Frequently asked questions
Every answer, in one place
Enclessa is a hosted collaboration platform with direct messages that are end-to-end encrypted by default — an unencrypted one exists only where the organisation allows it, and it is labelled as such — video calls, and twelve optional modules covering boards, GitHub, projects, customers, contracts, bookings, cards, mail, time tracking, people, a ledger connector and an assistant, run in the European Union by a company established in Germany. The questions below are grouped by subject and answered without hedging, including the ones where the answer is that something does not exist yet.
Open betaThe platform is being built in the open, so parts of it are not there yet, behaviour changes between releases, and no availability figure is committed while it is in beta. What is still being built.
About Enclessa
About Enclessa
Is Enclessa in beta?
Enclessa is in open beta: anybody can create a workspace today, without an invitation and without a waiting list. The platform is being built in the open, so parts of it are not there yet, behaviour changes between releases, and no availability figure is committed while it is in beta. What is on this site is what is built: the messaging, encryption, calls and modules described here work today, the limits are stated on the page that claims the capability, and the roadmap says what is still missing. Beta does not mean the free plan expires or that data is treated as disposable — a full organisation export is available throughout.
What is Enclessa?
Enclessa is a hosted collaboration platform for organisations, currently in open beta, combining team messaging with channels and threads, end-to-end encrypted direct messages, video calls with screen sharing, and twelve optional modules covering boards, GitHub, projects, customers, contracts, bookings, employee cards, mail, time tracking, personnel records, a ledger connector and an assistant. It is a commercial software-as-a-service product, run in the European Union by a German company, with a free plan and paid plans priced per member.
Do I need to install or host anything to use Enclessa?
No, and there is no version of Enclessa you can install. It is a hosted service: you create a workspace, it is reachable at your-team.enclessa.app, and we operate the infrastructure. Organisations that need a deployment of their own buy it on the Enterprise plan, where we run dedicated infrastructure for them rather than handing over software to run.
Where is Enclessa hosted and who is the seller?
Enclessa is hosted in a single European Union region and sold by a company established in Germany, so EU VAT applies and is shown separately on every invoice.
Is Enclessa open source?
No. Enclessa is a commercial software-as-a-service product and the source is not published. What is published is the part a buyer actually has to check: the architecture, the data model, the OpenAPI surface, the subprocessor list and the encryption design. The encryption itself is MLS per RFC 9420 through OpenMLS, an open standard and an audited open-source implementation, so the guarantee does not rest on anything of ours being trusted.
Is there a free plan?
Yes. The Free plan is permanent rather than a trial: a small team gets channels, threads, end-to-end encrypted direct messages and video calls without a payment card. Paid plans add the optional modules, longer retention and higher limits.
Which parts of Enclessa are end-to-end encrypted?
Direct messages and group direct messages are always end-to-end encrypted using MLS per RFC 9420. Channels are managed, meaning the server can read them, which is what makes full-text search, retention policies and compliance export possible.
Can several organisations share one account?
Yes. One account can hold a membership in several organisations and switch between them from the sidebar without signing in again, seeing in each exactly what that membership allows and nothing of the others.
Which clients does Enclessa have?
The web application is available today and a macOS desktop application is in development. Mobile applications for iOS and Android are planned and not yet available.
How much does Enclessa cost?
Enclessa has a free plan and three paid plans priced per active member per month, differing by which modules are included. Bots, guests and deactivated accounts are not counted as seats. Enterprise is quoted rather than listed, because it includes a dedicated deployment run for the organisation. See the pricing page for the current tiers.
Features
Features
Are Enclessa direct messages end-to-end encrypted?
Yes. Direct messages and group direct messages are always end-to-end encrypted using MLS as specified in RFC 9420. There is no administrator override and no server-side copy of the plaintext.
Can administrators read channel messages in Enclessa?
In managed channels the server can read messages, which is what makes full-text search, retention policies and compliance export possible. Whether an administrator may read them is a permission the organisation grants or withholds, and every access is written to the audit log. Direct messages are encrypted and cannot be read by anyone outside the conversation.
Does Enclessa support threads and Markdown?
Yes. Replies collapse into threads with a dedicated thread inbox, and messages support full Markdown including tables, syntax-highlighted code blocks and LaTeX.
Can I search messages in Enclessa?
Yes. Managed channels are indexed on the server with PostgreSQL full-text search, covering message text and text extracted from uploaded files, with modifiers such as in:, from:, before: and after:. Encrypted rooms are searched on your own device against a local encrypted index.
What encryption does Enclessa use?
