CINXE.COM
Zulip for communities
<!DOCTYPE html> <html lang='en' > <head> <meta charset="UTF-8" /> <title>Zulip for communities</title> <link id="favicon" rel="icon" href="https://static.zulipchat.com/static/images/favicon.svg?v=4" /> <link rel="alternate icon" href="https://static.zulipchat.com/static/images/favicon.png?v=4" /> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" /> <!-- Google / search engine tags --> <meta name="description" content="Zulip is designed with communities in mind, including open-source projects, research collaborations, and volunteer organizations. Reach out for a sponsorship!" /> <!-- Open Graph / Facebook / Twitter meta tags --> <meta property="og:url" content="https://zulipchat.com/for/communities/" /> <meta property="og:type" content="website" /> <meta property="og:site_name" content="Zulip" /> <meta property="og:title" content="Zulip for communities" /> <meta property="og:description" content="Zulip is designed with communities in mind, including open-source projects, research collaborations, and volunteer organizations. Reach out for a sponsorship!" /> <meta property="og:image" content="https://static.zulipchat.com/static/images/logo/zulip-icon-128x128.png" /> <meta name="twitter:card" content="summary" /> <script id="sentry-params" type="text/json">{"dsn":"https://26bb474451d946d6892d649ac54c3182@o48127.ingest.sentry.io/4504556882821120","environment":"production","realm_key":"www","sample_rate":1.0,"server_version":"10.0-beta2-336-g1e3bf33d44","trace_rate":0}</script> <script src="https://static.zulipchat.com/static/webpack-bundles/2449.944de03eb5e5da034cd6.js" defer crossorigin="anonymous" ></script> <link href="https://static.zulipchat.com/static/webpack-bundles/2037.f2f30a92cfcd4ad3856e.css" rel="stylesheet" /> <script src="https://static.zulipchat.com/static/webpack-bundles/2037.b43fc5e8afcd5cefa42e.js" defer crossorigin="anonymous" ></script> <script src="https://static.zulipchat.com/static/webpack-bundles/5059.e28c17251151ed77f1a6.js" defer crossorigin="anonymous" ></script> <script src="https://static.zulipchat.com/static/webpack-bundles/3355.bae18f829f5940205f32.js" defer crossorigin="anonymous" ></script> <script src="https://static.zulipchat.com/static/webpack-bundles/2655.24821712b3fb786d39cf.js" defer crossorigin="anonymous" ></script> <script src="https://static.zulipchat.com/static/webpack-bundles/6627.24b09bbbcf4bcf66b045.js" defer crossorigin="anonymous" ></script> <link href="https://static.zulipchat.com/static/webpack-bundles/4355.dc92187fb75198a481ed.css" rel="stylesheet" /> <script src="https://static.zulipchat.com/static/webpack-bundles/5683.0d854b8b227fd89e63ac.js" defer crossorigin="anonymous" ></script> <link href="https://static.zulipchat.com/static/webpack-bundles/4904.6ec91743d1bd1a47c5f5.css" rel="stylesheet" /> <link href="https://static.zulipchat.com/static/webpack-bundles/2621.095662340ad864434b95.css" rel="stylesheet" /> <script src="https://static.zulipchat.com/static/webpack-bundles/7863.8acc6fb297a8994cb735.js" defer crossorigin="anonymous" ></script> <script src="https://static.zulipchat.com/static/webpack-bundles/5693.62c023ee96922b3b2dc1.js" defer crossorigin="anonymous" ></script> <link href="https://static.zulipchat.com/static/webpack-bundles/3350.569c9a160e061d1a309d.css" rel="stylesheet" /> <script src="https://static.zulipchat.com/static/webpack-bundles/5148.6b70bdd384016bfe06b4.js" defer crossorigin="anonymous" ></script> <script src="https://static.zulipchat.com/static/webpack-bundles/landing-page.44cd29d09302f85b8044.js" defer crossorigin="anonymous" ></script> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" /> </head> <body> <div class="portico-container" data-platform="Mozilla"> <div class="portico-wrap"> <div class="header portico-header"> <div class="header-main" id="top_navbar"> <div class="float-left"> <div class="brand logo"> <a href="https://zulipchat.com/"> <svg class="brand-logo" role="img" aria-label="Zulip" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="68.96 55.62 1742.12 450.43" height="25"> <path fill="hsl(0, 0%, 27%)" d="M473.09 122.97c0 22.69-10.19 42.85-25.72 55.08L296.61 312.69c-2.8 2.4-6.44-1.47-4.42-4.7l55.3-110.72c1.55-3.1-.46-6.91-3.64-6.91H129.36c-33.22 0-60.4-30.32-60.4-67.37 0-37.06 27.18-67.37 60.4-67.37h283.33c33.22-.02 60.4 30.3 60.4 67.35zM129.36 506.05h283.33c33.22 0 60.4-30.32 60.4-67.37 0-37.06-27.18-67.37-60.4-67.37H198.2c-3.18 0-5.19-3.81-3.64-6.91l55.3-110.72c2.02-3.23-1.62-7.1-4.42-4.7L94.68 383.6c-15.53 12.22-25.72 32.39-25.72 55.08 0 37.05 27.18 67.37 60.4 67.37zm522.5-124.15l124.78-179.6v-1.56H663.52v-48.98h190.09v34.21L731.55 363.24v1.56h124.01v48.98h-203.7V381.9zm338.98-230.14V302.6c0 45.09 17.1 68.03 47.43 68.03 31.1 0 48.2-21.77 48.2-68.03V151.76h59.09V298.7c0 80.86-40.82 119.34-109.24 119.34-66.09 0-104.96-36.54-104.96-120.12V151.76h59.48zm244.91 0h59.48v212.25h104.18v49.76h-163.66V151.76zm297 0v262.01h-59.48V151.76h59.48zm90.18 3.5c18.27-3.11 43.93-5.44 80.08-5.44 36.54 0 62.59 7 80.08 20.99 16.72 13.22 27.99 34.99 27.99 60.64 0 25.66-8.55 47.43-24.1 62.2-20.21 19.05-50.15 27.6-85.13 27.6-7.77 0-14.77-.39-20.21-1.17v93.69h-58.7V155.26zm58.7 118.96c5.05 1.17 11.27 1.55 19.83 1.55 31.49 0 50.92-15.94 50.92-42.76 0-24.1-16.72-38.49-46.26-38.49-12.05 0-20.21 1.17-24.49 2.33v77.37z"/> </svg> </a> </div> </div> <div class="float-right top-links"> <a href="/login/">Log in</a> <a href="https://zulipchat.com/new/">New organization</a> </div> </div> </div> <div class="app portico-page "> <div class="app-main portico-page-container"> <!