: blog.devart.com

Mattermost Reviews

Top 10 Best Enterprise Instant Messaging Software [2026]
Mattermost is an open-source platform that enables safe collaboration in self-hosted chat programs featuring file sharing, search, and integrations; groups and businesses can use it as an internal chat.
Source: www.contus.com
7 best Mattermost alternatives for secure business messaging
Mattermost uses monolithic architecture, which is tightly coupled and complex to understand. It restricts the scalability of the collaboration tool, which is a limitation for growing businesses. In that case, businesses explore Mattermost alternatives that support scalability.
Source: www.rocket.chat
12 Best Self-hosted Chat Platforms For Team Communication
Below is a curated list of the 12 best self-hosted messaging apps like MirrorFly, Mattermost, Zulio, Nextcloud, and Rocket.chat that offer unique collaboration features and lets you take full control of your data.
10 Best Telegram Alternatives in 2024
Mattermost is the most widely used Social platforms for any companies specially IT sectors, and it serves as one of the top Telegram alternatives. Provides easy-to-setup interface with fast performance. This app is designed for file sharing, searching options and also to allow user internal chat facility. Mattermost is the alternative for telegram and microsoft teams apps.
Top 5 Voice Messaging Apps To Keep Teams Connected
Some business conversations are private and cannot be discussed on third-party servers. If you are looking for a secure app to use for your conversations, consider using Mattermost. The app is open-source where you will need to have it downloaded and installed on the servers of your company. This is one of the video messaging apps that are self-hosted. With this app, you can...

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, GitHub Desktop should be more popular than Mattermost. It has been mentiond 136 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

GitHub Desktop mentions (136)

  • You too can Git it: A beginners guide to connecting Git and GitHub
    Optional: You can also download GitHub Desktop (https://desktop.github.com) if you prefer a GUI version, but this guide focuses on Git Bash to understand the basics. - Source: dev.to / 6 months ago
  • How to Fix the Issue of Not Being Able to View Your GitHub Account on Other Devices
    Download the latest version from the GitHub Desktop website. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • 12 Steps to Organize and Maintain Your Python Codebase for Beginners
    Iโ€™m not going to dive into Git commands here โ€” you can find plenty of tutorials online. If youโ€™re not a fan of using the plain terminal CLI, you can also manage repositories with tools like GitHub Desktop or SourceTree, which provide a more visual, intuitive interface. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • File Governance and Versioning in Corticon BRMS
    Using terminal commands isnโ€™t necessary for basic adoption of Git with Corticon Studio files, though. There are various tools that will allow us to bypass the command line when defining rules, including the built-in Eclipse plugin for Git version control. If youโ€™ll be storing your assets on GitHub, though, an even easier solution is GitHub Desktop, a free desktop software that GitHub offers. It can be used in... - Source: dev.to / almost 2 years ago
  • An Introduction to Nix for Ruby Developers
    Nix currently is akin to git's "porcelain": powerful but esoteric. However, much like git evolved into exoteric, user-friendly tools such as git-flow, GitHub Desktop, and Tower to become user-friendly, many developers are building abstractions, wrappers, and utilities to simplify Nix usage. Let's briefly look at a few of these tools now. - Source: dev.to / almost 2 years ago
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Mattermost mentions (74)

  • Radicle: Sovereign {code forge} built on Git
    How does it compare to MatterMost [1]? [1] https://mattermost.com/. - Source: Hacker News / 2 months ago
  • 5 Open Source Alternatives Worth Considering Before Renewing Expensive SaaS Tools
    Slack's value is real, especially for cross-company conversations with clients and vendors. But for internal communication in companies that care about data residency or audit requirements, Mattermost is a credible self-hosted alternative. The source is on GitHub and the Mattermost deployment guide covers the install on Docker, Kubernetes, and most Linux distributions. - Source: dev.to / 4 months ago
  • Anthropic, Please Make a New Slack
    For those who may have forgotten, Mattermost is quite good these days: https://mattermost.com/. - Source: Hacker News / 5 months ago
  • France dumps Zoom and Teams as Europe seeks digital autonomy from the US
    Despite their confusion as to whether they want to really support their free and open source versions (without some absurd user count cliff), Mattermost (https://mattermost.com) is quite excellent and IMO is better than Slack. For example, editor leans towards native Markdown so things like syntax highlighting with backticks work as you expect. Their recent update removed the paywall from SSO (and unfortunately... - Source: Hacker News / 6 months ago
  • Mattermost limited free version to 10000 messages
    Black businesswomen? Firefighters? White servicemen? White software developers? I really don't get what you're implying. I don't see any problem with the photos on the mattermost front page. https://mattermost.com/. - Source: Hacker News / 7 months ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing GitHub Desktop and Mattermost, you can also consider the following products

GitKraken - The intuitive, fast, and beautiful cross-platform Git client.

Slack - A messaging app for teams who see through the Earth!

SourceTree - Mac and Windows client for Mercurial and Git.

Rocket.Chat - Rocket.Chat is a Web Chat Server, developed in JavaScript, using the Meteor fullstack framework.

SmartGit - SmartGit is a front-end for the distributed version control system Git and runs on Windows, Mac OS...

Element.io - Secure messaging app with strong end-to-end encryption, advanced group chat privacy settings, secure video calls for teams, encrypted communication using Matrix open network. Riot.im is now Element.