Zulip

Vorteile

Great customer support, they are super willing to help for both open source projects and research groups.The experience is just flawless, there is absolutely no need for slack when zulip exists.We rely heavily on the history log in zulip to look up old charts that were shared via Zulipand to document important points.Also we can share accounts with collaborators, which eases communication a lot, since zulip also worksvery well in its browser version.

Nachteile

The only thing I don't like about zulip is thatthere is no option to change the math behaviour and use $$ instead of the default ```math environment.This is however a super low priority thing.

Vorteile

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.
If somebody has only used, let's say, MSTeams chat, Zulip will blow them out of water. From excitement.

Nachteile

The mobile app didn't seem to be as polished - for example, the recent topic view could not be found anywhere.

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

Telegram, Microsoft Teams und Slack

Warum Zulip gewählt wurde

Ease of access, great organisation in topics, very easy to follow conversations in real time and jumping in every now and then, public archive, opensource.

Zuvor genutzte Software

Slack

Gründe für den Wechsel zu Zulip

Other solutions were much worse functionally or very closed, proprietary.

Vorteile

The topics are very useful for organizing discussion The ability to move material under the appropriate topics is very useful. You can see all of the important (active) discussions under a stream at a glance. It is great that you can mark certain topics as completed because this makes it easy to assign to-dos on the fly.

Nachteile

The inability to easily upload photos or content from your phone (compared to Slack or other messaging apps) is a big downside. On OSX Zulip somehow keeps crashing. I also wish the team's custom emojis appeared at the top of the emoji list (true of Slack).

Vorteile

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.

Nachteile

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.

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

Slack

Warum Zulip gewählt wurde

Not a fan of Microsoft products in general.

Zuvor genutzte Software

Microsoft Teams

Gründe für den Wechsel zu Zulip

Pricing, self-hosting capabilities, open source.

Vorteile

Compared to Slack or MS Teams, Zulip is much easier to keep organized using the topics (filters for topic within a channel).
Moreover, proper and clean formatting using Markdown and full LaTeX formula support (like with Mathjax) makes this my preferred tool for coordinating research collaborations.

Nachteile

The clients are very slightly less polished compared to big business alternatives (but they do work reliably)

Vorteile

Zulip's top feature is the ease with which you create named threads, you just type in the thread title, and then start a conversation.

By using named threads, conversations are way easier to search, and feel less like a chat, more live a live forum.

Nachteile

Everything was great for me, I have recommended Zulip to my past employer and there are still using it, and I'm now using it in my team as well.

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

Microsoft Teams

Warum Zulip gewählt wurde

Because we found out about threads that are way easier to manage

Zuvor genutzte Software

Mattermost

Gründe für den Wechsel zu Zulip

Because threads are way easier to follow on Zulip

Vorteile

It's such high-quality software for it to be an open-source tool. Despite some advanced features requiring payment, you can get most of the fundamentals along with some really cool tools on the completely free plan.

Nachteile

It would be nice if you could attach your personal Zoom room to the "Start Meeting" button. This may already be a feature, or be a paid feature, but I'm not entirely sure that it's available. The channel structure of Zulip relying on topic threads does require slightly more manual organization than a continuously running channel.

Vorteile

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.

Nachteile

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.

Vorteile

Open-source, free tier is fantastic, ease of use, conversation labels make it fairly easy to find threads

Nachteile

I think Slack thread UI is a little more intuitive. I miss being able to branch off from an existing conversation and see number of replies to that thread.

Vorteile

The interface with Channels, Topics, and Private chats

Nachteile

It's missing a notes feature, but that's not its core function.

Vorteile

Reliable. Easy to use. Powerful Search. Threaded Conversations. Integration with other tools (jenkins, ...)

Nachteile

Not plug and play for a small team but once setup it's OK.

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

Trello

Warum Zulip gewählt wurde

Hipchat was ended and we were looking for something more user friendly.

Gründe für den Wechsel zu Zulip

Threads. Price. Platform support. Open source.

Vorteile

Channels with topics, custom emojis, email alerts, mobile app, push notifications

Nachteile

Don’t have any complaints other than sometimes the iOS app gets a little slow or out of sync with incoming push notifications

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

Slack und Basecamp

Gründe für den Wechsel zu Zulip

Cost, ability to self host and review source code

Vorteile

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!

Nachteile

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.

Vorteile

It's a wonderful, smooth, secure alternative to Slack - perfect for our growing community.

Nachteile

Nothing - all great! I only wish I had found it earlier.