-- We have separate copies of the navbar list for web and mobile. Please update both the versions when making changes. --> <nav class="top-menu"> <div class="top-menu-container"> <a class="top-menu-logo nav-zulip-logo" href="https://zulip.com" tabindex="1"></a> <div class='top-menu-items-group-1'> <div class='top-menu-item top-menu-tab'> <div class="top-menu-tab-unselect"></div> <input type="radio" name="top-menu-tabs" class="top-menu-tab-input" id="top-menu-tab-product" /> <label for="top-menu-tab-product" class="nav-menu-label" tabindex="0">Product</label> <div class="top-menu-submenu"> <div class="top-menu-submenu-column"> <span class="top-menu-submenu-section">OVERVIEW</span> <ul class="top-menu-submenu-list"> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"><a href="https://blog.zulip.com/2024/11/04/choosing-a-team-chat-app/">Choosing a team chat app</a></li> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"><a href="https://zulip.com/why-zulip/">Why Zulip</a></li> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"><a href="https://zulip.com/try-zulip/">Try Zulip</a></li> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"><a href="https://zulip.com/help/moving-to-zulip">Moving to Zulip</a></li> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"><a href="https://zulip.com/self-hosting/">Self-hosting</a></li> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"><a href="https://zulip.com/security/">Security</a></li> </ul> </div> <div class="top-menu-submenu-column"> <span class="top-menu-submenu-section">FEATURES</span> <ul class="top-menu-submenu-list"> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"><a href="https://zulip.com/features/">Feature matrix</a></li> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"><a href="https://zulip.com/apps/">Desktop and mobile apps</a></li> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"><a href="https://zulip.com/integrations/">Integrations</a></li> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"><a href="/api/">API</a></li> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"><a href="/help/">Help center</a></li> </ul> </div> <div class="top-menu-submenu-column"> <span class="top-menu-submenu-section">USE CASES</span> <ul class="top-menu-submenu-list"> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"><a href="https://zulip.com/for/business/">Business</a></li> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"><a href="https://zulip.com/for/education/">Education</a></li> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"><a href="https://zulip.com/for/research/">Research</a></li> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"><a href="https://zulip.com/for/events/">Events and conferences</a></li> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"><a href="https://zulip.com/for/open-source/">Open source projects</a></li> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"><a href="https://zulip.com/for/communities/">Communities</a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> <div class='top-menu-item top-menu-tab'> <div class="top-menu-tab-unselect"></div> <input type="radio" name="top-menu-tabs" class="top-menu-tab-input" id="top-menu-tab-case-studies"/> <label for="top-menu-tab-case-studies" class="nav-menu-label" tabindex="0">Case studies</label> <div class="top-menu-submenu" id="case-studies-submenu"> <div class="top-menu-submenu-column"> <span class="top-menu-submenu-section">BUSINESS</span> <ul class="top-menu-submenu-list"> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"> <a href="https://zulip.com/case-studies/idrift/"> Efficient distributed team management at iDrift AS </a> </li> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"> <a href="https://zulip.com/case-studies/gut-contact/"> Easy communication for 1000 agents at GUT contact </a> </li> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"> <a href="https://zulip.com/case-studies/end-point/"> Managing hundreds of projects at End Point Dev </a> </li> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"> <a href="https://zulip.com/case-studies/semsee/"> More efficient communication than Slack at Semsee </a> </li> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"> <a href="https://zulip.com/case-studies/atolio/"> Open distributed communication at Atolio </a> </li> </ul> </div> <div class="top-menu-submenu-column" id="education-and-research-submenu-column"> <span class="top-menu-submenu-section">EDUCATION and RESEARCH</span> <ul class="top-menu-submenu-list"> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"><a