Short answer: Self-hosted team chat or a cloud workspace. Put the current file, the decision and the next owner in one channel. Basic is 9 USD per paid account a month, or 86 USD a year, with 25 GiB. The trial is 3 days. The iPhone and iPad app is coming soon. The encryption scope is on the security page.
A server you run is a different job from a hosted app. Mattermost and Rocket.Chat are the self-managed names on this site. Confirm each license.
Author: BusyVault ·
Running the server is part of the product
A hosted app means the vendor runs the service and you run the project. A self-hosted app means your team also patches, backs up and restores the server. Mattermost and Rocket.Chat are the self-managed options named on this site. BusyVault's public app is hosted. Enterprise self-hosting runs on your servers under a separate contract. Neither choice is a score.
Price the work, not the logo
Add the hours for backups and access reviews to a self-hosted quote. Add the per-account price to the hosted quote: Basic 9 USD or Pro 30 USD a month, plus 0.03 USD per extra GiB. Confirm the other vendor's license on their site. Do not copy a dollar figure this page does not print. Slack alternatives
Two ways to run BusyVault
The public BusyVault app is hosted. You run the project. Enterprise self-hosting runs on your servers under a separate contract, and then your team also patches, backs up and restores. Mattermost and Rocket.Chat remain the names on this site when self-managing a chat server is the starting requirement. Add the hours for that work to a self-hosted quote. Add Basic at 9 USD or Pro at 30 USD a month, plus 0.03 USD per extra GiB, to the hosted quote. Confirm the other vendor's license on their own site. Neither path is a score.
Price the operating work
Hosted BusyVault means the service runs the servers and you run the project, at Basic 9 USD or Pro 30 USD a month per paid account, plus 0.03 USD per extra GiB. Enterprise self-hosting means your team runs the servers under a separate contract. That contract is how self-hosting is sold. It is not a file on the download page. Mattermost and Rocket.Chat are the other names when you want to operate a chat server as the default. Add patching, backups and access reviews to that quote, and confirm the license on the vendor's site. Compare those two shapes of work. Do not compare logos. A team that cannot name who would restore a server is not choosing self-hosting. It is hoping.
Worked example for this guide
Use “Self-hosted team chat or a cloud workspace” on one project that is already late, not as a policy for the whole company. Write the current file name, the decision and the next owner in the same channel before the day ends. A teammate who was away should find that trio without opening the call recording. If they cannot, the article has not been applied yet. Repeat the check the next morning. Count a written handover as done only when the second person opens the right file first.
Files, history and the next owner
On Self-hosted team chat or a cloud workspace, keep the file next to the sentence that approved it. Slack documents a 1 GB cap on one upload and, on the Free plan, 90 days of visible history. Those two limits are the public facts this site already cites.
BusyVault bills storage per paid account: 25 GiB on Basic and 100 GiB on Pro. Extra storage is 0.03 USD per GiB a month after you confirm the charge. Basic is 9 USD a month or 86 USD a year. Pro is 30 USD a month or 288 USD a year. One subscription does not cover the team.
The trial is 3 days and 10 GiB. Use it to upload a real file and to search for a decision, not to announce a company-wide move. If the file does not fit or the old decision cannot be found, say so in the channel before you promise the room is the archive.
Where the app runs
BusyVault runs in the browser and can be installed from Chrome or Edge on Windows, macOS and Linux. The Android app is on Google Play and uses the same account. The iPhone and iPad app is coming soon. Enterprise customers can run BusyVault on their own servers under a separate contract. There is no public installer on this site for that path. This page does not claim SOC 2, ISO 27001 or HIPAA.
A check you can finish this week
For Self-hosted team chat or a cloud workspace, finish four lines and stop. Line one is the project name. Line two is the channel name. Line three is where the current file lives. Line four is the next owner. Add one rule for meetings: what must be decided live, and what must be written down the same day.
Ask someone who was not on the call to find the file without help. If they open the right channel first, the structure works. If they search three threads and still ask which version is current, move the file to the channel and leave a pointer. Owners and administrators can export a BusyVault backup from workspace or channel settings. After a restore, check the text, the file references and who can open them. Keep the original files until that check passes. Product questions go to the address on the support page.