{"slug": "zulip", "name": "Zulip", "category": "communication", "category_name": "Email and chat", "description": "Open-source team chat app that organizes conversations into channels and topic threads.", "recommenders": 7, "commenters": 14, "warners": 3, "score": 4.186, "rising": -2.29, "first": "2025-11-19", "latest": "2026-09-28", "why": "Liked for its topic-first threading that helps manage distractions, and as an open-source, self-hostable team chat that commenters moved to from Slack, Mattermost and Matrix.", "why_is_quote": false, "has_verdict": true, "sentiment": {"recommend": 7, "neutral": 2, "compare": 2, "warn": 3}, "spark": [0, 1, 0, 2, 0, 1, 1, 0, 2, 0, 0, 0], "listed": true, "loved": ["Slack alternative", "Enjoyable daily use"], "caveat": "Casual group fit", "short_quote": "I\u2019m increasingly thankful Zulip exists as an open source alternative to other collaborative platforms.", "icon": false, "domain": "zulip.com", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://zulip.com", "pricing": "open source", "aliases": ["Zulip"], "verdict": [{"text": "Liked for its topic-first threading that helps manage distractions,", "cites": [{"id": 751447520, "item_id": 46965470, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46965470", "by": "bnlxbnlx", "date": "2026-02-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "i love zulip for so many things, and in particular the topic-first paradigm.", "excerpt": "i love zulip for so many things, and in particular the topic-first paradigm. and as long as it doesn't offer voice messages i keep going back to signal (or similar). for small groups i often find voice messages to be easiest (totally not for big groups, i agree!).", "context": "", "use_case": "team chat", "switched_from": "", "story": "Zulip.com Values"}, {"id": 742143680, "item_id": 46383980, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46383980", "by": "carolosf", "date": "2025-12-25", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Highly recommend looking at Zulip as an alternative.", "excerpt": "I used to use Mattermost. Highly recommend looking at Zulip as an alternative. (It\u2019s my favourite slack alternative and even better than Slack because it\u2019s the best at managing distractions IMO. It also has an interesting history was acquired by Dropbox and then back from Dropbox I believe)", "context": "", "use_case": "team chat", "switched_from": "Mattermost", "story": "Mattermost restricted access to old messages after 10000 limit is reached"}]}, {"text": " and as an open-source, self-hostable team chat that commenters moved to from Slack, Mattermost and Matrix.", "cites": [{"id": 767330192, "item_id": 47958137, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47958137", "by": "zacharyozer", "date": "2026-04-29", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I\u2019m increasingly thankful Zulip exists as an open source alternative to other collaborative platforms.", "excerpt": "Congrats on the release, and love the write up! I\u2019m increasingly thankful Zulip exists as an open source alternative to other collaborative platforms. In the age of agents, it feels like a huge advantage that folks can take a robust platform as a base and customize it to their needs (and hopefully contribute back)! Also, thanks for sharing about your experiences with agent-based contributions, both internally and ext", "context": "", "use_case": "team chat", "switched_from": "", "story": "Zulip 12.0 Released"}, {"id": 783942914, "item_id": 48996432, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48996432", "by": "jillesvangurp", "date": "2026-07-21", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "a few weeks ago we switched to Zulip. That's pretty straightforward to setup as well.", "excerpt": "Bots in team chat is not a bad idea. I've been experimenting with that for a few months. We started with Slack. This kind of works but dialing in the gazillion of permissions needed to end up with something that works is a bit painful. And you have to do this over and over again for each new bot. So, we started experimenting with self hosted alternatives. First we tried Matrix. It's nice but a bit too strict on end t", "context": "", "use_case": "team chat with bots", "switched_from": "Matrix", "story": "Jack Dorsey launches Buzz to combine team chat, AI agents and Git hosting"}, {"id": 742143680, "item_id": 46383980, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46383980", "by": "carolosf", "date": "2025-12-25", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Highly recommend looking at Zulip as an alternative.", "excerpt": "I used to use Mattermost. Highly recommend looking at Zulip as an alternative. (It\u2019s my favourite slack alternative and even better than Slack because it\u2019s the best at managing distractions IMO. It also has an interesting history was acquired by Dropbox and then back from Dropbox I believe)", "context": "", "use_case": "team chat", "switched_from": "Mattermost", "story": "Mattermost restricted access to old messages after 10000 limit is reached"}, {"id": 735834801, "item_id": 