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
LeaderSlack is a cloud-based system that enables teams to communicate through channels, integrate with external tools, and automate workflows while maintaining enterprise-grade security and compliance controls.
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.