Run Zulip, the open-source team chat organised by topic, from a pre-configured image in your own AWS account or GCP project. Every conversation keeps its own thread, so your team can catch up without scrolling through one long stream.
Zulip is an open-source team chat app, licensed under Apache 2.0, built for both live and asynchronous conversations. It suits distributed teams that want chat organised like email threads and full control over their message history.
Every message has a topic, so each discussion stays in its own thread.
Read one conversation at a time instead of one long stream.
Apps for the desktop and phones, plus the web app.
Search the full message history on your own server.
Connect your tools and build bots through the Zulip API.
Zulip documents migrations from Slack, Teams and other tools.
A Zulip server needs a database, a web server, email delivery and SSL. The image arrives with the server set up, so launching takes your domain and your SMTP details.
Launch from AWS Marketplace with a CloudFormation stack, or from Google Cloud Marketplace with its deployment form, giving your domain and SMTP settings.
After 5-10 minutes, create a DNS A record with the server's public IP.
Generate a one-time organization link on the server, as the developer guide shows, and open it.
Confirm your admin account by email, create channels and invite your team.
An AMI on AWS Marketplace, launched into your own AWS account with a CloudFormation stack.
Launch on AWS 
The same team chat server as a Google Cloud Marketplace image, deployed into your own GCP project.
Launch on Google Cloud | Zulip | Slack | |
|---|---|---|
| Licence | Apache 2.0, open source | Proprietary |
| Pricing model | Free software, pay only for hosting | Per user, from $7.25 a month paid yearly |
| Free tier history | Everything on your server | 90 days of messages |
| Where it runs | Your own AWS account or GCP project | Slack's cloud |
| Conversations | Channels split into topics | Channels with optional threads |
An open-source team chat app. Conversations are organized into channels and topics, so each discussion stays in its own thread.
The software is open source under Apache 2.0, with all Zulip features included. On AWS or Google Cloud you pay for the instance and the software fee shown on the listing, not per user.
Zulip's free self-hosted plan includes mobile push notifications for up to 10 users, or without limit for eligible communities. Larger teams need one of Zulip's paid self-hosted plans for unlimited notifications.
On AWS, t3a.small is a workable baseline for a small team; on Google Cloud, e2-medium. Move up as your users and message history grow.
Zulip emails account confirmations, invitations and password resets. Without working SMTP, new users cannot finish signing up.
A fresh Zulip server has no organization yet. Generate a one-time creation link on the server, as the developer guide shows, and open it to create yours.
Yes. On AWS it is automatic when your domain is hosted on Route 53, and on Google Cloud the image requests a certificate for the domain you enter. If that fails, run Zulip's certbot script on the server.
Yes. Zulip supports SAML and OpenID Connect sign-in, so it can sit behind the same identity provider as your other tools.
We deploy and run self-hosted team chat every day, from SMTP and SSL to SSO and backups. Tell us what your team needs.
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