45989675, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45989675", "by": "adham-omran", "date": "2025-11-19", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "we moved to Zulip", "excerpt": "Last time I used Matrix for our internal team notifications were beyond broken and we moved to Zulip, verification and authentication were also very funky at the time, I don't dare to try it again.", "context": "team chat admin", "use_case": "internal team chat", "switched_from": "Matrix", "story": "Verifying your Matrix devices is becoming mandatory"}]}, {"text": " The most common caveat is that it feels too heavy-duty for casual friend groups and lacks voice features,", "cites": [{"id": 751368688, "item_id": 46960543, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46960543", "by": "eigenspace", "date": "2026-02-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I really like Zulip, and I'd like to migrate my friend-group onto it", "excerpt": "I used Zulip every day for the julia programming language (https://julialang.zulipchat.com). I really like Zulip, and I'd like to migrate my friend-group onto it, but it probably won't happen. I think Zulip is just a bit too heavy-duty for a friend group chatting, and also lacks the visual polish that a lot of people want. For now, my friends and I mostly just use Signal for group chats, which leaves a lot to be desi", "context": "", "use_case": "community chat for Julia language", "switched_from": "", "story": "Discord will require a face scan or ID for full access next month"}, {"id": 751447520, "item_id": 46965470, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46965470", "by": "bnlxbnlx", "date": "2026-02-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "i love zulip for so many things, and in particular the topic-first paradigm.", "excerpt": "i love zulip for so many things, and in particular the topic-first paradigm. and as long as it doesn't offer voice messages i keep going back to signal (or similar). for small groups i often find voice messages to be easiest (totally not for big groups, i agree!).", "context": "", "use_case": "team chat", "switched_from": "", "story": "Zulip.com Values"}, {"id": 751132660, "item_id": 46945791, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46945791", "by": "jszymborski", "date": "2026-02-09", "stance": "compare", "quote": "I looked into hosting Rocket.chat, Zullip, and Mattermost but from what I recall voice + mobile were either missing or paywalled", "excerpt": "So my friend group has been looking for alternatives for a while now that feel like discord, works on mobile and desktop, and has voice chat. I use Signal but the UI is very different from Discord. I've had very mixed experiences with Element + Matrix, Element keeps crashing on mobile, and while voice chat kinda exists in Element it's not been great imho. I looked into hosting Rocket.chat, Zullip, and Mattermost but ", "context": "", "use_case": "Discord alternative", "switched_from": "", "story": "Discord will require a face scan or ID for full access next month"}]}, {"text": " and one commenter warns against it as a secure chat because it has no end-to-end encryption.", "cites": [{"id": 798051776, "item_id": 49878236, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49878236", "by": "mxmilkiib", "date": "2026-09-28", "stance": "warn", "quote": "avoid Zulip for a properly secure Discord replacement, givin its lack of (and roadmap refusal for) e2e", "excerpt": "avoid Zulip for a properly secure Discord replacement, givin its lack of (and roadmap refusal for) e2e; https://github.com/zulip/zulip/issues/6096", "context": "", "use_case": "secure Discord replacement", "switched_from": "", "story": "Armada: Encrypted, Open-Source, Discord Alternative (Built on Nostr)"}]}], "praise": [{"label": "Slack alternative", "summary": "Commenters recommend it over Slack, Mattermost, Matrix and Microsoft Teams, and some switched to it.", "quotes": [{"id": 742143680, "item_id": 46383980, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46383980", "by": "carolosf", "date": "2025-12-25", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Highly recommend looking at Zulip as an alternative.", "excerpt": "I used to use Mattermost. Highly recommend looking at Zulip as an alternative. (It\u2019s my favourite slack alternative and even better than Slack because it\u2019s the best at managing distractions IMO. It also has an interesting history was acquired by Dropbox and then back from Dropbox I believe)", "context": "", "use_case": "team chat", "switched_from": "Mattermost", "story": "Mattermost restricted access to old messages after 10000 limit is reached"}, {"id": 783942914, "item_id": 48996432, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48996432", "by": "jillesvangurp", "date": "2026-07-21", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "a few weeks ago we switched to Zulip. That's pretty straightforward to setup as well.", "excerpt": "Bots in team chat is not a bad idea. I've been experimenting with that for a few months. We started with Slack. This kind of works but dialing in the gazillion of permissions needed to end up with something that works is a bit