head to head · open source
Zulip vs chat
Zulip has 26,158 GitHub stars, 10,521 forks, 2,008 open issues and last shipped yesterday. chat has 13,547 stars, 2,093 forks, 41 open issues and last shipped 9 days ago. Zulip leads on adoption by 93% (26,158 vs 13,547 stars). Zulip is written in Python under Apache-2.0; chat is written in Go under GPL-3.0. Zulip has attracted 40% as many forks as stars, chat 15%. Zulip was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (chat, 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 | chat | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 26K | ★ 14K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-25 |
| Forks | ⑂ 11K | ⑂ 2.1K |
| 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 chat if
- You want the chat feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and chat 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 chat
Tinode Instant Messaging Server Instant messaging full stack. Backend in pure Go (license GPL 3.0), clients for Android (Java), iOS (Swift), and web (ReactJS), as well as gRPC client support for C++, C , Go, Java, Node, PHP, Python, Ruby, Objective C, etc (all clients licensed under Apache 2.0). Wire transport is JSON over websocket (long polling is also available) or protobuf with gRPC. This is beta quality software: feature complete and stable but probably with a few bugs or missing features. Follow instructions to install and run or use one of the cloud services below. Read API documentation. Tinode is not…
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Frequently asked questions
Is Zulip or chat more popular?
Zulip has 26,158 GitHub stars and chat has 13,547. Zulip has the larger community by that measure.
Are Zulip and chat free?
Both are open source. Zulip is licensed under Apache-2.0 and chat under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Zulip and chat?
Zulip is written in Python and chat in Go. 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 chat?
Choose Zulip if you want the larger community (26,158 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose chat if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.