Zulip
Free (Zulip Cloud: 10,000 messages of history, 5GB storage; self-hosted: every feature, unlimited history, no cost); paid Cloud and self-hosted tiers exist but list no public per-seat price on the official pricing page · Open source
Price checked at source August 29, 2026.
Open-source, thread-based team chat — free to self-host with every feature included, or a managed Zulip Cloud plan with a real free tier.
Our take
Zulip’s own case studies make the comparison explicit — one is titled “More efficient communication than Slack at Semsee” — and its pitch is unique among the Slack alternatives here: full topic-threading within channels, so parallel conversations do not collapse into one firehose feed. It is also the most transparently open of the group, 100% open source on GitHub with a genuinely complete self-hosted edition that costs nothing at any team size. The catch for a small Mac-using team: Zulip Cloud’s paid Standard/Plus/Business tiers (unlimited history, SSO, priority support) list no public per-seat price on the current pricing page — sales must be contacted for a number.
- Price
- Free (Zulip Cloud: 10,000 messages of history, 5GB storage; self-hosted: every feature, unlimited history, no cost); paid Cloud and self-hosted tiers exist but list no public per-seat price on the official pricing page
- License
- Open source
- Requires
- macOS 12 or newer, Apple Silicon or Intel, per the Homebrew cask (separate per-architecture builds listed).
- Get it via
- Homebrew · Direct
- Developer
- Kandra Labs, Inc.
Do you use Zulip?
Who made this
Zulip’s own history page credits Tim Abbott — who maintained the newly open-sourced project on nights and weekends after Dropbox released it in 2015 — with founding Kandra Labs in April 2016 to steward and fund its development full-time. As of 2026, per the same page, a new nonprofit Zulip Foundation has become Zulip’s steward and now fully owns Kandra Labs.
What it does
Topic-threading inside channels
Every message belongs to a named topic within a channel, so several conversations can run in parallel without burying each other.
Fully open source
The complete codebase is public on GitHub (zulip/zulip); the self-hosted edition ships with every feature at no cost.
Move freely between Cloud and self-hosted
Zulip’s own export/import tools let an organization migrate between managed Cloud hosting and a self-hosted server.
The deal
- Zulip Cloud Free: $0, 10,000 messages of searchable history, 5GB total file storage
- Self-hosted Free: $0, every feature included, unlimited history, no user cap
- Paid Cloud and self-hosted tiers (Standard, Plus, Business, Enterprise): contact sales, no public price listed
Zulip — questions people ask
Is Zulip really free?
Yes, two ways — Zulip Cloud’s Free plan (10,000 messages of history, 5GB storage) costs nothing, and the self-hosted edition is 100% open source with every feature included and no per-user charge.
Who makes Zulip?
Kandra Labs, Inc., founded by Tim Abbott in 2016 to steward Zulip’s development, per Zulip’s own project-history page. The codebase itself is open source on GitHub.
How is Zulip different from Slack?
Its own customer case studies frame it as a more efficient alternative, built around topic-threading inside channels so parallel conversations stay organized instead of one continuous feed per channel.
Is Zulip free?
Zulip is free to use with optional paid unlocks.
Does Zulip work alongside a notch app like Alcove?
Yes — Zulip lives in the screen, so it runs happily alongside any Dynamic Island hub or notch app.
Where can I download Zulip?
Zulip is available via Homebrew, Direct.
Is Zulip open source?
Yes — Zulip is open source.
Reviews
No public ratings yet. Reader reviews are coming to Kitsmith soon.
Listing hand-verified August 29, 2026 from the developer's site and public sources.
How Zulip compares
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