painful. And you have to do this over and over again for each new bot. So, we started experimenting with self hosted alternatives. First we tried Matrix. It's nice but a bit too strict on end t", "context": "", "use_case": "team chat with bots", "switched_from": "Matrix", "story": "Jack Dorsey launches Buzz to combine team chat, AI agents and Git hosting"}, {"id": 735834801, "item_id": 45989675, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45989675", "by": "adham-omran", "date": "2025-11-19", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "we moved to Zulip", "excerpt": "Last time I used Matrix for our internal team notifications were beyond broken and we moved to Zulip, verification and authentication were also very funky at the time, I don't dare to try it again.", "context": "team chat admin", "use_case": "internal team chat", "switched_from": "Matrix", "story": "Verifying your Matrix devices is becoming mandatory"}]}, {"label": "Enjoyable daily use", "summary": "Long-term users describe it as enjoyable software they rely on every day.", "quotes": [{"id": 770529280, "item_id": 48158080, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48158080", "by": "usr1106", "date": "2026-05-16", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It was truly enjoyable software.", "excerpt": "We used zulip at work 7 years until I had to leave when the startup had to cut down development. We didn't pay a cent (which is not good for the project...) It was truly enjoyable software. Nowadays I am forced to use Microsoft Teams, which is largely non-functional bullshit. We pay real money to the disgusting company. Where do I find a list of employers using zulip?", "context": "used it 7 years at a startup", "use_case": "team chat at work", "switched_from": "", "story": "The Zulip Foundation"}, {"id": 751368688, "item_id": 46960543, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46960543", "by": "eigenspace", "date": "2026-02-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I really like Zulip, and I'd like to migrate my friend-group onto it", "excerpt": "I used Zulip every day for the julia programming language (https://julialang.zulipchat.com). I really like Zulip, and I'd like to migrate my friend-group onto it, but it probably won't happen. I think Zulip is just a bit too heavy-duty for a friend group chatting, and also lacks the visual polish that a lot of people want. For now, my friends and I mostly just use Signal for group chats, which leaves a lot to be desi", "context": "", "use_case": "community chat for Julia language", "switched_from": "", "story": "Discord will require a face scan or ID for full access next month"}, {"id": 781377792, "item_id": 48836112, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48836112", "by": "JoshTriplett", "date": "2026-07-08", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use Zulip and Signal extensively", "excerpt": "> Or, perhaps the asynch chat thing is a distraction and we need something asynchronous that's well proven. Like... email? Real-time chat is, in fact, useful, and a separate product from email. The fact that you don't want to use it does not change the fact that others do. I use Zulip and Signal extensively, and I use email occasionally, and none of them fully replace the use cases of the others.", "context": "", "use_case": "real-time chat", "switched_from": "", "story": "Chatto is now Open Source"}]}, {"label": "Topic-first threading", "summary": "Its topic-based organization is credited with keeping conversations focused and reducing distractions.", "quotes": [{"id": 751447520, "item_id": 46965470, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46965470", "by": "bnlxbnlx", "date": "2026-02-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "i love zulip for so many things, and in particular the topic-first paradigm.", "excerpt": "i love zulip for so many things, and in particular the topic-first paradigm. and as long as it doesn't offer voice messages i keep going back to signal (or similar). for small groups i often find voice messages to be easiest (totally not for big groups, i agree!).", "context": "", "use_case": "team chat", "switched_from": "", "story": "Zulip.com Values"}, {"id": 742143680, "item_id": 46383980, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46383980", "by": "carolosf", "date": "2025-12-25", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Highly recommend looking at Zulip as an alternative.", "excerpt": "I used to use Mattermost. Highly recommend looking at Zulip as an alternative. (It\u2019s my favourite slack alternative and even better than Slack because it\u2019s the best at managing distractions IMO. It also has an interesting history was acquired by Dropbox and then back from Dropbox I believe)", "context": "", "use_case": "team chat", "switched_from": "Mattermost", "story": "Mattermost restricted access to old messages after 10000 limit is reached"}]}, {"label": "Open source, self-hosted", "summary": "Valued as an open-source platform that is straightforward to self-host and customize.", "quotes": [{"id": 767330192, "item_id": 