App comparison

Add up to 4 apps below to see how they compare. You can also use the "Compare" buttons while browsing.

GetApp offers objective, independent research and verified user reviews. We may earn a referral fee when you visit a vendor through our links. 

Zulip Logo

Open source team chat software

Last updated: January 2025

Table of Contents

Zulip - 2025 Pricing, Features, Reviews & Alternatives

What is Zulip?

Zulip is the only modern team chat app that is designed for both live and asynchronous conversations. Zulip topics create a separate space for each discussion, so different conversations will never get in each other's way. Teams of all sizes rely on Zulip - Fortune 500 companies, open-source projects, startups, and many others. Zulip is 100% open-source enterprise-grade software, self-hosted or in the cloud. Try it today!

Starting from

6.67

/user

Per month

Alternatives with better value for money

Zulip's key features

GetApp's analysis of 72 verified user reviews collected between February 2022 and December 2024 identified Zulip's most critical features and how it performs according to users.

Alerts/Notifications

Reviewers appreciate Zulip's configurable alerts and notifications, allowing control on a channel-by-channel basis and muting/unmuting individual topics. They find email notifications for mentions and weekly email diaries useful. Users report that notifications are reliable and instantaneous, but some experience issues with mobile notifications not working consistently. They value the flexibility in adjusting notification settings to avoid overwhelming distractions. Reviewers also mention the ability to receive notifications in both browser and mobile, with an email follow-up if not read promptly. Of the 19 Zulip users who gave detailed accounts of their use of Alerts/Notifications, 100% rated this feature as important or highly important.

See related user reviews

“Zulip allows you to control how to be notified, and whether to be notified at all, on a channel by channel (stream by stream) basis AND also mute/unmute individual topics.Taken together this provides a lot of flexibility and allows you to ensure that you have the "right level of distraction" according to your role and the priority of the communication. ”
“Zulip has a lot of notification parameters. Weekly email diary are very userfull for thoose who prefer email and do not visit Zulip a lot. Email notification when someone is hit by a @mention and does not look quickly at Zulip is also a very usefull feature. For some people mobile notification (sound when a message comes in) does stop to work, and they're not able to explain why. This may be annoying. ”

Real-Time Chat

Reviewers indicate that Zulip's real-time chat is essential for distributed teams, enabling fast-paced conversations and effective collaboration. They appreciate the organization of threads into streams and topics, making it easier to track important messages. Users find the integration with tools like Jira and GitHub valuable for linking helpdesk tickets. They highlight the support for LaTeX, markdown, and code snippets, which is beneficial for technical discussions. Reviewers feel that Zulip blends synchronous and asynchronous communication seamlessly. Of the 34 Zulip users who gave detailed accounts of their use of Real-Time Chat, 97% rated this feature as important or highly important.

Verified reviewer profile picture

See related user reviews

“The real-time chat is a low-barrier way to contact colleagues located in different places, and it is a critical part of keeping a distributed team coherent and working well together.”
“The organization of threads into different streams and topics makes it easier to find the messages that really matter, thus helping to keep track in the flood of news.”

Discussions/Forums

Reviewers appreciate Zulip's discussions/forums for their clear threading and efficient organization of conversations. They find the topic-based system helps in maintaining clean and readable message flows without the clutter of traditional email. Users report that it is easy to label discussions and break them down into sections for individual members or the whole group. They mention that this capability is one of the strongest aspects of Zulip, enabling remote conversations and easy tracking of important tasks. Of the 18 Zulip users who gave detailed accounts of their use of Discussions/Forums, 94% rated this feature as important or highly important.

Verified reviewer profile picture

See related user reviews

“the main advantage of Zulip is the perfect way how it supports discussions, based on streams and topics. ”
“This is one of the strongest features; clear threading of discussions, easy to track important tasks. ”

Mobile Access

Reviewers find Zulip's mobile access valuable for staying connected on the go. They report that the mobile app is functional and supports most of Zulip's capabilities, though some options like message linking are missing. Users appreciate the ability to set different notification options for mobile and desktop. They mention that the app is reliable and intuitive, but could benefit from improved navigation and search functionality. Reviewers also note the importance of mobile access for remote work and team collaboration while traveling. Of the 31 Zulip users who gave detailed accounts of their use of Mobile Access, 94% rated this feature as important or highly important.

See related user reviews

“The Android app is great. Only significant downside is that some features (e.g. getting a link to a message) that are available on Web are unavailable in the app.”
“I use Zulip on the go. I wish search on the app were a little better (I don't even know how to search for messages from a named user, for example).”

