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Business Instant Messaging

Stackfield

EU-Made Report an error

Panel rating · 6 judges · How to read the stars

Category median

Sovereignty: not determined

0–5 in half steps. 5 means the rubric's top anchor is met on the evidence.

by Stackfield GmbH · www.stackfield.com

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Stackfield: AI-assisted analysis on whats-best.ai Stackfield: AI-assisted analysis on whats-best.ai (dark)

Add ?theme=dark to the image address for dark backgrounds. The badge shows the category and the month of the latest evaluation, and EU-Made where that is the product’s provenance. It never shows a score.

Stackfield at a glance

Vendor
Stackfield GmbH
Headquarters
Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 19 Oct 2026
Data hosting
Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 19 Oct 2026
Free plan
Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 19 Oct 2026
Starting price
“STARTER € 9 per User and Month (when paid yearly)” (vendor’s words) source, captured 21 Sep 2026
Panel verdict
The AI panel rates Stackfield 3/5, the mean of 6 judges. Stackfield is a business instant messaging product strongest where it advertises: encryption and access scored 8 to 9, on client-side AES and RSA encryption, per-room passwords, admin-enforceable policy, a whitepaper, and statements that neither the vendor nor its subcontractors can read enabled rooms. how scores are made
As of
Vendor pages captured 21 Sep 2026 to 19 Oct 2026; evaluated by the panel 20 Oct 2026. all sources

Stackfield alternatives, European ones first →

Read this page as one judge. Each weighs the same scores by what they care about.

The Skeptic

Weighted verdict

Reads for the message-history cap, the tier where SSO appears, and what "unlimited" excludes. Has seen "end-to-end encrypted" mean direct messages only, on request, with search disabled — and wants that sentence found rather than assumed.

Same scores as the panel view — this lens weights them the way this judge cares.

Scored by The Skeptic

Panel median The Skeptic This judge’s scores over the panel median. Each label opens its reasoning below.
Scores per criterion, in stars out of 5
Criterion Panel median The Skeptic
Channels, threads & search 2.5 of 5 2 of 5
Encryption & access control 4 of 5 4.5 of 5
Retention, discovery & co-determination 2 of 5 2.5 of 5
Deployment & data custody 3.5 of 5 3.5 of 5
Integrations & extensibility 3 of 5 3 of 5
European sovereignty 4 of 5 3.5 of 5
Pricing transparency 3.5 of 5 3.5 of 5

Channels, threads & search

How this is scored

The daily surface: channel model, threading, mentions, files, and whether search can find a decision made eighteen months ago.

0 — Flat group chats with no threads; search covers recent messages only, and history is capped.

3 — Channels and direct messages with basic search, but threading is awkward or absent and file handling is a plain attachment list.

5 — Public and private channels, real threads, mentions and reactions, file sharing with previews, and full-text search across the whole history.

8 — Cross-organisation or guest channels with clear boundaries, message editing history, pinned and saved items, search with filters by channel, person and date, and a documented history limit or none at all.

10 — The archive is a working knowledge base: search that ranks well across years, threads that stay readable, channel lifecycle management (archive, rename, merge) without losing history, and export of a conversation in a form a human can read.

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The Skeptic

Rooms and direct messages with @-mentions and @all, a real file module with folders and version history, and archive-and-restore for rooms with everything logged. The only search evidence is a passing mention that global search reaches archived rooms — we found no public information on search filters, ranking, or a documented history limit — and I found no evidence of threading inside the chat itself, only separate discussions and comments. 6 7 11 1

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Encryption & access control

How this is scored

What is encrypted and against whom, plus who can reach which room. Judged on documented mechanism, since "encrypted" in this category usually means the vendor holds the keys.

0 — Transport encryption only, undocumented; no role model beyond admin, guests indistinguishable from members.

3 — TLS and encryption at rest with vendor-held keys, basic roles, and guest access that mostly works.

5 — The above plus configurable roles per channel, SSO, guest accounts with scoped visibility, and a clear statement of what the vendor can read.

8 — Optional end-to-end encryption for direct messages or private rooms with the trade-offs named, device verification, session management an admin can revoke, and documented key handling.

10 — End-to-end encryption as a first-class mode — documented or open cryptography, cross-device key management that ordinary users survive, identity verification, and the vendor stating plainly what it cannot decrypt.

