Discourse vs Zulip

Comparing two open source alternatives to Discord and Slack. Use the comparison below to decide which one fits your needs.

Discourse

GPL-2.0

Open source community forum platform combining long-form discussion, real-time chat, and strong moderation. Self-host it or use managed hosting.

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Zulip

Apache-2.0

Open-source team chat with a unique topic-based threading model that makes it easy to follow multiple conversations.

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Side-by-side comparison

	Discourse	Zulip
License	GPL-2.0	Apache-2.0
Self-hostable	Yes	Yes
GitHub Stars	47,958	26,027
Forks	9,032	10,378
Open Issues	291	2,048
Last Commit	Oct 10, 2026	Oct 9, 2026
First Released	Jan 12, 2013	Sep 25, 2015
Categories	Team Chat & Messaging Tools	Team Chat & Messaging Tools
Tags	#forum #chat	#chat #messaging #collaboration

GitHub stars over time

Discourse47,958

Zulip

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