All Zulip features

Features rating:

Access Controls/Permissions
Real-Time Updates
API
Transcripts/Chat History
Chat/Messaging
Real-Time Notifications
Search/Filter
Communication Management
Time Zone Tracking
File Sharing
Activity/News Feed
Collaboration Tools
Remote Support
@mentions
Contact Management
Survey/Poll Management
Third-Party Integrations
Video Chat
Document Storage
Video Conferencing
Screen Sharing
Audio Calls
Active Directory Integration
Activity Dashboard
Two-Way Audio & Video
To-Do List
Customizable Branding
Data Import/Export
Drag & Drop
SSL Security
Single Sign On
Employee Communities
Role-Based Permissions
Reporting & Statistics
Employee Photos
File Transfer
Mobile Alerts
Multi-Language

Zulip awards

Zulip alternatives

Zulip logo
4.9
(179)

Starting from

6.67

/user

Per month

Free trial
Free version
Ease of Use
Features
Value for Money
Customer Support
visit website

Starting from

13.49

Per month

Free trial
Free version
Ease of Use
Features
Value for Money
Customer Support
Avaza logo
4.6
(455)
visit website

Starting from

11.95

Per month

Free trial
Free version
Ease of Use
Features
Value for Money
Customer Support
Axero logo
4.5
(57)
visit website

Starting from

10

Per month

Free trial
Free version
Ease of Use
Features
Value for Money
Customer Support

Zulip pricing

Value for money rating:

Starting from

6.67

/user

Per month

Pricing details
Subscription
Free trial
Free plan
Pricing range

Zulip integrations (12)

Integrations rated by users

We looked through 179 user reviews, to identify which products are mentioned as Zulip integrations, and what is the users perception.

GitHub logo
GitHub

Integration rating: 4.6 (10)

We wanted Zulip to be a central point for notification. We enabled webhooks for a few key GitHub repos so that we get notified of important activity on these repos.

We only receive notifications for some commits and issues. But we have never explored the connection.

Verified reviewer profile picture

Christopher Ayala

IAS Associate Professor

1/2
GitLab logo
GitLab

Integration rating: 4.7 (3)

it is nice to have to have all related to a project in one place, but the build in notifications in GitLab via email are sufficient.

Verified reviewer profile picture

Germo Görtz

BI Architect and developer

Integration rating: 4.5 (2)

Being able to quickly share a zoom link to take a conversation online is really convenient.

Verified reviewer profile picture

Christopher Ayala

IAS Associate Professor

Zabbix logo
Zabbix

Integration rating: 5.0 (1)

Jenkins logo
Jenkins

Integration rating: 5.0 (1)

Integration rating: 5.0 (1)

Bitbucket logo
Bitbucket

Integration rating: 5.0 (1)

Zulip support options

Typical customers

Freelancers
Small businesses
Mid size businesses
Large enterprises

Platforms supported

Web
Android
iPhone/iPad

Support options

Email/Help Desk
FAQs/Forum

Training options

Documentation

Zulip reviews

Overall rating

4.9

/5

179

Positive reviews

100

%

Rating breakdown
  • Value for money
  • Ease of use
  • Features
  • Customer support
  • Likelihood to recommend9.48/10
Rating distribution

5

4

3

2

1

155

24

0

0

0

Pros
“All in all, we have had a great experience since switching to Zulip. Especially, the organization of messages helps us to stay on top of things in times when there's a lot to handle at the same time.”
“Great Way to communicate with my co-workers from the job, love the small integration it has, its easy to use.”
“The chat functionality in the web client is awesome for distributed teams - well, for any team, actually. Splitting in topics, all the formatting options, integration of automation really great.”
Cons
“What is currently missing is the easy voice chat that Discord or Slack provide.”
“My only complaint is that some features are available on Web but not on the Android app, for example linking to messages.”
“For mobile you can only be signed in on one account at a time and it's a little annoying to switch.”

Zulip FAQs

Q. What type of pricing plans does Zulip offer?

Zulip has the following pricing plans:
Starting from: $6.67/month
Pricing model: Free, Subscription, Open Source

These products have better value for money


Q. Who are the typical users of Zulip?

Zulip has the following typical customers:
Freelancers, Large Enterprises, Mid Size Business, Non Profit, Public Administrations, Small Business


Q. What languages does Zulip support?

Zulip supports the following languages:
English, Bulgarian, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Czech, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Turkish, Ukrainian


Q. Does Zulip support mobile devices?

Zulip supports the following devices:
Android, iPad, iPhone


Q. Does Zulip offer an API?

Yes, Zulip has an API available for use.


Q. What level of support does Zulip offer?

Zulip offers the following support options:
Email/Help Desk, FAQs/Forum

Related categories