Enclessa uses MLS, the Messaging Layer Security protocol standardised by the IETF as RFC 9420, implemented with the OpenMLS library. Each device holds its own key and the server holds none.
Can Enclessa or its hosting provider read my encrypted messages?
No. In end-to-end encrypted conversations the server stores only ciphertext, the group identifier, the epoch, the sending device and a timestamp. It has no key that can decrypt the content, so neither Enclessa nor a hosting provider nor anyone served with a request for the server can produce the plaintext.
What is forward secrecy and does Enclessa have it?
Forward secrecy means that compromising a key today does not expose messages sent before it. Enclessa has it, and also post-compromise security, which means the conversation becomes secure again once a compromised device is removed and the group re-keys. Both properties come from MLS.
What happens if I lose a device?
You remove it from your device list, which removes its leaf from every MLS group you are in and triggers a re-key, so the lost device can no longer decrypt anything sent afterwards. An encrypted key backup restores your history to a new device.
Does Enclessa have video calls and screen sharing?
Yes. Enclessa includes one-to-one and group audio and video calls with screen sharing, in-call chat, reactions, raise hand, a lobby and host controls, built on LiveKit and started directly from a channel or conversation.
Are Enclessa video calls encrypted?
All calls are encrypted in transit. In end-to-end encrypted rooms the media is additionally encrypted end to end, so the media server forwards streams it cannot decode.
How many people can join a Enclessa call?
The system is designed and instrumented for fifty participants per media node, with scale-out beyond that as an operational step. That is a design target rather than a measured result.
Can I record a Enclessa meeting?
Recording applies to managed rooms only and is not offered in end-to-end encrypted rooms, because recording would require decrypting the media outside the room. The recording pipeline accepts jobs today; delivery of finished recording files is still being completed.
Does Enclessa include a kanban board?
Yes, as an optional module. Enclessa task boards are kanban boards owned by a team, using that team’s roles, with cards that link back to the conversation the work came from. An operator switches the module on per organisation.
Do Enclessa boards need separate permissions?
No. A board inherits the roles of the team that owns it, so the people who can see the team’s channels are the people who can see its board, subject to the same permission bits.
Can Enclessa boards replace Jira?
No, and they are not meant to. Enclessa boards deliberately have no dependencies, automation rules, cross-board views or reporting charts. They are for teams that want the work next to the conversation, not for portfolio management.
Does Enclessa include time tracking?
Yes, as an optional module. Enclessa Time records attendance with breaks, project time against customers and projects, timesheets that are submitted and approved, absence against an entitlement ledger and an overtime balance.
Can employees edit their own recorded time?
They can file a correction, which supersedes the original entry rather than replacing it, so both the original and the change remain visible. Once a period is approved and locked it stops moving until it is explicitly reopened.
Does Enclessa Time store sickness reasons?
No. Sickness is recorded as an absence with no diagnosis field. A collaboration platform has no business holding medical detail, so there is nowhere to put it.
Does Enclessa do shift planning?
No. The absence planner shows who is away and when; it does not schedule shifts or rotas, and that is a deliberate scope decision rather than a gap waiting to be filled.
Does Enclessa include HR software?
Yes, as an optional module called People. It holds employee records, an organisational structure of units and positions, effective-dated employment history, governed documents with acknowledgements, self-service change requests, and onboarding and offboarding workflows.
Does Enclessa do payroll?
No. Enclessa People holds the master data and the time records that payroll depends on, and exports them, but it does not calculate wages or make payments.
Can a manager see their team members’ salaries in Enclessa?
Not unless the organisation grants that specific field. Permissions in Enclessa People resolve per field across seven roles, so a manager can be given their people’s records without their compensation.
Can Enclessa People store records for people who do not use the platform?
Yes. An employee record exists independently of a login, so contractors, field staff and anyone else who never signs in still has a personnel file and an entry on the org chart.
Does Enclessa have project management?
Enclessa has a Projects module: a record per project with an owner, a customer, dates, a budget, milestones, status updates, risks and decisions, linked to the boards and rooms the work happens in. It is not a scheduling tool — there is no dependency graph, critical path or resource levelling.
Do Projects require the task boards module?
No. Projects requires nothing. Boards, Time and Customers each add a panel to a project when they are installed, and cost that panel when they are not, but the smallest useful installation of Projects is a list of what the organisation is working on and who owns each one.
Can hours be booked against a project?
Yes, when the Time module is installed. Each project carries a switch for whether it appears in Time at all, and switching it off stops it accepting new hours without losing any hour already booked.
Does Enclessa include a CRM?
