# Zulip Reviews 2026. Verified Reviews, Pros & Cons | Capterra > Is Zulip the right Team Communication solution for you? Explore 196 verified user reviews from people in industries like yours to make a confident choice. Source: https://www.capterra.com/p/197945/notion/reviews --- Zulip 4.9 (196) [View alternatives](https://www.capterra.com/p/197945/Zulip/alternatives/) Provider data verified by our Software Research team, and reviews moderated by our Reviews Verification team. [Learn more](https://www.capterra.com/our-story/) * * * Last updated March 13th, 2026 # Reviews of Zulip Ease of use 4.6 Customer Service 4.8 ## Pros and Cons in Reviews JM Jessica M CEOFinancial Services, 201 - 500 employeesUsed the software for: More than 2 years. “Zulip is exactly the right structure -- each topic is its own conversation thread -- to make the chat history easy to review and retrieve information from even at high conversation volume.“ October 31, 2025 KB Krzysztof B CEOComputer Software, 11 - 50 employeesUsed the software for: More than 2 years. “Search does not always work, looking for a "youtube" do not find links to youtube.“ October 31, 2025 NC Niels C CEOBiotechnology, 11 - 50 employeesUsed the software for: More than 2 years. “Great value for money, Opinionated and strictly sorted in topics, New stable mobile app, Secure, Custom emojis are fun, Simple user management“ October 31, 2025 KB Karin B Operations ManagerRetail, 2 - 10 employeesUsed the software for: 1-2 years. “Closing out the app does not change the status. When a user is invisible we don't know if they are not currently working or whether they are just immersed in work in another window and the Zulip app has gone idle.“ December 6, 2024 CB Cole B Associate Professor of PediatricsResearch, 10,001+ employeesUsed the software for: Less than 6 months. “The search and navigation features are excellent; messages are easy to retrieve months later, which has made it ideal for keeping track of discussions and shared resources between meetings.“ November 3, 2025 KB Karin B Operations ManagerRetail, 2 - 10 employeesUsed the software for: 1-2 years. “Can't save customized status posts and does not automate an off-duty status when user closes app.“ December 6, 2024 SD Stefano D ResearcherResearch, 51 - 200 employeesUsed the software for: 6-12 months. “The platform is free for researchers, works on every OS, and allows you to type in markdown.“ November 2, 2025 RR Roxanne R Assistant ProfessorResearch, 2 - 10 employeesUsed the software for: 6-12 months. “It could be user error but I'm supposed to get desktop notifications and they don't appear, on my bookmarks bar the red # showing messages is very delayed.“ December 12, 2024 ## Showing most helpful reviews Showing 1-25 of 196 Reviews Sort by: Most Helpful Rating Company Size Reviewer's Role Length of Use Frequency of Use Alberto M. Researcher Research Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Excellent framework for managing research groups" December 6, 2024 5.0 Pros Very simple and intuitive. Possibility to write latex and markdown. Free. Cons iPad app is the same of the mobile one. But I think that it deserves an app similar to the desktop. The mobile app is too simple, with many options not already available. Switched from [Slack](https://www.capterra.com/p/135003/Slack/) This supports natively Latex formulas, which are essentials for very fast calculations. Review Source RL Rasmus L. CEO Computer Software Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Great product with great features and pricing" November 10, 2025 5.0 We have been using Zulip for more than 5 years, and it just grows on you. It works really well, and the more you use it, the better it seems. For many products this is the other way around. We are a company of 30 and have around 70 users including guests. Zulip is our main communication channel - we barely use e-mail any longer. We chose Zulip over Slack (and many other alternatives) after an extensive research period. Zulip is not perfect, but we have never regretted our choice. Pros It's threaded by default, efficient and feature-rich. Love the structure of it all. Reasonable priced. Guests are free (hosted version). Search actually works, and there are many notification settings. Cons Some media, such as embedded images/video, could be displayed nicer. Some notification settings are missed, e.g.: "don't disturb in these hours" etc. Design and UX polish is getting better, but it still seems a bit lagging compared to other competitors. Alternatives considered [Google Chat](https://www.capterra.com/p/175800/Chat/)[Rocket.Chat](https://www.capterra.com/p/161575/Rocket-Chat/)[Discord](https://www.capterra.com/p/240238/Discord/)[Mattermost](https://www.capterra.com/p/170524/Mattermost/)[Slack](https://www.capterra.com/p/135003/Slack/) Reason for choosing Zulip Better pricing. Better feature set for us (threading enforced). Open Source - possible to self-host. Review Source JW Jacob W. Maintainer Computer Software Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Fast, high quality team chat" January 31, 2026 5.0 Pros Zulip's interface is very fast, and both the web and mobile apps work well. When we reported a bug in Zulip, the team responded extremely quickly with both a fix and deploying the updated code. There's a wealth of options for private and public