head to head · open source
Zulip vs blocksuite
Zulip has 26,158 GitHub stars, 10,521 forks, 2,008 open issues and last shipped yesterday. blocksuite has 6,083 stars, 565 forks, 196 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Zulip leads on adoption by 330% (26,158 vs 6,083 stars). Zulip is written in Python under Apache-2.0; blocksuite is written in TypeScript under MPL-2.0. Zulip has attracted 40% as many forks as stars, blocksuite 9%. blocksuite was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (collaboration), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| Zulip | blocksuite | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 26K | ★ 6.1K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MPL-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 11K | ⑂ 565 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Zulip if
- You weight community size — 26K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick blocksuite if
- You want the blocksuite feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and blocksuite fits your workflow better
About Zulip
Zulip overview Zulip is an open source organized team chat app with unique [topic based threading][why zulip] that combines the best of email and chat to make remote work productive and delightful. Fortune 500 companies, [leading open source projects][rust case study], and thousands of other organizations use Zulip every day. Zulip is the only [modern team chat app][features] that is designed for both live and asynchronous conversations. Zulip is built by a distributed community of developers from all around the world, with 99+ people who have each contributed 100+ commits. With over 1,500 contributors merging…
read the full Zulip overview →
About blocksuite
BlockSuite Overview People who are really serious about editor should make their own framework. BlockSuite is a toolkit for building editors and collaborative applications. It implements a series of content editing infrastructures, UI components and editors independently. You can consider BlockSuite as a UI component library for building various editors, based on a minimized vanilla framework as their runtime. With BlockSuite, you can: Reuse multiple first party BlockSuite editors: PageEditor : A comprehensive block based document editor, offering extensive customization and flexibility. EdgelessEditor : A…
read the full blocksuite overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Zulip or blocksuite more popular?
Zulip has 26,158 GitHub stars and blocksuite has 6,083. Zulip has the larger community by that measure.
Are Zulip and blocksuite free?
Both are open source. Zulip is licensed under Apache-2.0 and blocksuite under MPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Zulip and blocksuite?
Zulip is written in Python and blocksuite in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Zulip or blocksuite?
Choose Zulip if you want the larger community (26,158 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose blocksuite if its feature set, stack or MPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.