head to head · open source
Zulip vs DesktopEditors
Zulip has 25,921 GitHub stars, 10,247 forks, 2,008 open issues and last shipped yesterday. DesktopEditors has 5,401 stars, 541 forks, 465 open issues and last shipped 4 months ago. Zulip leads on adoption by 380% (25,921 vs 5,401 stars). Zulip is written in Python under Apache-2.0; DesktopEditors is written in various languages under AGPL-3.0. Zulip has attracted 40% as many forks as stars, DesktopEditors 10%. Zulip 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 | DesktopEditors | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 26K | ★ 5.4K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | — |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-05-21 |
| Forks | ⑂ 10K | ⑂ 541 |
| 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 DesktopEditors if
- You want the DesktopEditors feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- You evaluated both and DesktopEditors fits your workflow better
About Zulip
Zulip is an open source organized team chat application built on topic based threading, aimed at distributed teams that need live and asynchronous conversation in one place, and it is positioned as an open alternative to Slack.
read the full Zulip overview →
About DesktopEditors
ONLYOFFICE Desktop Editors is a free, open source office suite that combines document, spreadsheet, presentation, PDF, and PDF form editors with a diagram viewer into one offline desktop application for Windows, Linux, and macOS, aimed at anyone who works with Office Open XML files and wants a local, no internet alternative to a proprietary office suite.
read the full DesktopEditors overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Zulip or DesktopEditors more popular?
Zulip has 25,921 GitHub stars and DesktopEditors has 5,401. Zulip has the larger community by that measure.
Are Zulip and DesktopEditors free?
Both are open source. Zulip is licensed under Apache-2.0 and DesktopEditors under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Zulip and DesktopEditors?
Zulip is written in Python and DesktopEditors in various languages. 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 DesktopEditors?
Choose Zulip if you want the larger community (25,921 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose DesktopEditors if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.