47958137, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47958137", "by": "zacharyozer", "date": "2026-04-29", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I\u2019m increasingly thankful Zulip exists as an open source alternative to other collaborative platforms.", "excerpt": "Congrats on the release, and love the write up! I\u2019m increasingly thankful Zulip exists as an open source alternative to other collaborative platforms. In the age of agents, it feels like a huge advantage that folks can take a robust platform as a base and customize it to their needs (and hopefully contribute back)! Also, thanks for sharing about your experiences with agent-based contributions, both internally and ext", "context": "", "use_case": "team chat", "switched_from": "", "story": "Zulip 12.0 Released"}, {"id": 783942914, "item_id": 48996432, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48996432", "by": "jillesvangurp", "date": "2026-07-21", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "a few weeks ago we switched to Zulip. That's pretty straightforward to setup as well.", "excerpt": "Bots in team chat is not a bad idea. I've been experimenting with that for a few months. We started with Slack. This kind of works but dialing in the gazillion of permissions needed to end up with something that works is a bit painful. And you have to do this over and over again for each new bot. So, we started experimenting with self hosted alternatives. First we tried Matrix. It's nice but a bit too strict on end t", "context": "", "use_case": "team chat with bots", "switched_from": "Matrix", "story": "Jack Dorsey launches Buzz to combine team chat, AI agents and Git hosting"}]}, {"label": "Bot friendly", "summary": "One team found it easier for chat bots than Slack's permissions or Matrix's strict encryption.", "quotes": [{"id": 783942914, "item_id": 48996432, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48996432", "by": "jillesvangurp", "date": "2026-07-21", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "a few weeks ago we switched to Zulip. That's pretty straightforward to setup as well.", "excerpt": "Bots in team chat is not a bad idea. I've been experimenting with that for a few months. We started with Slack. This kind of works but dialing in the gazillion of permissions needed to end up with something that works is a bit painful. And you have to do this over and over again for each new bot. So, we started experimenting with self hosted alternatives. First we tried Matrix. It's nice but a bit too strict on end t", "context": "", "use_case": "team chat with bots", "switched_from": "Matrix", "story": "Jack Dorsey launches Buzz to combine team chat, AI agents and Git hosting"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "Casual group fit", "summary": "Seen as too heavy-duty for friend groups, with no voice messages and voice possibly missing or paywalled.", "quotes": [{"id": 751368688, "item_id": 46960543, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46960543", "by": "eigenspace", "date": "2026-02-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I really like Zulip, and I'd like to migrate my friend-group onto it", "excerpt": "I used Zulip every day for the julia programming language (https://julialang.zulipchat.com). I really like Zulip, and I'd like to migrate my friend-group onto it, but it probably won't happen. I think Zulip is just a bit too heavy-duty for a friend group chatting, and also lacks the visual polish that a lot of people want. For now, my friends and I mostly just use Signal for group chats, which leaves a lot to be desi", "context": "", "use_case": "community chat for Julia language", "switched_from": "", "story": "Discord will require a face scan or ID for full access next month"}, {"id": 751447520, "item_id": 46965470, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46965470", "by": "bnlxbnlx", "date": "2026-02-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "i love zulip for so many things, and in particular the topic-first paradigm.", "excerpt": "i love zulip for so many things, and in particular the topic-first paradigm. and as long as it doesn't offer voice messages i keep going back to signal (or similar). for small groups i often find voice messages to be easiest (totally not for big groups, i agree!).", "context": "", "use_case": "team chat", "switched_from": "", "story": "Zulip.com Values"}, {"id": 751132660, "item_id": 46945791, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46945791", "by": "jszymborski", "date": "2026-02-09", "stance": "compare", "quote": "I looked into hosting Rocket.chat, Zullip, and Mattermost but from what I recall voice + mobile were either missing or paywalled", "excerpt": "So my friend group has been looking for alternatives for a while now that feel like discord, works on mobile and desktop, and has voice chat. I use Signal but the UI is very different from Discord. I've had very mixed experiences with Element + Matrix, Element keeps crashing on mobile, and while voice chat kinda exists in Element it's not been great imho. I looked into hosting Rocket.chat, Zullip, and Mattermost but ", "context": "", "use_case": "Discord