The Pros and Cons of a Self-Hosted Encrypted Chat Server

The world of business communication has changed dramatically in the last decade, and it shows no signs of slowing down. That’s why some businesses are choosing to bypass the traditional solutions of SaaS chat solutions like Troop Messenger, Slack, HipChat, and Yammer and deploy their own on-premise chat server instead. In this article, we’ll talk about both the advantages and disadvantages of such a decision and help you decide if it’s right for your company.

The present day chat platforms have proven themselves to be an important part of our daily routine. This is due to their easy accessibility which makes them so popular. The most common platforms are Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Google Hangouts, Viber, Skype etc. These chat applications use insecure methods for exchanging messages such as username & password or plain text data transferred over internet using https protocol but still aren’t secure due to man in middle attacks which can compromise your account details. But what about using self hosted encrypted chat server which provides end-to-end encryption between two parties involved in communication? Let’s look at some of pros and cons in brief...

Security

Using on-premise chat tools, such as an encrypted chat server, can be more secure than having all your conversations take place through an online service. Why? If you host your own encrypted chat server on your own computer, it’s only available to those who have access to your machine. If someone does breach your security, they won’t get any personal or sensitive information from anyone else in that chat room—they will only get information from you. However, there are some cons to using a self-hosted encrypted chat server: for example, even if you have it on premise (or locally hosted), other people may not use their local machines for convenience or if their local machine isn’t always connected.

Scalability

If you have one chat server, there’s no problem. If your business has 10 employees, however, suddenly one chat server may not be enough. A self-hosted encrypted chat server offers lots of options when it comes to scalability; you can increase or decrease capacity at any time without incurring additional costs. The bottom line is that a self-hosted encrypted chat server gives you full control over how many servers are running in your network—there’s no outside service to worry about maintaining or on which you depend for management.

Support

The biggest issue with self-hosting an encrypted chat server is support, or lack thereof. When you use any chat service hosted by someone else, be it Facebook Messenger or Slack, you have some recourse if something goes wrong—you can reach out to those services directly. With a self-hosted encrypted chat server, your only option is reaching out to whomever set up the server in the first place. If they no longer work there or have set up shop elsewhere, that's where you're stuck. Many people decide to forego support entirely by using a virtual private network (VPN) as part of their setup; when issues arise, they bypass whoever runs their business's encrypted chat servers altogether.

Control

If you’re not interested in owning your chat data, that is, if you prefer to leave it stored somewhere else for convenience sake—maybe to sync it across devices or maybe because you don’t want to handle IT—you may want a third party host. You can also choose from either hosted or self-hosted chat apps. Self-hosted encrypted chat apps allow you to control everything from where your data is stored to who has access (though less technically savvy folks might prefer hosted options). But self-hosting does present some challenges: for one thing, setting up a good encrypted chat server is no easy task. And maintenance costs can be high if multiple people work on your project.

Cost

A self-hosted encrypted chat server can cost as little as $50 per month or up to $500 per month. That’s much less than an on-premise chat service like Troop Messenger, Cisco Webex that runs anywhere from $1,499 to $8,000 per year, depending on features. However, for DIY types who want to maintain control over their data at all times, these costs are well worth it. (Learn more about what on premise means.)

Conclusion

Aside from on-premise chat servers, hosted solutions are always going to be cheaper, but they will always come with their own security risks. The beauty of a self-hosted solution is that you know exactly where your data is; if it’s encrypted on your own server, only someone who has physical access to that machine can access your messages. Given how easy it is for hackers to gain entry through poorly secured or outdated software and vulnerable networks, there’s no reason not to take advantage of technology which gives you more control over what happens with your data.