Mattermost vs Zulip

Mattermost

Open-source team-chat platform

Zulip

Open-source threaded-chat platform

Feature Mattermost Zulip
Category Communication Communication
Sub-category Team Chat Team Chat
Maturity mature mature
Complexity intermediate intermediate
Performance tier medium medium
License Apache-2.0 Apache-2.0
License type permissive permissive
Pricing fully free fully free
GitHub stars 31.0K 22.0K
Contributors 0 0
Commit frequency weekly weekly
Plugin ecosystem none none
Docs quality good good
Backing org Mattermost Inc Zulip
Funding model open_core open_core
Min RAM 1 GB 2 GB
Min CPU cores 2 2
Scaling pattern single_node single_node
Self-hostable Yes Yes
K8s native No No
Offline capable No No
Vendor lock-in none none
Languages Go, React Python, TypeScript
API type REST REST
Protocols HTTP HTTP
Deployment docker docker
SDK languages
Team size fit small, medium, enterprise small, medium, enterprise
First release 2020 2020
Latest version

When to use Mattermost

  • Primary: team-messaging
  • Primary: devops-communication
  • Primary: channel-organization

When to use Zulip

  • Primary: async-team-communication
  • Primary: threaded-discussions
  • Primary: project-focused-chat
Full Mattermost profile → Full Zulip profile → All comparisons