Comparison

Wire vs Zulip

No clear leader: Wire (65.6) and Zulip (61.7) are within the 5-point margin; treat as a tie. The attribute-by-attribute breakdown below, with a source and date on every value, is the honest way to compare them.

Machine formatsMarkdownJSONGraphQLMarkdown is open. JSON and GraphQL need a free key.
Wire66
Zulip62
Score
vioscaleAI score
Wire66 / 100medium · 72%
Zulip62 / 100medium · 72%
Pricing
Free tier
Wire✓
Zulip✓
Model
Price level
Wirelow
Zulipfree
Starting price
Zulip$3.50
Transparent
Wire✓
Zulip✓
Integrations
Count
Wire1
Zulip130
Security
Certifications
Disclosure policy
Wire✓
Zulip✓
Gdpr
Wire✓
Zulip✓
Hipaa
Wire✓
Zulip✓
Iso27001
Wire✓
Zulip–
Reliability
Status page
Wire✓
Zulip✓
Content
Faq

Capabilities

Feature-by-feature on the axes that matter for collaboration software. “-” means undocumented, not absent.

Modality
Messaging
Wire✓
Zulip✓
Video meetings
Wire✓
Zulip✓
Whiteboard
Wire✗
Zulip-
Meetings
Screen sharing
Wire✓
Zulip✗
Recording / transcription
WireNone
Zulip-
Security
End-to-end encryption
Wire✓
Zulip✓
SSO / SCIM
Wire✓
Zulip✓
Access
Guest / external access
Wire✓
Zulip✓
Compliance
Compliance controls
Wire✓
Zulip✓
Deployment
Hosting
WireCloud + self-hosted
ZulipCloud + self-hosted
Scale
Max participants
Wire150 video (2000 with MLS enabled)
Zulip-
Ecosystem
App marketplace
Wire✓
Zulip✓
Public API / bot framework
Wire✓
Zulip✓
Commercial
Free tier
Wire✓
Zulip✓

What each one is

The product in its own terms, so the numbers below have context.

Wire

Wire is a secure communication platform offering messaging, audio/video calls, conferencing, and file sharing. Built on zero-knowledge architecture with always-on end-to-end encryption, it serves governments, critical infrastructure providers, and 1,800+ organizations globally.

Independently observed

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.

Independently observed

Pricing

List pricing as published by each vendor, with the date we read it. Always verify at the source before you buy.

Wire

from €7.45/seat/moHybridFree tier

Free tier available. Wire for Enterprise from €7.45/user/mo (annual billing). On-premises deployment available via sales.

  • Wire for FreeFree
    • Messaging
    • Audio and video conferencing
    • File sharing
  • Wire for Enterprise€7.45/user/mo (annual) or €8.94/user/mo (monthly)
    • All Wire for Free features
    • Video conferencing (up to 150 participants)
    • SSO and SCIM
    • Administrative controls
    • Role-based configurations
  • Wire On-Premises (Wire Local)Contact sales
    • All Wire for Enterprise features
    • Federation with Wire Cloud
    • ID-Shield
    • Full deployment support
    • Data sovereignty
    • +1 more
as of verify ↗

Zulip

from $3.50/seat/moHybridFree tier

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
as of verify ↗

Platform & deployment

Where each product runs and how it can be hosted. A dash means undocumented, not unsupported.

Platforms
Web
Wire✓
Zulip✓
iOS
Wire✓
Zulip✗
Android
Wire✓
Zulip✗
Deployment
Cloud / SaaS
Wire✓
Zulip✓
Self-hosted
Wire✓
Zulip✓

Integrations

What each product connects to. Counts come from the vendor's own integration directory where one exists.

In common (1)
  • GitHub

Wire

1 total - 0 not shared
  • GitHub
Independently observed

Zulip

63 total - 62 not shared
  • Slack
  • Microsoft Teams
  • Discord
  • Mattermost
  • Rocket.Chat
  • Matrix
  • IRC
  • Email
  • GitLab
  • Bitbucket
  • Asana
  • Jira
  • Linear
  • Trello
  • Basecamp
  • Jenkins
  • CircleCI
  • GitHub Actions
  • Travis CI
  • TeamCity
  • Heroku
  • Netlify
  • Docker
  • Kubernetes
  • +38 more
Independently observed
Still deciding?

Wire 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.