Slack vs Zulip
On the evidence we track, Slack leads this comparison with a composite score of 79/100. Scores are only directly comparable because these tools share a category; the full breakdown and every source is below.
Capabilities
Feature-by-feature on the axes that matter for collaboration software. “-” means undocumented, not absent.
What each one is
The product in its own terms, so the numbers below have context.
Slack
LeaderA work operating system that combines messaging, workflow automation, and app integrations to enable team communication, process documentation, and knowledge sharing with enterprise security.
Zulip
An open-source team collaboration application that organizes conversations into topic-based threads, blending instant messaging with email-style threading to support both real-time and delayed communication patterns.
Pricing
List pricing as published by each vendor, with the date we read it. Always verify at the source before you buy.
Slack
LeaderFrom £0 (free tier) to £7/user/month (Pro). Free tier available.
- FreeFree
- 90 days of message history
- Up to 10 apps from Slack App Directory
- 1:1 audio and video meetings with screen sharing
- 1:1 external messages via Slack Connect
- SAML-based single sign-on
- +9 more
- Pro£7/user/month (£5.75/user/month billed annually)
- Unlimited message history
- Unlimited app integrations
- 2,600+ apps in Slack App Directory
Zulip
From $6.67/user/month (cloud annual), free open-source self-hosted option, or $3.50/user/month for commercial self-hosted support. Free tier available.
- FreeFree
- Message history search (10,000 limit)
- File storage up to 5 GB total
- Complete team chat solution
- Hundreds of integrations
- Advanced roles and permissions
- +1 more
- Standard$6.67/user/month billed annually or $8/month
- Unlimited search history
- File storage up to 5 GB per user
- Flexible permissions with custom groups
- Message retention policies
- Brand Zulip with your logo
- +2 more
- Plus$10/user/month billed annually or $12/month
- All Standard plan features
- File storage up to 25 GB per user
- SSO with SAML (Okta, OneLogIn)
- SCIM user and group sync
- Custom domain
- +1 more
- Self-hosted (Open Source)Free
- Complete team chat solution with all Zulip features without limitation
- 100% open-source software
- Retain full control over your data
- Self-hosted Basic$3.50/user/month (with $20/month first-year discount)
- Unlimited support
- Email and chat support
- SSO with SAML and Microsoft Entra ID
- AD/LDAP user sync
- Full compliance
- +2 more
- Self-hosted EnterpriseContact sales
- Email, chat and phone support
- SSO with OpenID Connect
- AD/LDAP, SAML and OpenID Connect group sync
- Implementation consulting
- Custom feature development
- +1 more
Platform & deployment
Where each product runs and how it can be hosted. A dash means undocumented, not unsupported.
Integrations
What each product connects to. Counts come from the vendor's own integration directory where one exists.
- Salesforce
- Zapier
- Jira
- GitHub
- Okta
- Zendesk
Slack
Leader- Atlassian
- Lucid
- Loom
- Miro
- Smartsheet
- Mural
- Microsoft 365
- Google Workspace
- ADFS
Zulip
- Slack
- Microsoft Teams
- Discord
- Mattermost
- Rocket.Chat
- Matrix
- IRC
- GitLab
- Bitbucket
- Asana
- Linear
- Trello
- Basecamp
- Jenkins
- CircleCI
- GitHub Actions
- Travis CI
- TeamCity
- Heroku
- Netlify
- Docker
- Kubernetes
- Ansible Tower
- +33 more
Slack or Zulip: which one depends on you
A composite score cannot know your constraints. Describe them and both get re-weighted against what you actually need, with the evidence behind every position.
Free to run, no account needed to start. How the evaluation works
Comparison generated from independently-sourced facts. Every value links to its source and retrieval date. See the method.