alternative", "switched_from": "", "story": "Discord will require a face scan or ID for full access next month"}]}, {"label": "UI speed, polish", "summary": "One team reports a very slow web UI, and the UI is described as lacking visual polish.", "quotes": [{"id": 757772192, "item_id": 47360762, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47360762", "by": "Poomba", "date": "2026-03-12", "stance": "warn", "quote": "The web UI has become extremely slow.", "excerpt": "The web UI has become extremely slow. I am not sure if its that way for everyone or its because there are more people in our team using it. Many people dont like the UI too although that isnt my main concern", "context": "team user", "use_case": "team chat", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Does anyone here use Discord as their work chat tool?"}, {"id": 751368688, "item_id": 46960543, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46960543", "by": "eigenspace", "date": "2026-02-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I really like Zulip, and I'd like to migrate my friend-group onto it", "excerpt": "I used Zulip every day for the julia programming language (https://julialang.zulipchat.com). I really like Zulip, and I'd like to migrate my friend-group onto it, but it probably won't happen. I think Zulip is just a bit too heavy-duty for a friend group chatting, and also lacks the visual polish that a lot of people want. For now, my friends and I mostly just use Signal for group chats, which leaves a lot to be desi", "context": "", "use_case": "community chat for Julia language", "switched_from": "", "story": "Discord will require a face scan or ID for full access next month"}]}, {"label": "No E2E encryption", "summary": "It lacks end-to-end encryption, which a commenter says is not on its roadmap.", "quotes": [{"id": 798051776, "item_id": 49878236, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49878236", "by": "mxmilkiib", "date": "2026-09-28", "stance": "warn", "quote": "avoid Zulip for a properly secure Discord replacement, givin its lack of (and roadmap refusal for) e2e", "excerpt": "avoid Zulip for a properly secure Discord replacement, givin its lack of (and roadmap refusal for) e2e; https://github.com/zulip/zulip/issues/6096", "context": "", "use_case": "secure Discord replacement", "switched_from": "", "story": "Armada: Encrypted, Open-Source, Discord Alternative (Built on Nostr)"}]}, {"label": "Hosting overhead", "summary": "Self-hosting it adds maintenance overhead compared with a hosted service.", "quotes": [{"id": 746813392, "item_id": 46675837, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46675837", "by": "TkTech", "date": "2026-01-18", "stance": "compare", "quote": "If I go with Zulip, mattermost, rocket.chat, matrix, etc I introduce maintenance overhead", "excerpt": "I might have missed it, but no mention of _where_ data is stored in the FAQ and seems critically reliant on Cloudflare. In a changing world, what's the selling point for those outside of the USA? Why would our company pick this over self-hosting when our country is threatened with American annexation almost weekly? If I go with Zulip, mattermost, rocket.chat, matrix, etc I introduce maintenance overhead but I don't h", "context": "company outside the USA needing business continuity", "use_case": "self-hosted company chat", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Dock \u2013 Slack minus the bloat, tax, and 90-day memory loss"}]}], "who": [{"by": "usr1106", "context": "used it 7 years at a startup", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48158080", "date": "2026-05-16"}, {"by": "adham-omran", "context": "team chat admin", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45989675", "date": "2025-11-19"}], "tags": ["for teams", "self-hostable", "for open-source communities", "for chat bots"], "use_cases": ["team chat", "secure discord replacement", "team chat with bots", "real-time chat", "team chat at work", "community chat for julia language"], "compared": [{"slug": "matrix", "name": "Matrix", "co": 5, "switched_from": 2, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "discord", "name": "Discord", "co": 6, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "mattermost", "name": "Mattermost", "co": 3, "switched_from": 1, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "slack", "name": "Slack", "co": 4, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "signal", "name": "Signal", "co": 4, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "rocket-chat", "name": "Rocket.Chat", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [{"id": 773785120, "item_id": 48361570, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48361570", "by": "kimvandiver", "date": "2026-06-01", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Zulip is the only modern team chat app designed for both live and asynchronous conversations.", "excerpt": "Zulip | Senior Backend/Infrastructure Engineer | REMOTE | Full-time | https://zulip.com/ Zulip is building the world\u2019s best collaboration platform, and we\u2019re committed to keeping it 100% open source. Zulip is the only