Slack vs Zulip
A source-aware comparison of pricing, documented capabilities and workflow fit.
Short answer
- Price: not directly comparable — Slack is from $8.75/user/mo billed monthly, Zulip is free tier available.
- How to start: Slack is from $8.75/user/mo billed monthly, Zulip is free tier available.
- Where they differ: only Zulip has open source / self-hostable; both offer public api and sso (saml).
These lines are generated from the pricing we track, not from a paid placement. How we score tools.
What Slack is
What Slack isSlack is much more than a chat app; it is the 'digital headquarters' for modern organizations. It eliminates the chaos of internal email by organizing communication into transparent, searchable, and themed channels. With thousands of integrations (GitHub, Jira, Google Drive), Slack centralizes your entire tech stack into one interface. Whether it's a quick voice chat via 'Huddles' or collaborative document editing with 'Canvas,' Slack is designed to keep hybrid and remote teams connected and productive in a fast-paced environment.
What Zulip is
What Zulip isZulip organises chat into topics inside channels, so conversations stay readable even when you were away for a day. Topics inside channels mean you can catch up on one subject without reading everything, which is the difference after a day away. The model takes discipline to maintain, and teams that ignore topics lose the benefit.
Side by side
| Slack | Zulip | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Communication | Communication |
| How to start | $8.75/user/moverified | Free tiernot a monthly price |
| Public API | Yes | Yes |
| Mobile app | Yes | not checked |
| Open source / self-hostable | No | Yes |
| SSO (SAML) | Yes | Yes |
| Visit | Slack ↗ | Zulip ↗ |
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What Slack is built to do
- Slack Connect
- Securely collaborate with external partners and agencies in shared channels.
- Huddles
- Start instant audio and video sessions with one click for rapid decision-making.
- Workflow Builder
- Automate routine tasks like onboarding or approvals without writing a single line of code.
- Enterprise Security
- Institutional-grade data protection and single sign-on (SSO) support for large firms.
What Zulip is built to do
- Topic-based threading
- Splits each channel into named topics that can be followed separately.
- Self-hosted or cloud
- Runs on your own servers or as a hosted service from the same codebase.
- Full-history search
- Searches the entire archive including topics you never joined.
Choose Slack if
- Teams on Pro at $7.25 per user/month billed annually ($8.75 monthly) who need unlimited message history
- Small groups testing the Free plan: 90 days of message history, up to 10 apps and 1:1 huddles
- Companies on Business+ at $15 per user/month annually ($18 monthly) that need group external messaging
Skip Slack if
- You rely on the Free plan long term — history is cut at 90 days and apps are capped at 10
- You need Multi-SAML or unlimited workspaces; those are Enterprise+ and priced only by sales
- Your headcount is large: every plan is per user, so cost scales linearly with the team
Choose Zulip if
- Open-source projects, academic research and small non-profits — they are eligible for a free Standard plan, and Zulip says it sponsors over 1,500 organizations
- Teams that want an exit: the same product is self-hostable and free, with export and import tools for moving either direction
- Self-hosters who only need mobile push: the Basic plan is $3.50 per user per month, and non-workplace users get an 85%+ discount
- Small teams testing the water — Cloud Free keeps 10,000 messages of search history and all the core chat features
Skip Zulip if
- You need SSO on the cloud: SAML and SCIM only appear on Plus at $10 per user per month billed annually, which also has a 10-user minimum
- Your archive matters and you want to stay free — the free cloud tier caps search history at 10,000 messages and total file storage at 5 GB
- You are a company below 25 seats wanting self-hosted SSO: the self-hosted Business plan enforces a 25-user minimum
- You want month-to-month pricing at the advertised rate: the headline $6.67 and $10 figures are annual, rising to $8 and $12 billed monthly
Evidence and freshness
Where a claim on this page comes from a vendor page, it is linked here.
Slack: pros & cons
- Powerful Search: Find any file or message from years ago in a matter of seconds.
- Flexible Channels: Organize work by project, team, or even interests to maintain focus.
- Extensive API: Easily build and integrate your own bots and custom workflows.
- High Reliability: Desktop and mobile apps are exceptionally fast and stable.
- Notification Fatigue: Can be highly distracting if not properly configured by the user.
- Free Plan Limits: Access to message history is restricted on the free tier.
- Enterprise Pricing: Per-user licensing costs can add up quickly for large organizations.
Zulip: pros & cons
- Topic threading makes catching up genuinely possible
- Open source and self-hostable
- Good for asynchronous, distributed teams
- Topic discipline must be taught to the team
- Interface is denser than Slack
- Smaller integration ecosystem
Our verdict on Slack
An indispensable tool for moving team communication away from email and into a faster era.
Our verdict on Zulip
The threading model solves a real Slack problem. It only works if the team maintains it.
Published plans, side by side
Every figure below was read from the vendor's own pricing page and is shown with the sentence it came from. Where a vendor publishes no plan prices, we say so rather than guess.
Slack
- Free$0/mo
Free $0: 90 days message history, up to 10 apps, 1:1 huddles, 1:1 external messages
- Pro$8.75/user/mo billed monthly
Pro $8.75/user/month monthly or $7.25/user/month annual: unlimited history and apps, group huddles
- Business+$18/user/mo billed monthly
Business+ $18/user/month monthly or $15/user/month annual
Zulip
- Zulip Cloud Standard$6.67/user/mo billed annually
Zulip Cloud Standard: $6.67 per user per month billed annually, or $8 billed monthly — unlimited search history, 5 GB storage per user, custom groups, message retention policies, your own logo, priority commercial support
- Self-hosted Business$6.67/user/mo billed annually
Self-hosted Business: $6.67 per user per month billed annually or $8 monthly, 25 users minimum, adds SAML/Entra ID SSO, AD/LDAP sync, compliance exports and data retention policies
Slack vs Zulip: common questions
- Does Slack or Zulip have a free plan?
- Slack publishes a free plan (Free), while Zulip has a free tier with limits.
- Which is cheaper once you start paying, Slack or Zulip?
- Zulip has the cheaper first paid step: Zulip Cloud Standard at $6.67/user/mo billed annually, against Pro at $8.75/user/mo billed monthly for Slack. Both figures come from the vendors' own pricing pages.
- What is the difference between Slack and Zulip?
- On the criteria we check, only Zulip has open source / self-hostable; both offer public api and sso (saml). The table above lists every criterion side by side.