channels, types of notifications and their behavior, and robust permissions. Cons Zulip has some unique preferences about threading in channels, where every post is intended to be associated with a "topic". It makes sense once you are used to it, but it requires a little relearning. Switched from [Element](https://www.capterra.com/p/214578/Element/) I found Element/Matrix to be slow and we had issues getting support for issues from the main homeserver. Notifications frequently misbehaved and the banner feature for us, the IRC bridge, was shut down. Review Source PZ Paul Z. Associate director Education Management Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Perfect chat for serious asynchronous collaboration " December 6, 2024 5.0 Wonderful. Makes me feel like I’m flying at 30000 feet. Pros Ease of use; intelligent threading. Ideal for detailed asynchronous discussion. I use it for math-heavy work with teams of 100 or so. And great, fast support! Cons Hard to clone old orgs to make new orgs. I’d like to duplicate some channels. Alternatives considered [Slack](https://www.capterra.com/p/135003/Slack/) Reason for choosing Zulip Better and was easier to use and it has better math features and markdown integration Review Source JC Jen C. Chief of Staff Information Technology and Services Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Great alternative to big name chat systems" October 30, 2025 5.0 We use it as our primary channel of comms at our company and it's been easy to use, everybody uses it, and we really appreciate the ability to host it on our own internal hardware and control the privacy settings Pros It's easy to use, I like the color-coding and ability to create channels & topics. If you've used any other type of group chat you'll pick it up Cons if you have a lot of channels & topics it can take a while to scroll through relevant ones or sometimes it's hard to find what I'm looking for, especially when it auto-collapses between DM and channels Switched from [Slack](https://www.capterra.com/p/135003/Slack/) my boss didn't like slack and wanted to use a non corporate platform Review Source YS Yorgos S. Software Engineer Non-Profit Organization Management Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Finally! Threads, done right! Thank you Zulip!" November 17, 2025 5.0 Pros Zulip is like a breath of fresh air after working with slack / discord and the like for so many years and struggling with their "threads" implementation. In Zulip, you can - wait for it - \*\*move messages\*\* to the right topic! Once a thread goes off-topic, it's so easy to spin off a different discussion and just move all the messages to the right place. With Zulip, you can finally have \*\*on-topic\*\*, organised, discussions in an instant messaging app! So, not only does Zulip improve on the UX of instant messaging, but it's also Open Source and can be self-hosted. What more to ask for ? Cons Not much. There was a little bit of a learning curve with streams / topics, but it's one of those things that makes it worth it so much that there's no going back. Switched from [Discord](https://www.capterra.com/p/240238/Discord/)[Slack](https://www.capterra.com/p/135003/Slack/) Improved UX plus the important option of self-hosting and owning your data. Review Source CB Cole B. Associate Professor of Pediatrics Research Used the software for: Less than 6 months ### "Zulip for a 100% remote academic research group" November 3, 2025 5.0 Zulip has been a game changer for our group’s collaboration. It combines the immediacy of chat with the structure of email, allowing complex projects and parallel discussions to stay organized without chaos. We no longer lose context between meetings; every idea, file, and decision is easy to find and build on. It has fundamentally improved how we communicate, document, and coordinate our research. Pros Zulip has been an exceptional tool for our research group. Its threaded messaging makes it far easier to follow multiple topics at once compared to chat platforms that collapse everything into one stream. The search and navigation features are excellent; messages are easy to retrieve months later, which has made it ideal for keeping track of discussions and shared resources between meetings. The value for money is outstanding, especially for an academic setting (academic sponsorship FTW!). The integration and automation options (bots/webhooks, GitHub/Zoom integrations) have streamlined our workflow. It’s also an excellent way to organize knowledge between meetings, so important context doesn’t get lost. Cons The learning curve can be a bit steep for new users unfamiliar with streams and topics, but this is rare in the real-world. The mobile app interface feels less fluid than the desktop or web versions, but is still a great convenience. A few minor integrations require manual setup or API familiarity. Alternatives considered [GitHub](https://www.capterra.com/p/129067/GitHub/)[Microsoft Teams](https://www.capterra.com/p/168668/Microsoft-Teams/)[Slack](https://www.capterra.com/p/135003/Slack/) Reason for choosing Zulip MS Teams is just awful; GitHub didn't have all the features we needed; Slack doesn't have the features we needed Review Source LC Luca C. CTO Information Technology and Services Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Zulip at Yonderlabs" October 31, 2025 