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The Skeptic

The sentence I look for is actually there: end-to-end encryption is optional per room and for direct messages with admin toggles (always, never, or creator's choice), AES and RSA are named, a whitepaper exists, and the vendor states plainly it holds no room keys and cannot read enabled rooms even under court order. The trade-off is named too — exporting encrypted data is blocked unless an admin explicitly allows it. We found no public information on device verification or admin-revocable sessions, which keeps it below the top. 9 10 8 7

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Retention, discovery & co-determination

How this is scored

The archive as a legal object: retention policies, export for discovery, audit, and the monitoring features a works council will ask to have switched off.

0 — No retention policy, no export beyond a manual copy, no audit log, and presence or activity analytics that cannot be disabled.

3 — Manual export of some data and a global history limit, but no per-channel retention, no audit log and no admin control over analytics.

5 — Configurable retention per channel or workspace, admin export in a documented format, an audit log of administrative actions, and status or presence that a user can control.

8 — Legal-hold and eDiscovery export including edits and deletions, retention executed per policy and evidenced, full admin audit trail, and activity analytics switchable off organisation-wide.

10 — Built to pass a works agreement and a subpoena on the same day: granular retention with documented deletion, discovery export a lawyer can use, complete audit, and no individual-level productivity scoring anywhere in the product.

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The Skeptic

Automated deletion rules exist but only from the Premium package, export is documented as PDF, CSV or Excel with a global export reserved for the top tier, and there is an organization-settings change report plus archiving actions documented with who and when. We found no public information on legal hold, eDiscovery export including edits and deletions, or whether the last-login reporting can be switched off. 8 5 10 11 2

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Deployment & data custody

How this is scored

Whether the customer can hold their own archive: self-hosting, private cloud, open source, federation, and what an exit actually looks like.

0 — Cloud-only, proprietary, with export limited to a partial archive.

3 — Cloud-only, but with a documented full export in an open-ish format.

5 — A private-cloud or dedicated-instance option, or a self-hosted edition that lags the cloud significantly; full export documented.

8 — A genuine self-hosted edition close to feature parity, or open-source core with a documented upgrade path, plus complete export including files and metadata.

10 — Custody is the customer's: open-source or source-available server, self-hosting supported as a first-class deployment, open protocol or federation, and a migration path in and out that the vendor documents rather than resists.

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The Skeptic

A genuine on-premise edition on the customer's own servers, runnable without internet, plus a private-cloud variant, with a vendor-run migration project for moving from cloud to on-premise — the exit is documented rather than resisted. On-premise carries a minimum order of 100 licenses and a single range of functions, and we found no public information on an open-source edition or any open protocol and federation. 12 13 10 2

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Integrations & extensibility

How this is scored

Bots, webhooks, app framework, identity — whether the chat becomes the place work is noticed, and whether that is buildable without a partner agreement.

0 — No API, no webhooks, no bots.

3 — Incoming webhooks and a handful of native integrations; no bot framework, no documented limits.

5 — Documented REST API, incoming and outgoing webhooks, slash commands, a bot account model, and SSO.

8 — A proper app framework with interactive components, event subscriptions with retries, SCIM provisioning, documented rate limits and a sandbox.

10 — A platform: versioned API with a deprecation policy, an app directory or plugin system with permissions a customer can audit, and integrations the vendor maintains rather than lists.

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The Skeptic

A documented API with error codes, incoming webhooks with optional JWT, an event-style webhook list covering messages, tasks, user and room events, a Microsoft Teams integration with synced rights that admins can disable, and user provisioning via the API — though provisioning sits in the top tier. We found no public information on a bot framework, slash commands, documented rate limits, or a sandbox. 14 15 8 2

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European sovereignty

How this is scored

Where the archive and its metadata live, who the contracting entity is, which subprocessors touch it. Independently sourced by the sovereignty pipeline; scored here as this buyer weighs it.

0 — Non-EU vendor and contracting entity, hosting unstated or non-EU, subprocessors unnamed.

3 — EU data residency offered for message content while metadata, search indexes or support tooling remain non-EU, or the contracting entity sits outside the EU.

5 — EU hosting as standard and an EU contracting entity, but parts of the chain — notifications, AI features, analytics — are non-EU without an explained safeguard.

8 — EU hosting on named infrastructure, EU contracting entity, full subprocessor list published, any non-EU processing named with its legal basis.

10 — Sovereign end to end and evidenced: vendor, entity, hosting and every subprocessor European, certification published, and a self-hosted option that removes the question.