modern team chat app designed for both live and asynchronous conversations. Our product serves as the communication hub for businesses, open-source projects, educators and communities around the world. ", "context": "", "use_case": "team chat", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Who is hiring? (June 2026)"}, {"id": 770441360, "item_id": 48152585, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48152585", "by": "nicholasjbs", "date": "2026-05-15", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "it's one of my favorite pieces of software, and I use it daily.", "excerpt": "Congrats to Tim and the rest of the team! I've been a happy Zulip user (and realm admin) for 13 years: it's one of my favorite pieces of software, and I use it daily. My understanding is these changes will be very good for Zulip's long-term stability and success. (I'm a volunteer member of the new foundation's advisory board.)", "context": "Zulip user and realm admin for 13 years; volunteer advisory board member of the Zulip foundation", "use_case": "team chat", "switched_from": "", "story": "The Zulip Foundation"}, {"id": 751272240, "item_id": 46954515, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46954515", "by": "tabbott", "date": "2026-02-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "the topics-based organization and ability for moderators to move/split conversations means one can read and participate in a community much more fully", "excerpt": "Check out https://zulip.com/for/communities/ and some of the linked case studies; they explain it better than I'll be able to in a quick comment. But the main reason is that the topics-based organization and ability for moderators to move/split conversations means one can read and participate in a community much more fully given a fixed amount of time.", "context": "", "use_case": "community chat", "switched_from": "", "story": "Discord will require a face scan or ID for full access next month"}, {"id": 751225280, "item_id": 46951580, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46951580", "by": "tabbott", "date": "2026-02-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I'd say so, especially if you start on desktop and have them watch the 2-minute onboarding video.", "excerpt": "I'd say so, especially if you start on desktop and have them watch the 2-minute onboarding video. We are satisfied with what we see with our internal usability studies with nontechnical users. Among customers, one reference that I can quickly cite is this one: https://zulip.com/case-studies/gut-contact/ > Agents at GUT contact use Zulip every day to communicate with their team leads. \u201cMost of our agents are in their ", "context": "", "use_case": "community chat", "switched_from": "", "story": "Discord will require a face scan or ID for full access next month"}, {"id": 737770512, "item_id": 46110657, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46110657", "by": "alya", "date": "2025-12-01", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Zulip is the only modern team chat app that is designed for both live and asynchronous conversations.", "excerpt": "Zulip | Go-to-market leader | REMOTE or San Francisco | Full-time | https://zulip.com/ At Zulip, we\u2019re out to build the world\u2019s best collaboration platform, and give users control over their data. Zulip is the only modern team chat app that is designed for both live and asynchronous conversations. Our product serves as the communication hub for businesses, open-source projects, educators and communities around the wo", "context": "", "use_case": "team chat", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Who is hiring? (December 2025)"}], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46945663", "title": "Discord will require a face scan or ID for full access next month", "mentions": 4}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48152168", "title": "The Zulip Foundation", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47360676", "title": "Ask HN: Does anyone here use Discord as their work chat tool?", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49877678", "title": "Does Reddit have an astroturfing problem? What the data suggests", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49873048", "title": "Armada: Encrypted, Open-Source, Discord Alternative (Built on Nostr)", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48995213", "title": "Jack Dorsey launches Buzz to combine team chat, AI agents and Git hosting", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"neutral": 1}, "2025-12": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-01": {"compare": 1}, "2026-02": {"compare": 1, "recommend": 2}, "2026-03": {"neutral": 1, "warn": 1}, "2026-04": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-05": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {"recommend": 2}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {"warn": 2}, "2026-10": {}}, "quotes": [{"id": 798053536, "item_id": 49878346, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49878346", "by": "cucumber3732842", "date": "2026-09-28", "stance": "warn", "quote": "", "excerpt": ">s