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

Slack

Warum Zulip gewählt wurde

Security, cost and ease of displaying math

Zuvor genutzte Software

Slack

Gründe für den Wechsel zu Zulip

Ease of use. Functionality. Cost. Display of math.

Vorteile

Its ethos-driven approach and excellent functionality

Nachteile

no major issues; sometimes slightly lacking in flexibility between channels/subjects

Vorteile

It resembles Slack but is less expensive, open-source and doesn't lock you out. Great choice for IT professionals. Zulip makes it possible to manage and keep well-organized many one-to-one and group conversations on various topics.
The solid community of Zulip users and contributors seems to really influence the development roadmap.

Nachteile

Limited choice of external call providers

Vorteile

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.

Nachteile

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.

Vorteile

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).

Nachteile

Bots are not intuitive, especially if you're using the could version.

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

Rocket.Chat

Gründe für den Wechsel zu Zulip

It did fit our needs more than RocketChat

Vorteile

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.

Nachteile

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.

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

Slack

Gründe für den Wechsel zu Zulip

Topic-based ("threads") works much better

Vorteile

Open source
Flexibility
Diversity of functions
Improvement over time
Great desktop app

Nachteile

The smartphone app could be improved, in particular the handling of several organizations simultaneously

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

Slack

Gründe für den Wechsel zu Zulip

It's open source. It has no ads. It's free.

Vorteile

No tracking. We don't want our data accessible or monetisable by Big Tech.

Nachteile

That it's not so well known. Were it so, would more integrations be available?

Vorteile

Open source and provide free instance.
Minimal while include most useful features.
Best part: built-in bot support, which allows me to watch GitHub update, interact with Zulip using email, etc.
Also: has terminal version.

Nachteile

CJK characters search is poor. For example, searching "非常" should return "非常好的作品", as Chinese does not use space as word delimiter.
Web interface seems a little boring.

Vorteile

Zulip enables the categorization of discussions into specific topics, ensuring that conversations remain laser-focused and easy to track. This feature improves productivity and reduces the clutter often associated with group chats. If you're seeking for a communication platform that improves productivity and simplifies teamwork, Zulip is undoubtedly the way to go.It's easy to navigate, and the organized conversation threads (called "streams") and topics help to keep discussions structured and accessible.our experience with Zulip has been exceptionally positive. 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.

Nachteile

While Zulip's interface is generally user-friendly, the concept of streams and topics may require a bit of a learning curve, especially for new users. Complex to use for non daily users It may take some time for teams to fully adapt to the platform.

Vorteile

It's very easy to keep track of messages among groups and on key topics, it has support for a lot of useful text features like including math and images in messages, and it just runs smoothly.

Nachteile

There are a couple quality-of-life addons that I would like to see, such as being able to sort messages by whether they include files, and the ability to pin messages to the top of specific topics. Otherwise, though, it's very feature-complete.

Vorteile

Zulip has a very intuitive & made for team collaboration

Nachteile

The user interface is good, but they can improve the user experience. Make it easy for teams to go back & forth on the topics, sometimes it becomes very cluttered when working on more than one project.

Vorteile

Free, simple, with markdown. Allows my team to be much more organized than when we just had a WhatsApp group and a cloud !
Even non-geeks manage to use it properly.

Nachteile

I'd like to have a place with folders and enough space to save files on Zulip instead of using a cloud. I could link to a file directly in Zulip and comment on it.

Vorteile

LaTeX support, markdown editing, Free hosting, simple yet functional.

Nachteile

It is hard to keep channels and chats organized. Replying on messages copies the entire message -- this should be some kind of expandable I think.
The delay in image uploads behaves strangely. If sending a message with an image, it is possible to send the message before the image is uploaded, but then the image will never appear in the message.
The final thing I am missing is a better setup for customizing the UI, and integrating addons. A calendar function and/or a todo-list support would be great!

Vorteile

Zulip is an efficient and tool for communication and coordination in groups of any size. It encourages users to structure discussions into topics so that chat messages naturally evolve into knowledge bases. And if users are not systematic at the start then as a moderator one gets excellent tools to restructure topics, move them to different channels etc.

Zulip is fast and efficient. Compared to MS Teams or Slack it uses a lot less resources and the application reacts quickly/instantly. This holds for the desktop and the mobile app.

Last not least, Zulip is stable both in the sense that it basically never crashed for me, and in the sense that the interface has looked the same for a couple of years now. It is a pleasure that the developers are NOT changing things for the sake of changing.

Nachteile

There are minor bugs sometimes, my favorite one is that the go-back mouse button in the desktop app is broken. (This issue is tracked on GitHub and shall eventually be fixed.)