5.0 Pros Ease to use. Customizable. Transparent. Fair. Moreover, they have a responsive and competent customer support, for the one time we needed it. Cons Channel threading is a great option, until you don't need it. The UI is less polished, compared to other competitors, but in the end this turned out to be a plus: We are here for the functionalities, not for the gifs. Alternatives considered [Discord](https://www.capterra.com/p/240238/Discord/)[Slack](https://www.capterra.com/p/135003/Slack/) Reason for choosing Zulip Because its more open and fair, and they don't try to sell you the greatest experience ever ever, it's an honest product that does its job well. Switched from [Microsoft Teams](https://www.capterra.com/p/168668/Microsoft-Teams/) (Skype could not be chosen in the menu above...) Skype was discontinued, but honestly, it was about time. Review Source Response from Kandra Labs November 3, 2025 Hi Luca, I'd like to make sure you're aware of the relatively new option to disable topics in a channel. https://zulip.com/help/general-chat-channels I hope that helps! NC Niels C. CEO Biotechnology Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Better than slack" October 31, 2025 5.0 Does the job at a great price! Have been using it on our 12 ppl team for more than 3 years now. Better than slack, that we used before. Pros Great value for money, Opinionated and strictly sorted in topics, New stable mobile app, Secure, Custom emojis are fun, Simple user management Cons Slow to implement new features. Would love to get a proper "archiving option for topics, not just adding a checkmark. Alternatives considered [Basecamp](https://www.capterra.com/p/56808/Basecamp/) Reason for choosing Zulip Basecamp is much more geared towards pure software development Switched from [Slack](https://www.capterra.com/p/135003/Slack/) slack was too messy................ ..... Review Source JM Jessica M. CEO Financial Services Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Zulip: business chat for teams that want to review and retrieve information from even at high conversation volume" October 31, 2025 5.0 Pros I know most businesses use Slack, but the problem with Slack is that there's not enough structure to the conversations, which all get interleaved, which makes it impossible to get information out of them retrospectively. Zulip is exactly the right structure -- each topic is its own conversation thread -- to make the chat history easy to review and retrieve information from even at high conversation volume. Cons Because Zulip is a less common platform, most folks haven't used it before and have a bit of a learning curve to get fluent in it. I especially recommend that folks invest the time in learning the basic keyboard shortcuts. Alternatives considered [Slack](https://www.capterra.com/p/135003/Slack/) Reason for choosing Zulip Zulip is better for high-volume internal chat. Review Source DJ Dirk J. Owner Computer Software Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Excellent Small Business Collaboration Tool" December 6, 2024 5.0 As a business owner, I have used Slack, Guilded, and other tools to communicate with my team, and once we switched to Zulip, we have never looked back. It feels like a glove on the hand - you know its there, but it is not in the way and you can focus on the work at hand. Pros Clean interface. Elegant UI decisions. Has every feature I'd want in a team collaboration tool. It is always available. Cons I honestly have no complaints about Zulip. I've had no issues with it, and it always performs as expected. It is rock-solid. Alternatives considered [Discord](https://www.capterra.com/p/240238/Discord/) Reason for choosing Zulip Discord is not really focused on small businesses. Switched from [Slack](https://www.capterra.com/p/135003/Slack/) Slack was too expensive and Guilded changed their policies so I could not use it any more. Review Source KB Kyle B. President Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Great Team Communications Tool!" December 6, 2024 4.0 Works great on desktop and mobile. Looking forward to implementing some integrations when we get the time. On the free plan right now but would gladly upgrade when our team expands and our usage picks up. Highly recommended! Pros We try to use and support smaller and open source technologies, and Zulip really fits the bill for team communications. I also like the fact that there's a self-hosting capability, though we haven't done it yet. Cons I don't have any dislikes. It's a little rough around the edges compared to Slack and Teams, but that has never been a problem. Alternatives considered [Slack](https://www.capterra.com/p/135003/Slack/) Reason for choosing Zulip Pricing, self-hosting capabilities, open source. Switched from [Microsoft Teams](https://www.capterra.com/p/168668/Microsoft-Teams/) Not a fan of Microsoft products in general. Review Source JC Jim C. Board Member Civic & Social Organization Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Used by management board of charitable association " December 10, 2024 5.0 We are a charitable association with 300 members and a managing board of about 12 people. We use the tool for communications between members of the management board and it allows us to avoid the well known "Respond to all" trap with conventional e-mail Pros The flexibility of setting