Mattermost vs Zulip
We give Mattermost a 3.2 GPA and Zulip a 3.6, out of 4.0. Zulip grades higher on ease of use. They get the same grade on value for money, the free plan, features and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Mattermost
Self-hosted team messaging with playbooks, calls and boards
Zulip
Open-source team chat that organizes channels by topic
How we grade them
| 3.2GPAMattermostVery good | 3.6GPAZulipExcellent | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | BNo prices are published, so we can't set it against what team chat usually costs. Professional, Enterprise and Enterprise Advanced are all quoted by sales and sold as prepaid annual seats. Eligible nonprofits and open-source organizations can apply for 3 years of Professional for a $250 fee. | BCloud Standard is $6.67 a user a month billed annually, or $8 monthly, which is about the going rate. Hosting it yourself is cheaper, with Basic at $3.50. SAML single sign-on on Cloud means Plus at $10, with a 10-user minimum. |
| Free plan and trial | AThe open-source Team Edition is free and MIT licensed for under 250 users, and a small team could stay on it for good, though it has no single sign-on. There's also Entry, a free mode with Enterprise Advanced features that only shows the latest 10,000 channel messages. | AHost it yourself and every feature is free, with mobile notifications for up to 10 users. Zulip Cloud Free has no price either, but it only searches the latest 10,000 messages and gives 5 GB of storage in total. Open-source projects and academic research can apply for Standard free. |
| Features | AChannels, threads, file sharing and search, plus playbooks with conditional checklists for incident response, calls with screen sharing, and boards in Kanban, table, calendar and gallery form. AI agents can run on a self-hosted model. Workflow automation and work management are listed from Enterprise. | ATopics inside channels, with messages you can move between them and topics you can mark as resolved. Code highlighting, LaTeX, polls, to-do lists, scheduled sends and reminders. Tools to move between Cloud and your own server. Calls are the one thing handed off, to Zoom, Jitsi or BigBlueButton. |
| Ease of use | DYou host it yourself. The only vendor-hosted option is a single-tenant cloud arranged through sales, so somebody has to run a server before anyone can say hello. Once it's up, people seem happy: the iPhone app has 4.8 from about 5,600 App Store ratings. | BNo App Store rating is on record, so a B is as high as we go. On Zulip Cloud there's no server to run, just sign up and go. Naming a topic for each new conversation is a habit your team has to pick up. |
| Platforms and integrations | AWeb, Mac, Windows, Linux, iPhone and Android, in 20 languages. There's a REST API with an OpenAPI 3.0 spec, webhooks, slash commands and a plugin platform, with ready-made links to Jira, GitHub, GitLab, ServiceNow and Zoom. | AWeb, Windows, Mac, Linux, iPhone and Android, and even a terminal app. More than 130 native integrations, a REST API, webhooks, and bridges to Slack, Microsoft Teams and Matrix. |
| Best for | team chat kept on your own servers | chat you can catch up on hours later |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Mattermost and Zulip. How we grade
Where they differ
- Mattermost also covers kanban boards, workflow automation and AI agents.
- Zulip also covers file sharing.
At a glance
| Mattermost | Zulip | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free plan |
| Starts at | Not published | $3.50 per user / month self-hosted (billed monthly); Cloud from $6.67 billed annually |
| Free plan | Mattermost Entry is a free self-hosted mode limited to 10,000 viewable channel messages with community support. The open-source Team Edition is also free for under 250 users. | Zulip Cloud Free: 10,000 messages of search history and 5 GB of file storage in total. Self-hosting is free with all features, with mobile notifications for up to 10 users. |
| Free trial | 1-hour preview environment of Enterprise Advanced; a trial can also be activated on a self-hosted server. | None listed |
| Web | ||
| macOS | ||
| Windows | ||
| Linux | ||
| iOS | ||
| Android | ||
| Made by | Mattermost, Inc. | Kandra Labs, Inc. |
| Price read from | mattermost.com | zulip.com |
| Checked | Oct 5, 2026 | Oct 5, 2026 |
Who each one suits
Mattermost
- Organizations that must keep chat on their own servers or air-gapped networks
- DevOps and security teams that run incident response from chat
- Small technical teams comfortable hosting their own server
Zulip
- Distributed teams that prefer asynchronous, topic-organized conversations
- Open-source projects, research groups and communities seeking sponsored plans
- Organizations that want to self-host open-source chat
- Classes and schools, which get education pricing
Worth knowing
Mattermost
- No prices are published: Professional, Enterprise and Enterprise Advanced are quoted by sales and sold as prepaid annual seat subscriptions.
- Entry shows only the latest 10,000 channel messages and has community support only; the vendor suggests it for teams of fewer than 50 users.
- It is self-hosted by design; the only vendor-hosted option described is single-tenant Mattermost Cloud Enterprise, arranged through sales.
- Team Edition has no single sign-on, and the vendor does not recommend it for government or sensitive commercial workloads.
Zulip
- Zulip Cloud Free searches only the most recent 10,000 messages and has 5 GB of file storage for the whole organization.