Enclessa has a Customers module that holds the companies an organisation works with, their contacts and addresses, an activity log and a follow-up date, together with the projects, hours and appointments that point at them. It is not a sales pipeline — there are no deals, stages, forecasts or quotas.
Can a customer sign in to Enclessa?
No. Contacts on a customer record are records rather than accounts and cannot sign in. The only surface somebody outside the organisation ever reaches is a booking page or a shared employee card, and neither of those is an account.
Who can see a customer’s invoicing details?
Only somebody holding the permission for them. Where nobody present holds it the fields are absent rather than blank, because a greyed-out box discloses that a figure exists.
Does Enclessa do contract management?
Yes, as an optional module that requires Customers. Enclessa Contracts builds a contract from the customer record using templates made of typed blocks and a shared clause library, checks it against a readiness report, and issues it as a deterministic PDF signed with the organisation’s own certificate and frozen.
How is an Enclessa contract signed?
With PAdES, using a PKCS#12 bundle the organisation supplies and Enclessa keeps sealed, and optionally an RFC 3161 timestamp. It is the organisation’s own seal on its own document. There is no qualified electronic signature and no counterparty signing ceremony.
Can a contract be changed after it is issued?
Not in place. Issuing freezes the document and everything under it, enforced by database triggers rather than by the interface. What exists instead is versions and amendments, which are new documents that reference the one they change.
Can customers book appointments with Enclessa?
Yes, through the optional Bookings module. Appointment types carry their own opening hours, duration and buffers, and somebody outside the organisation books either through a public API embedded in your own website or through a booking link the product serves.
Does a visitor need an Enclessa account to book?
No. Bookings is the one surface on the platform that answers without a session. The visitor gets a link they can use to see or call off their own appointment, and never has an account.
Can somebody be double-booked?
When the Time module is installed the appointment reads the day’s absences before a slot is offered. Buffers and duration are set per appointment type.
What is an Enclessa employee card?
A card derived from the employment record in force on the date being asked about: a front the employee fills in and can share, and a back carrying their standing behind five visibility bands. It carries a per-organisation signature and can be checked on a verification page by somebody with no account.
What happens to a card when somebody leaves?
Nothing has to happen. The card is resolved from the employment in force on the date the question is asked, so on the day the employment ends the verification page says so — without anybody revoking anything.
Can a card be printed or saved as a contact?
Yes. A vCard, a QR code and a print-ready export all come from the same resolution as the on-screen card. Wallet passes and batch printing were deferred and are not available.
Does Enclessa include email?
Enclessa has a Mail module that reads and answers the organisation’s existing mailboxes over IMAP and SMTP. It is a mail client inside the product, not a mail host: the organisation keeps its own mail server, and the server stays the truth.
Is mail in Enclessa end-to-end encrypted?
No. Mail is ordinary email on your own mail server, and the end-to-end encryption Enclessa provides covers direct messages and group direct messages inside the platform. A page that claimed otherwise would be claiming something SMTP cannot do.
Can a shared mailbox be given to a team?
Yes. Access is granted per mailbox to a person, a team or a role, and to nobody else. Sending happens under a granted identity rather than under whoever happens to be reading.
Can Enclessa write invoices?
Enclessa proposes them. The Finanzen module builds an invoice from booked hours, grouped and rounded as agreed, and posts it as a draft into the organisation’s Lexware Office ledger. Numbering, sending and finalising happen there, because those are the acts the tax record depends on.
Which accounting system does Enclessa connect to?
Lexware Office, using an API key the organisation supplies. There is no generic accounting connector, and no DATEV export from this module.
Can the same hour be invoiced twice?
No. An hour is claimed when it goes onto a proposal and marked invoiced with the number the ledger returned, which is what makes the worked-but-unbilled figure meaningful.
Does Enclessa have an AI assistant?
Enclessa has an optional Companion module: you ask in your own words and it answers with a fact from your own organisation or proposes a change you approve. It sees only what you are already allowed to see, and every change it applies can be taken back.
Can the Companion read encrypted messages?
No. Direct messages and group direct messages are end-to-end encrypted and the server holds no key for them, so there is nothing for the Companion to read. It sees what you see, and no more.
Will it change things without asking?
Only where an organisation has set a particular tool to do so. Each tool is off, propose-and-wait, or apply-without-asking, and propose-and-wait is the default.
Security and data protection
Security and data protection
Is Enclessa GDPR compliant?
Enclessa is built for GDPR: it is hosted in the European Union, sold by a German company, offers a data processing agreement, supports data-subject export, and provides retention rules and legal holds. Compliance is a property of how your organisation processes data rather than of a product, so Enclessa provides the controls and the processing agreement, and the lawful basis remains yours.