The strong focus on topics can also irritate new users, and the user interface can be overwhelming for users who are more used to being hand-held by competing systems.

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

Microsoft Teams und Slack

Gründe für den Wechsel zu Zulip

Faster, less chaotic, more efficient. Open source.

Vorteile

Open source and cross-platform functionality

Nachteile

Can't save customized status posts and does not automate an off-duty status when user closes app.

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

Slack

Warum Zulip gewählt wurde

Other - not listed - ICQ. ICQ is no longer available, we were forced to make a change

Gründe für den Wechsel zu Zulip

open source, private messaging and independent of other means of communication

Vorteile

It is a very effective tool to manage and track many concurrent conversations with specific topics each.

Nachteile

My only complaint is that people are not using it enough.
One reason I heard for a company to not use it, was problems with data retention certification.

Vorteile

Huge fan of the customisation options, the very functional UI and especially the topics system makes information way better organised than my time on Slack and Teams.

Nachteile

Not much to hate. I had a few features I missed from Slack when we moved but I put feature requests on GitHub and they were all implemented.

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

Microsoft Teams

Warum Zulip gewählt wurde

Massive price increase prompted us to look at other options.

Zuvor genutzte Software

Slack

Gründe für den Wechsel zu Zulip

I trust open source software over Microsoft generally and Teams in particular has been awful every time I've been forced to use it.

Vorteile

Zulip is safe and secure for all users - especially for minors who need to contact each other in a safe environment, without the worry of external influences Zulip has been invaluable. For both for administrators and users the desktop product is easy to manage and the layout is intuitive and attractive.
Being able to customize it is an added bonus. Users can create individual discussions, or join together easily.

Nachteile

The mobile app is less intuitive, but still useable.

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

Microsoft Teams

Gründe für den Wechsel zu Zulip

The other products were managed by large commercial companies, and did not allow the same customization, and concerns for privacy. Also, there were ads placed, the content and images of which the admins had no control over, meaning you wouldn't know what is going to be displayed next to your messages.

Vorteile

How discussions are structured, it allows me to navigate between multiple subjects / teams without being lost. It simplifies async work between team members. Basically it's an hybrid between a forum and a chat.

Nachteile

Onbaording colleagues can be hard because of the UX a bit different from other apps. For instance the lack of a WYSIWYG message editor.
Also lacks the ability to create categories to put channels in it.

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

Rocket.Chat

Warum Zulip gewählt wurde

Slack too confusing (lack of proper thread model) and too pricey. Discord is a very bad text chat if you need to do actual work / async work and go back to old threads.

Zuvor genutzte Software

Slack

Gründe für den Wechsel zu Zulip

Thread model, No vendor lock-in, open source

Vorteile

Their ties to the open source community and secure, private servers.

Nachteile

The interface still has a few elements that aren't simple or elegant.

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

Microsoft Teams und Basecamp

Warum Zulip gewählt wurde

We used Google Allo for years, until Allo ended, and then switched to Slack. When Slack began to get negative press regarding security issues, we decided to go elsewhere

Zuvor genutzte Software

Slack

Gründe für den Wechsel zu Zulip

Price, security, dissociation from the sketchy behaviors of big tech

Vorteile

It is an open (free) platform that allows users to store their content for unlimited time. I particularly like having topics within streams, which enables me to group content within projects.

Nachteile

I can not think of anything... Maybe not having the possibility to have topics within topics...

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

Pumble

Warum Zulip gewählt wurde

they started charging the unlimited time storage of content (messages)

Zuvor genutzte Software

Slack

Gründe für den Wechsel zu Zulip

Zulip has the possibility of organizing the content in topics within streams

Vorteile

Clean interface. Elegant UI decisions. Has every feature I'd want in a team collaboration tool. It is always available.

Nachteile

I honestly have no complaints about Zulip. I've had no issues with it, and it always performs as expected. It is rock-solid.

Vorteile

Zulip’s unique topic-based threading model is a complete game-changer in terms of being able to prioritize attention to discussions which matter the most. In contrast, Slack's anonymous threading model is about as sensible as if email was designed without any Subject header. Imagine if your email inbox was full of messages none of which you were able to know what they were about without opening up and reading each one individually!

Being able to move messages between topics to keep conversation threads clean and easy to follow is magical.

Furthermore, the fact that it's Open Source guarantees long-term freedom to use and enhance however anyone wants.

Nachteile

Zulip doesn't enjoy the same network effects as Slack and Discord, therefore there are a lot fewer third party integrations.