between actual people. Only for arbitrary people. Gate kept or low member count communities that exist to facilitate a discussion between appliance repair men, literature enthusiasts, fly tying hobbyists or owners of a particular model of vehicle are largely alive and well (unfortunately a lot of them moved from forums to facebook, but still.", "context": "", "use_case": "secure Discord replacement", "switched_from": "", "story": "Does Reddit have an astroturfing problem? What the data suggests"}, {"id": 798051776, "item_id": 49878236, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49878236", "by": "mxmilkiib", "date": "2026-09-28", "stance": "warn", "quote": "avoid Zulip for a properly secure Discord replacement, givin its lack of (and roadmap refusal for) e2e", "excerpt": "avoid Zulip for a properly secure Discord replacement, givin its lack of (and roadmap refusal for) e2e; https://github.com/zulip/zulip/issues/6096", "context": "", "use_case": "secure Discord replacement", "switched_from": "", "story": "Armada: Encrypted, Open-Source, Discord Alternative (Built on Nostr)"}, {"id": 783942914, "item_id": 48996432, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48996432", "by": "jillesvangurp", "date": "2026-07-21", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "a few weeks ago we switched to Zulip. That's pretty straightforward to setup as well.", "excerpt": "Bots in team chat is not a bad idea. I've been experimenting with that for a few months. We started with Slack. This kind of works but dialing in the gazillion of permissions needed to end up with something that works is a bit painful. And you have to do this over and over again for each new bot. So, we started experimenting with self hosted alternatives. First we tried Matrix. It's nice but a bit too strict on end t", "context": "", "use_case": "team chat with bots", "switched_from": "Matrix", "story": "Jack Dorsey launches Buzz to combine team chat, AI agents and Git hosting"}, {"id": 781377792, "item_id": 48836112, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48836112", "by": "JoshTriplett", "date": "2026-07-08", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use Zulip and Signal extensively", "excerpt": "> Or, perhaps the asynch chat thing is a distraction and we need something asynchronous that's well proven. Like... email? Real-time chat is, in fact, useful, and a separate product from email. The fact that you don't want to use it does not change the fact that others do. I use Zulip and Signal extensively, and I use email occasionally, and none of them fully replace the use cases of the others.", "context": "", "use_case": "real-time chat", "switched_from": "", "story": "Chatto is now Open Source"}, {"id": 770529280, "item_id": 48158080, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48158080", "by": "usr1106", "date": "2026-05-16", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It was truly enjoyable software.", "excerpt": "We used zulip at work 7 years until I had to leave when the startup had to cut down development. We didn't pay a cent (which is not good for the project...) It was truly enjoyable software. Nowadays I am forced to use Microsoft Teams, which is largely non-functional bullshit. We pay real money to the disgusting company. Where do I find a list of employers using zulip?", "context": "used it 7 years at a startup", "use_case": "team chat at work", "switched_from": "", "story": "The Zulip Foundation"}, {"id": 767330192, "item_id": 47958137, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47958137", "by": "zacharyozer", "date": "2026-04-29", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I\u2019m increasingly thankful Zulip exists as an open source alternative to other collaborative platforms.", "excerpt": "Congrats on the release, and love the write up! I\u2019m increasingly thankful Zulip exists as an open source alternative to other collaborative platforms. In the age of agents, it feels like a huge advantage that folks can take a robust platform as a base and customize it to their needs (and hopefully contribute back)! Also, thanks for sharing about your experiences with agent-based contributions, both internally and ext", "context": "", "use_case": "team chat", "switched_from": "", "story": "Zulip 12.0 Released"}, {"id": 757772192, "item_id": 47360762, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47360762", "by": "Poomba", "date": "2026-03-12", "stance": "warn", "quote": "The web UI has become extremely slow.", "excerpt": "The web UI has become extremely slow. I am not sure if its that way for everyone or its because there are more people in our team using it. Many people dont like the UI too although that isnt my main concern", "context": "team user", "use_case": "team chat", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Does anyone here use Discord as their work chat tool?"