Does Enclessa have ISO 27001 or SOC 2 certification?
No. Enclessa holds no compliance certifications today. What exists instead is published detail a reviewer can check: the architecture, the data model and the OpenAPI surface are documented, and the encryption is MLS per RFC 9420 through OpenMLS, an IETF standard and an audited open-source implementation. That is evidence, not a certificate, and it is not a substitute for one if your procurement requires it.
Can Enclessa employees read my messages?
Not in encrypted conversations — the server holds no key for them. For managed channels, the platform control plane our operators use cannot read content at all: it is a separate identity restricted to metadata, and a continuous-integration check forbids it from importing any code that could read content. There is no impersonation feature.
How does Enclessa keep one customer’s data away from another’s?
The organisation is asserted at a single choke point rather than at each call site, and a request for another organisation’s object returns not-found. A probe suite generated from the API document drives every operation across the boundary — 286 operations, all refused — and it runs in continuous integration so a regression fails the build.
Can I get my data out of Enclessa?
Yes. An organisation can export everything the platform holds for it, at any time and in open formats, the data model is documented, and the whole API is described by an OpenAPI document. The exit is a button rather than a support ticket or a negotiation.
How do I report a security vulnerability in Enclessa?
Report it privately to the security contact rather than in a public issue, and you will get an acknowledgement and a timeline. Enterprise customers receive security advisories ahead of public disclosure.
Pricing and billing
Pricing and billing
Enclessa is in open beta — what does that mean for a plan?
Enclessa is in open beta: anybody can create a workspace today, without an invitation and without a waiting list. The plans below are the ones in force during the beta. What the beta changes is the risk, not the mechanics: seats are counted the same way, the free plan is permanent rather than an expiring trial, a full organisation export is available throughout, and no availability figure is committed while the beta lasts. What is still missing is listed on the roadmap rather than implied by a plan name.
How does Enclessa count seats?
A seat is a person who is an active member of your organisation. Bot accounts, deactivated accounts and guests are not counted, so an integration or a departed colleague does not appear on the invoice.
Does Enclessa have a free plan?
Yes, and it is a plan rather than a trial: up to ten members, with channels, threads, end-to-end encrypted direct messages, video calls and ninety days of searchable history, for as long as you want it and without a payment card. What it does not carry is the optional modules, unlimited history and the administrative controls a larger organisation needs.
Is there a free trial of the paid plans?
Yes. Every paid plan starts with a 14-day trial of that plan in full, and starting one does not require a payment card. A trial that ends without a subscription drops the organisation to the Free plan rather than deleting it.
What happens when a trial ends without a subscription?
The organisation drops to the Free plan. Nothing is deleted: modules that Free does not carry become unavailable rather than destroyed, the data behind them stays exportable, and switching a paid plan back on restores them.
Can I change plan or cancel later?
Yes. Plans change at any time, with the seat count reconciled on the next invoice, and a cancellation leaves you an export of everything the organisation holds.
Which payment methods and currencies does Enclessa take?
Card, SEPA Direct Debit and iDEAL, billed in euro. The seller is established in Germany, so EU VAT applies and is shown separately on every invoice.
Can I run Enclessa on my own infrastructure?
Not yourself — Enclessa is not distributed and there is no licence to install it. What Enterprise buys instead is a dedicated deployment: your own database, storage and media nodes, in a region you name, operated and updated by us. It is the answer to a residency mandate or a shared-tenancy objection, without either side pretending an organisation wants to become an operator.
What counts against the Free plan’s ten members?
The same thing that counts as a seat on a paid plan: an active member of the organisation. Bot accounts, guests and deactivated people do not count, so an integration or a departed colleague never pushes a free workspace over the line.
By sector
By sector
Is Enclessa hosted in the European Union?
Yes. The hosted service runs in a single European Union region, and the seller is established in Germany. There is no regional data residency choice within the shared service; where a specific location is mandated, the Enterprise plan provides a dedicated deployment in a region you name, which we operate.
Can a public body run Enclessa on its own infrastructure?
No. Enclessa is a hosted service and the software is not distributed to anybody, so there is nothing to install. Where a mandate requires a deployment of its own, a public body buys one on the Enterprise plan: dedicated infrastructure in a region it names, operated and updated by us rather than by its own staff.
Does Enclessa keep an audit log?
Yes. Administrative action is written to an audit log scoped to the organisation, and in the People module every document download is recorded with who took it and when.
Can healthcare teams discuss patients in Enclessa?