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The Skeptic

German contracting entity and jurisdiction with the register entry published, hosting in German data centers, subcontractors stated to be EU-only with no AWS, Google Cloud or Azure, and ISO 27001, 27017, 27018 plus BSI C5 with downloadable certificates. But the data centers and subcontractors are described, not named — we found no public information on a published subprocessor list or named infrastructure — and a self-hosted option exists, so custody can at least be taken in-house. 3 4 5 8 12

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Pricing transparency

How this is scored

Whether a buyer can compute the annual invoice for their headcount — including the retention, compliance and guest features they actually need — from public pages alone.

0 — No public prices at all; every tier is a sales conversation.

3 — A per-user headline exists, but the tier where retention control, SSO or compliance export begins is unstated.

5 — Per-user prices public with billing period stated, but at least one commonly needed capability (unlimited history, SSO, eDiscovery) sits in an unpriced enterprise tier.

8 — Every tier priced publicly with per-user maths, history and storage limits, feature boundaries, minimum term and VAT treatment stated; self-hosted licensing priced too where offered.

10 — Complete price computability: annual invoice derivable for a given headcount and deployment choice, including guest users, storage and any per-instance licence.

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The Skeptic

Four tiers priced publicly at € 9, € 14, € 18 and € 28 per user and month when paid yearly, VAT stated as net and exclusive, add-ons priced, and the tier boundaries I read for are visible: single sign-on and global export sit at € 28, deletion rules at Premium, unlimited externals from Premium. We found no public information on the on-premise licence price beyond the 100-license minimum, on storage limits, or on a minimum contract term. 2 2 12 8

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European sovereignty — proven facts

0 of 4 dimensions proven

Built only from facts shown on the vendor's own pages. A dimension we could not prove is left open, not scored as zero.

Ownership Not determined — uncited Report an error
Data residency Not determined ⚠ unverified — uncited Report an error
Subprocessors Not determined ⚠ unverified — uncited Report an error

Questions about Stackfield

Is Stackfield European?

Yes. whats-best.ai classifies Stackfield as EU-Made.

Where does Stackfield store data?

Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 19 Oct 2026.

Does Stackfield have a free plan?

Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 19 Oct 2026.

What are the best alternatives to Stackfield?

As of 21 Oct 2026, the panel rates Element (3.5/5), Mattermost (3.5/5) and Wire (Messaging) (3/5) highest among the other 19 Business Instant Messaging products evaluated. Ratings that look equal are rounded to half stars; the order uses the unrounded rating, then the name. The highest-rated European alternative is Element (UK / wider Europe). Ratings are the AI panel’s opinion, formed from public evidence: how scores are made. The full list, with European products first: Stackfield alternatives.

Where this could be wrong

What we left out

A claim that does not survive our checks costs us the claim, not the page. This is what was taken off this one.

Do you know more about Stackfield? Tell us Report an error on this page

Sources (15)

The pages every claim on this page was read from — each one checked, dated, and kept verifiable.

  1. 1 Vendor homepage www.stackfield.com Checked 19 Oct 2026 Details →
  2. 2 Pricing www.stackfield.com Checked 19 Oct 2026 +3 earlier captures: 13 Oct 2026, 30 Sep 2026, 21 Sep 2026 Details →
  3. 3 Imprint www.stackfield.com Checked 19 Oct 2026 Details →
  4. 4 Privacy policy www.stackfield.com Checked 19 Oct 2026 Details →
  5. 5 Security / trust page www.stackfield.com Checked 19 Oct 2026 Details →
  6. 6 Channels, threads & search — found from sitemap www.stackfield.com Checked 19 Oct 2026 Details →
  7. 7 Channels, threads & search — found from sitemap www.stackfield.com Checked 19 Oct 2026 Details →
  8. 8 Encryption & access control — found from sitemap www.stackfield.com Checked 19 Oct 2026 Details →
  9. 9 Encryption & access control — found from sitemap www.stackfield.com Checked 19 Oct 2026 Details →
  10. 10 Retention, discovery & co-determination — found from sitemap www.stackfield.com Checked 19 Oct 2026 Details →
  11. 11 Retention, discovery & co-determination — found from sitemap www.stackfield.com Checked 19 Oct 2026 Details →
  12. 12 Deployment & data custody — found from sitemap www.stackfield.com Checked 19 Oct 2026 Details →
  13. 13 Deployment & data custody — found from sitemap www.stackfield.com Checked 19 Oct 2026 Details →
  14. 14 Integrations & extensibility — found from sitemap www.stackfield.com Checked 19 Oct 2026 Details →
  15. 15 Integrations & extensibility — found from sitemap www.stackfield.com Checked 19 Oct 2026 Details →