}, {"id": 757771777, "item_id": 47360736, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47360736", "by": "Zambyte", "date": "2026-03-12", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I have pretty minimal experience with it, but I've mostly heard positive things.", "excerpt": "Can I ask what's wrong with Zulip? I have pretty minimal experience with it, but I've mostly heard positive things. I'm curious what your team has found limiting. If you like the communication flow of Discord, Fluxer is also worth keeping on your radar. I would never trust my essential comms with Discord personally, and Fluxer is looking to be a great option.", "context": "", "use_case": "team chat", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Does anyone here use Discord as their work chat tool?"}, {"id": 751447520, "item_id": 46965470, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46965470", "by": "bnlxbnlx", "date": "2026-02-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "i love zulip for so many things, and in particular the topic-first paradigm.", "excerpt": "i love zulip for so many things, and in particular the topic-first paradigm. and as long as it doesn't offer voice messages i keep going back to signal (or similar). for small groups i often find voice messages to be easiest (totally not for big groups, i agree!).", "context": "", "use_case": "team chat", "switched_from": "", "story": "Zulip.com Values"}, {"id": 751368688, "item_id": 46960543, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46960543", "by": "eigenspace", "date": "2026-02-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I really like Zulip, and I'd like to migrate my friend-group onto it", "excerpt": "I used Zulip every day for the julia programming language (https://julialang.zulipchat.com). I really like Zulip, and I'd like to migrate my friend-group onto it, but it probably won't happen. I think Zulip is just a bit too heavy-duty for a friend group chatting, and also lacks the visual polish that a lot of people want. For now, my friends and I mostly just use Signal for group chats, which leaves a lot to be desi", "context": "", "use_case": "community chat for Julia language", "switched_from": "", "story": "Discord will require a face scan or ID for full access next month"}, {"id": 751132660, "item_id": 46945791, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46945791", "by": "jszymborski", "date": "2026-02-09", "stance": "compare", "quote": "I looked into hosting Rocket.chat, Zullip, and Mattermost but from what I recall voice + mobile were either missing or paywalled", "excerpt": "So my friend group has been looking for alternatives for a while now that feel like discord, works on mobile and desktop, and has voice chat. I use Signal but the UI is very different from Discord. I've had very mixed experiences with Element + Matrix, Element keeps crashing on mobile, and while voice chat kinda exists in Element it's not been great imho. I looked into hosting Rocket.chat, Zullip, and Mattermost but ", "context": "", "use_case": "Discord alternative", "switched_from": "", "story": "Discord will require a face scan or ID for full access next month"}, {"id": 746813392, "item_id": 46675837, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46675837", "by": "TkTech", "date": "2026-01-18", "stance": "compare", "quote": "If I go with Zulip, mattermost, rocket.chat, matrix, etc I introduce maintenance overhead", "excerpt": "I might have missed it, but no mention of _where_ data is stored in the FAQ and seems critically reliant on Cloudflare. In a changing world, what's the selling point for those outside of the USA? Why would our company pick this over self-hosting when our country is threatened with American annexation almost weekly? If I go with Zulip, mattermost, rocket.chat, matrix, etc I introduce maintenance overhead but I don't h", "context": "company outside the USA needing business continuity", "use_case": "self-hosted company chat", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Dock \u2013 Slack minus the bloat, tax, and 90-day memory loss"}, {"id": 742143680, "item_id": 46383980, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46383980", "by": "carolosf", "date": "2025-12-25", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Highly recommend looking at Zulip as an alternative.", "excerpt": "I used to use Mattermost. Highly recommend looking at Zulip as an alternative. (It\u2019s my favourite slack alternative and even better than Slack because it\u2019s the best at managing distractions IMO. It also has an interesting history was acquired by Dropbox and then back from Dropbox I believe)", "context": "", "use_case": "team chat", "switched_from": "Mattermost", "story": "Mattermost restricted access to old messages after 10000 limit is reached"}, {"id": 735834801, "item_id": 45989675, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45989675", "by": "adham-omran", "date": "2025-11-19", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "we moved to Zulip", "excerpt": "Last time I used Matrix for our internal team notifications were beyond broken and we moved to Zulip, verification and authentication were also very funky at the time, I don't dare to try it again.", "context": "team chat admin", "use_case": "internal team chat", "switched_from": "Matrix", "story": "Verifying your Matrix devices is becoming mandatory"}]}