- SAML single sign-on and SCIM on Zulip Cloud need the Plus plan, which has a 10-user minimum; self-hosted Business has a 25-user minimum.
- Voice and video calls depend on an outside provider such as Zoom or Jitsi.
- Self-hosted Free limits mobile push notifications to 10 users unless the organization registers as an eligible community.
Key features
Mattermost
- Channel-based messaging
- 1-1 and group messages, public and private channels, threaded discussions, file sharing and search across web, desktop and mobile, in 20 languages.
- Playbooks
- Repeatable playbooks for incident response, change management and compliance, with conditional checklists and escalation. The pricing page lists workflow automation from Enterprise.
- Calls and screen sharing
- 1:1 audio calls with screen sharing are in every paid package, and group calls support about 50 concurrent users per self-hosted server. A 40-minute call limit is planned for Entry.
- Boards
- Kanban, table, calendar and gallery boards for assigning and tracking tasks next to the conversation. The pricing page lists work management from Enterprise.
- AI agents
- Agents summarize conversations and take actions using an LLM provider the customer chooses, or a self-hosted model in air-gapped environments.
- Integrations and API
- A REST API with an OpenAPI 3.0 spec, webhooks, slash commands and a plugin platform, with prebuilt integrations for tools such as Jira, GitHub and GitLab.
Zulip
- Topic-based threading
- A new conversation starts by giving it a brief topic inside a channel, and replies stay in that context. Messages can be moved between topics, and topics marked as resolved.
- Cloud or self-hosted
- The same 100% open-source software runs on Zulip Cloud or on your own server, and export and import tools let an organization move between them.
- Apps for every platform
- Zulip has a web app for any modern browser, desktop apps for Windows, Mac and Linux, mobile apps for iOS and Android, and a terminal app.
- Calls through a provider
- 1:1 and group voice and video calls open in a configurable call provider such as Zoom, Jitsi or BigBlueButton.
- Integrations and API
- More than 130 native integrations, thousands more through Zapier and IFTTT, custom webhooks, a REST API, and chat bridges to Slack, Microsoft Teams and Matrix.
- Formatting and lightweight workflows
- Messages support code syntax highlighting and LaTeX, plus polls and to-do lists, scheduled sends, reminders and extensive keyboard shortcuts.
Plans
Mattermost
Entry$0
Free mode of the Enterprise Edition: Enterprise Advanced features with 10,000 viewable messages, community support, and no compliance or high availability.
Team Edition$0
Open-source, MIT-licensed edition for small teams and personal use under 250 activated users, without single sign-on.
ProfessionalCustom
For teams of up to 250 users: single sign-on, AD/LDAP sync, guest accounts and next-business-day support. Sold as prepaid annual seats.
EnterpriseCustom
Adds workflow automation, work management boards, compliance and data retention tools, federated communications and high availability.
Enterprise AdvancedCustom
Adds zero-trust attribute-based access controls, classification banners, burn-on-read messages and support for air-gapped environments.
Zulip
Free$0
On Zulip Cloud: 10,000 messages of search history and 5 GB of storage in total. Self-hosted: every feature, with mobile notifications for up to 10 users.
Self-hosted Basic$3.50
per user / month, billed monthly
Self-hosted server with all Zulip features and unlimited mobile notifications.
Cloud Standard$6.67
per user / month, billed annually ($8 billed monthly)
Unlimited search history, 5 GB of file storage per user, message retention policies, custom groups and priority commercial support.
Self-hosted Business$6.67
per user / month, billed annually ($8 billed monthly)
25 users minimum. Email and chat support for SAML and Entra ID single sign-on, AD/LDAP user sync, compliance exports and retention policies.
Cloud Plus$10
per user / month, billed annually ($12 billed monthly)
10 users minimum. Adds 25 GB of file storage per user, SAML single sign-on, SCIM user and group sync, and a custom domain.
Self-hosted EnterpriseCustom
Email, chat and phone support, OpenID Connect single sign-on, group sync, implementation consulting and custom feature development.
Ways to pay less
Mattermost
- Nonprofit
3-year Professional license for $250
Eligible nonprofit and open-source organizations can apply for a 3-year self-hosted Mattermost Professional subscription for up to 1,000 users for a $250 fee.
Zulip
- Annual discount
About 17% less with annual billing
Cloud Standard and self-hosted Business cost $6.67 per user / month billed annually against $8 billed monthly, and Cloud Plus is $10 against $12.
- Other savings
$20 a month off self-hosted plans in year one
The plans page advertises $20 per month off the self-hosted Basic and Business plans for the first year.
- Nonprofit
Free Standard plan for eligible organizations
Open-source projects, academic research, non-profit events and non-profits with no paid staff are generally eligible for a free Zulip Cloud Standard plan, by application.
- Education
Education pricing from $0.67 per user
Standard for Education costs $0.67 per user / month for non-profit institutions and $1 for for-profit ones with annual billing, or $0.80 and $1.20 billed monthly.