up different group discussion channels along with the availability of private communications between individuals. We also like the ability to post a message in a channel from an e-mail source. Cons The android, while quite usable when you get familiar with it could be improved for first users. Upon opening of the app, if there are no new messages, the blank screen and the icons do not visual clues about how to use the app. Also the zulip icon on the Android launcher screen sometimes fails to show an remindera new message has arrived. Switched from [Slack](https://www.capterra.com/p/135003/Slack/) Slack changed its user policies when acquired. Review Source SS Steve S. Owner Luxury Goods & Jewelry Used the software for: 2+ years ### "An underlooked gem" December 6, 2024 5.0 I have had a wonderful experience. It is very good for communicating code and math. Pros It is a very powerful messaging platform that allows text, image, video, latex, markdown, and code blocks with syntax highlighting. Cons I have had a hard time getting others to adopt it, even though it is very good and free. Alternatives considered [Gmail](https://www.capterra.com/p/202338/Gmail/) Reason for choosing Zulip I don't want to feed my data to the AI thank you. I want privacy. Switched from [Rocket.Chat](https://www.capterra.com/p/161575/Rocket-Chat/) Rocket requires we pay money for push notifications, which was a deal breaker. Review Source TZ Tony Z. President Information Technology and Services Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Loving Zulip! 💬 ❤️ " December 6, 2024 5.0 Loved self-hosting it on my own server in Azure, but after we moved to zulip.com we are always running with the latest release which is fantastic Pros Channels with topics, custom emojis, email alerts, mobile app, push notifications Cons Don’t have any complaints other than sometimes the iOS app gets a little slow or out of sync with incoming push notifications Alternatives considered [Slack](https://www.capterra.com/p/135003/Slack/)[Basecamp](https://www.capterra.com/p/56808/Basecamp/) Reason for choosing Zulip Cost, ability to self host and review source code Review Source SJ Swaroop J. Professor Research Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Great open source app for team communication " December 6, 2024 5.0 Pros I’ve been using Zulip as an open source alternative to slack. I use it for quick communication with my research group of 15-20 students. It provides easy navigation and organisation into channels and topics. Unlike slack, it does not delete messages after 90 days! Cons Some actions don’t feel intuitive. IIRC, various roles in the organisation have not worked as expected. New posts get added to a ‘no topic’ - and need to be moved manually. Adding a new person to a DM creates a new conversation- they can’t see older messages. Switched from [Slack](https://www.capterra.com/p/135003/Slack/) Price and my support for open source projects Review Source DK Dave K. Director of Programs Education Management Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Fantastic! A+++" December 7, 2024 5.0 Pros It's a wonderful, smooth, secure alternative to Slack - perfect for our growing community. Cons Nothing - all great! I only wish I had found it earlier. Alternatives considered [Discord](https://www.capterra.com/p/240238/Discord/)[Slack](https://www.capterra.com/p/135003/Slack/) Reason for choosing Zulip Ease of use. Functionality. Cost. Display of math. Switched from [Slack](https://www.capterra.com/p/135003/Slack/) Security, cost and ease of displaying math Review Source KB Krzysztof B. CEO Computer Software Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Golden review from Warsaw Dynamics" October 31, 2025 5.0 I like UI, channels/topics organization. Please to use it. Totally would recommend to other software teams/companies. Pros Zulip comes at reasonable price. Whenever we contacted Zulip support we received response in timely manner. People familiar with Slack do not have problem with switching to Zulip. Web version works great. I love plain and simple markdown. Bots integration works well. Cons Notifications on phone do not work. Not a problem for me because after work I do not need notifications. Search does not always work, looking for a "youtube" do not find links to youtube.Often content of code snippets are excluded from search. Review Source SD Stefano D. Researcher Research Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Zulip is great for researchers" November 2, 2025 5.0 Very, very positive. I use it for my research activity, where I share news with my collaborators across the globe. Pros The platform is free for researchers, works on every OS, and allows you to type in markdown. It’s well-structured for multi-directional conversations. Cons It has a few bugs when refreshing, and often I have to restart the application. When this happens, I miss messages for my collaborators. Review Source KB Kevin B. Professor of pure mathematics Higher Education Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Zulip enabled seamless 500x growth for our community" December 7, 2024 5.0 The app seems to be run by a dedicated team who really care about getting things right at a high level. Again and again we saw very responsive reactions from the devs to even the smallest queries/suggestions for improvement. Pros In