Direct messages and group direct messages in Enclessa are end-to-end encrypted, so their content is not readable by the server or by us. Whether a particular use is permitted is a decision for your data protection officer, and it depends on your own processing agreement and risk assessment, not on a claim made on this page.
Is Enclessa HIPAA or ISO 27001 certified?
No. Enclessa holds no compliance certifications today, and the security page says so plainly. What it offers instead is a published architecture, data model and API surface that a reviewer can check, and encryption that follows MLS per RFC 9420 rather than a design of our own.
Does Enclessa store why somebody is off sick?
No. Sickness is recorded in the Time module as an absence with no diagnosis field, so there is nowhere for a medical reason to be entered.
What could Enclessa hand over if it were served with a legal request?
For end-to-end encrypted conversations: the ciphertext, the group identifier, the epoch number, the sending device and a timestamp. Enclessa holds no key that decrypts the content, so the plaintext cannot be produced. For managed channels the server can read the content, which is precisely why a firm puts client conversation in encrypted rooms.
Can Enclessa track billable hours?
Yes, in the Time module. Hours are recorded against a customer, project and activity with billable rates, submitted for approval and then locked so an approved period stops changing.
Does Enclessa support legal hold?
Yes, in the People module, where a hold blocks an erasure and states the reason it is blocking it. Retention rules are configured per organisation.
How does Enclessa integrate with GitHub?
The GitHub module syncs issues into Enclessa board cards, attaches pull requests to the card they close, and surfaces check results on the card. Pushing changes back to GitHub is a setting each organisation enables deliberately. It requires the boards module.
Can I build automation on top of Enclessa?
Yes. Enclessa exposes a documented OpenAPI surface, with bot accounts and personal access tokens scoped to specific operations, plus incoming webhooks and custom slash commands that call your own endpoint.
Does Enclessa support GitLab or Jira?
Not today. GitHub is the only source-forge connector that exists. Anything else is reachable through incoming webhooks, custom slash commands or the API.
Compared with other tools
Compared with other tools
Is Enclessa a Microsoft Teams alternative?
Yes, for messaging, video calls and the work around them. Enclessa does not replace the Office document suite or Teams telephony, so it is a Teams alternative for organisations whose priority is confidentiality, European hosting and a published architecture rather than Office integration.
Does Microsoft Teams have end-to-end encryption?
Microsoft documents end-to-end encryption for one-to-one Teams calls as a feature an administrator enables; channel and chat messages are documented as encrypted in transit and at rest rather than end to end. In Enclessa, direct and group direct messages are end-to-end encrypted with MLS by default and cannot be switched off.
Can Enclessa replace Teams for a public authority?
For collaboration, often yes — that is the case the public sector page is written for. It cannot replace the Office document suite or a Teams-based phone system, so a migration usually keeps those and moves the conversation.
Is there an open source alternative to Slack?
Enclessa is not one: it is a commercial hosted service and its source is not published. Mattermost is the best-known open-source option and is oriented towards self-hosting. What Enclessa offers in place of readable source is end-to-end encrypted direct messages using MLS per RFC 9420, a published architecture, data model and OpenAPI surface, European hosting, and a full organisation export in open formats at any time.
Does Slack have end-to-end encryption?
Slack does not offer end-to-end encryption of messages. Its Enterprise Key Management feature lets a customer control the encryption keys, but the service still processes message content. Enclessa encrypts direct and group direct messages end to end with MLS, so the server holds no key that opens them.
Can Enclessa import our Slack history?
Not today. There is no Slack import tool. Organisations that move typically keep the Slack export as an archive and start fresh in Enclessa.
Does Mattermost have end-to-end encryption?
Mattermost does not offer end-to-end encryption as a platform feature; messages are encrypted in transit and at rest, and the server can read them. Enclessa encrypts direct and group direct messages end to end with MLS per RFC 9420, so its server holds no key that can decrypt them.
Can Enclessa be self-hosted like Mattermost?
No. Enclessa is a hosted service and the software is not distributed, so there is nothing to install on your own infrastructure. Organisations with a residency requirement buy a dedicated deployment on the Enterprise plan, in a region they name, which we operate and update. If you must run the software yourself, Mattermost answers that and Enclessa does not.
Which is more mature, Enclessa or Mattermost?
Mattermost, without qualification. It has been in production at large scale for years and has enterprise features such as SAML single sign-on that Enclessa does not have yet. Enclessa is new, and an honest buyer weighs that.
Encrypted collaboration, hosted in Europe.
Create a workspace in a couple of minutes. It is yours at your-team.enclessa.app, hosted in the European Union, with encrypted direct messages from the first one you send.
Open beta. Free plan, no payment card to start.