Also there are one or two gaps in the keyboard shortcuts, e.g. switching between channels should be easier, but it should be easy to fix these.

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

Telegram, Rocket.Chat und Mattermost

Warum Zulip gewählt wurde

Zulip’s unique topic-based threading model makes communication much more efficient and stress-free.

Zuvor genutzte Software

Slack

Gründe für den Wechsel zu Zulip

Zulip’s unique topic-based threading model makes communication much more efficient and stress-free.

Vorteile

Functionality. Communication well organized in one place. Efficiency with team communication.

Nachteile

Slack has a more crisp UI. The interface for Zulip doesn't look great. The backend is good though.

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

Microsoft Teams und Slack

Gründe für den Wechsel zu Zulip

It's better. It's free. I like the company's ethos. Slack burnt another business I worked with their 90d history change. I like that Zulip have said they won't do this kind of thing. That was what prompted me to recommend Zulip over competitors, when I saw it had all the functionality we needed and a good team behind it. Without me recommending and pushing for it though, and implementing it, training people and encouraging them to use it, without that impetus it would not have happened, and we'd be doing many more meetings and meeting minutes. Zulip has saved us money and time.

Vorteile

Most organized communication/"chat" tool. Easy to catch up on conversations. Solves the problem of "cross-talking" in channels.

Also the most programmer-friendly tool, the syntax highlighting, markdown and LaTeX support are extraordinary.

Nachteile

Doesn't have an integrated video meeting + screen sharing tool, but it can integrate with other tools.

Vorteile

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.

Nachteile

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.

Vorteile

The way they organize conversations into streams and topics is genius. I don´t have to search the conversations; I know exactly where everything is. This avoids turning everything into a chaotic mess. What sold me is that it's open-source. It's like the Swiss Army knife of team communication.

Nachteile

Zulip has a short learning curve, but you must change how you manage conversations as a company. The streams and topics take some getting used to. The GUI isn´t the prettiest, but it is very functional.

Vorteile

You can move conversations between topics. Totally a game-changer for us.

Nachteile

This is a really small thing, but the "follow this topic" thing is something I'd like to turn off – I just want to follow all topics. Also, it would be nice if you could use check boxes to select message that you'd like to move (as opposed to just "all following" or "only this one").

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

Slack

Gründe für den Wechsel zu Zulip

Moving threads was a cool feature that we wanted to try.

Vorteile

It is a very powerful messaging platform that allows text, image, video, latex, markdown, and code blocks with syntax highlighting.

Nachteile

I have had a hard time getting others to adopt it, even though it is very good and free.

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

Gmail

Warum Zulip gewählt wurde

Rocket requires we pay money for push notifications, which was a deal breaker.

Zuvor genutzte Software

Rocket.Chat

Gründe für den Wechsel zu Zulip

I don't want to feed my data to the AI thank you. I want privacy.

Vorteile

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

Nachteile

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.

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

Microsoft Teams

Gründe für den Wechsel zu Zulip

Usability, price, simplicity, efficiency

Vorteile

I use Zulip to communicate with classes of 25–40 students. It is far more efficient than using the communication tools in Canvas, and the mobile app is great for students and for me. Plus there is fantastic support for Markdown, code blocks, images and videos, etc.

Nachteile

There is really nothing I find lacking about this software.

Vorteile

I use and recommend Zulip for all organizations and groups. The organization and storage of messages has enhanced the productivity of myself and colleagues for years.

Nachteile

There isn't anything I would change about Zulip.

Vorteile

The fact that it's free for small companies... It's an ideal way to try out and see whether it is a good fit for our organization. Zulip is very intuitive: all our 9 employees were able to start working with it without any training or instruction.

Nachteile

There's nothing I don't like about Zulip.

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

Slack

Gründe für den Wechsel zu Zulip

Well, Slack is very expensive and for the functionality we need, Slack also seemed overkill.

Vorteile

Very simple and intuitive. Possibility to write latex and markdown. Free.

Nachteile

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.

Vorteile

* It has excellent support for code and mathematics, and also images.
* Its markdown-based composition support is also excellent, including nice features like timezone independent times.
* It has a very convenient streams and threads model, allowing for focussed discussions over time.
* The apps are good, especially the desktop app.
* The developers are responsive to feature requests and issues raised.

Nachteile

I have not faced any real issues with Zulip.

Vorteile

Zulip's unique threading model stands out as its strongest feature, making it easy to follow multiple conversations within a single channel without losing context. The ability to search across streams and topics with advanced filters is another highlight for me.

Nachteile

The mobile app occasionally lags behind in performance compared to the desktop version.