six years our community grew from 20 users to 10,000 and Zulip scaled effortlessly. The thread/channel set-up enables many different conversations to happen simultaneously. Extremely fast and efficient technical support. Ability by admins to move threads around to new threads ensures conversations remain coherent even if they split and go off on a tangent. Very powerful linkifier system which we put to extensive use. Cons Search on the Android app is not as powerful as on the desktop app. It is also a great shame that our chat is not indexed by Google because it is by far the largest and most important resource for my community. Review Source ES Eric S. Senior Manager Computer Software Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Great instant messenger" December 6, 2024 5.0 Great. It's the best instant messenger application I've used and preferred within the company Pros Easy to use, allows you to organize instant messages with teams. Self hosting option is great, we wouldn't be as productive and quick active as we do without zulip. WWE also have Teams, Slack, Zoom, and zulip is by far the best and everyone's preference. Mobile app works great to Cons None. We haven't found any issues with it. We don't have it integrated with video calls, but I know that's something we can do easily with a plug-in. Alternatives considered [Microsoft Teams](https://www.capterra.com/p/168668/Microsoft-Teams/) Reason for choosing Zulip Usability, price, simplicity, efficiency Review Source RR Roxanne R. Assistant Professor Research Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Zulip is a logistical boost for new professors/research groups!" December 12, 2024 5.0 As a new professor, I thought it was a great way to stay organized with my growing/new lab members and also people who wish to collaborate with me, and I'm also on other folks' Zulips. I also like that it's easy to link in pages to other places that I use actively like Notion. Pros The easy ways to organize information and people on separate channels. Usually I think being hyper-compartmentalized on other platforms makes things worse, here I think it actually works. I really like breaking down projects/topics more and pulling in who I want on a channel. Cons The notifications on my browser aren't effective. It could be user error but I'm supposed to get desktop notifications and they don't appear, on my bookmarks bar the red # showing messages is very delayed. I also think visually when writing a reply in a channel, it gets messy so I often choose to start a new message than reply directly to one. Review Source TP Tommaso P. Associate professor Higher Education Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "It does things well, and it doesn't try to mess with your other tools (unless you want to)." December 6, 2024 5.0 We use Zulip for discussions between devs and maintainers, and to offer support for users. Since ns-3 is made by many models, I love that the discussions can be organised by channels and threads. Plus, Zulip gives us a simple way to check at a glance the status of issues and merge requests on GitLab, which is great. Overall experience: 7 out of 5. Pros Simple, direct, integrated with the tools we use (GitLab and GitHu mainly). However, the thing I love the most is that it does its job and doesn't try to do everything (like managing my calendar and email). Cons Bots are not intuitive, especially if you're using the could version. Alternatives considered [Rocket.Chat](https://www.capterra.com/p/161575/Rocket-Chat/) Reason for choosing Zulip It did fit our needs more than RocketChat Review Source PK Peter K. Developer Telecommunications Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Zulip is great for structured discussion" December 6, 2024 5.0 Currently the best chat system that I know and we have tried matrix/element, discord, Slack and Twist. Pros It is a stable chat with all the features I currently expect. And I prefer Zulip over other systems because of its nicely working topic-based chat. Other systems call this also "threads". It sounds like a small thing but this can make discussions much more structured and searchable. Although it also requires a tiny bit more understanding e.g. how to move comments into other topics or similar but is mostly self-explanatory. Cons The design is a bit old fashioned, but I still prefer this "clean UI" over other solutions. I'm also not sure about the state of the video conferencing for zulip (I think they offered it via jitsi?), but I do not expect this from a chat system at the moment. Also it seems that zulip chats are not e2e encrypted, but not my highest priority. Alternatives considered [Slack](https://www.capterra.com/p/135003/Slack/) Reason for choosing Zulip Topic-based ("threads") works much better Review Source JLG Juan Luis G. Vice-President Research Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Excellent app" December 7, 2024 5.0 Pros Open source Flexibility Diversity of functions Improvement over time Great desktop app Cons The smartphone app could be improved, in particular the handling of several organizations simultaneously Alternatives considered [Discord](https://www.capterra.com/p/240238/Discord/)[Slack](https://www.capterra.com/p/135003/Slack/) Reason for choosing Zulip It's open source. It has no ads. It's free. Review Source Similar Products Featured