href="https://zulip.com/case-studies/tum/">Organized chat for 1000s of students at TUM</a></li> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"><a href="https://zulip.com/case-studies/ucsd/">Communication hub across 6 continents at UCSD</a></li> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"><a href="https://zulip.com/case-studies/lean/">Research collaboration at scale in the Lean mathematical community</a></li> </ul> </div> <div class="top-menu-submenu-column" id="one-source-and-communities-submenu-column"> <span class="top-menu-submenu-section">OPEN SOURCE and COMMUNITIES</span> <ul class="top-menu-submenu-list"> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"><a href="https://zulip.com/case-studies/asciidoctor/">Inclusive discussion in the open-source Asciidoctor community</a></li> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"><a href="https://zulip.com/case-studies/rust/">Faster decision-making in the Rust language community</a></li> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"><a href="https://zulip.com/case-studies/recurse-center/">Platform for a worldwide community since 2013 at Recurse Center</a></li> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"><a href="https://zulip.com/case-studies/rush-stack/">Professional community support at Rush Stack</a></li> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"><a href="https://zulip.com/communities/">Open communities directory</a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> <div class='top-menu-item top-menu-tab'> <div class="top-menu-tab-unselect"></div> <input type="radio" name="top-menu-tabs" class="top-menu-tab-input" id="top-menu-tab-resources" /> <label for="top-menu-tab-resources" class="nav-menu-label" tabindex="0">Resources</label> <div class="top-menu-submenu"> <div class="top-menu-submenu-column"> <span class="top-menu-submenu-section">FOR USERS</span> <ul class="top-menu-submenu-list"> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"><a href="/help/getting-started-with-zulip">Getting started</a></li> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"><a href="/help/">Help center</a></li> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"><a href="https://zulip.com/development-community/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Community chat</a></li> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"><a href="https://zulip.com/help/contact-support">Contact support</a></li> </ul> </div> <div class="top-menu-submenu-column"> <span class="top-menu-submenu-section">FOR ADMINISTRATORS</span> <ul class="top-menu-submenu-list"> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"><a href="/help/moving-to-zulip">Moving to Zulip</a></li> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"><a href="https://zulip.readthedocs.io/en/stable/production/install.html">Installing a Zulip server</a></li> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"><a href="https://zulip.readthedocs.io/en/stable/production/upgrade.html">Upgrading a Zulip server</a></li> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"><a href="https://github.com/zulip/zulip" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">GitHub</a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> <a class='top-menu-item' href="https://zulip.com/plans/">Pricing</a> <a class='top-menu-item' href="https://zulip.com/apps/">Download</a> </div> <div class='top-menu-item-spacer'></div> <div class='top-menu-items-group-2'> <a class='top-menu-item' href="/new/">New organization</a> <a class='top-menu-item' href="/login/">Log in</a> </div> </div> <input type="radio" name="top-menu-tabs" class="top-menu-tab-input-unselect" id="top-menu-tab-close" checked /> <div id='top-menu-submenu-backdrop' class="top-menu-submenu-backdrop"></div> <label class="top-menu-tab-label-unselect nav-menu-label" for="top-menu-tab-close" tabindex="0"></label> </nav> <!-- We have separate copies of the navbar list for web and mobile. Please update both the versions when making changes. --> <details class="top-menu-mobile"> <summary class="top-menu-mobile-summary"> <a class="top-menu-logo nav-zulip-logo" href="https://zulip.com"></a> </summary> <div class="top-menu-mobile-items-group-1"> <details> <summary class="top-menu-mobile-item-summary">Product</summary> <div class="top-menu-mobile-submenu"> <span class="top-menu-mobile-submenu-section">OVERVIEW</span> <ul class="top-menu-submenu-list"> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"><a href="https://blog.zulip.com/2024/11/04/choosing-a-team-chat-app/">Choosing a team chat app</a></li> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"><a href="https://zulip.com/why-zulip/">Why Zulip</a></li> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"><a href="https://zulip.com/try-zulip/">Try Zulip</a></li> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"><a href="https://zulip.com/help/moving-to-zulip">Moving to Zulip</a></li> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"><a href="https://zulip.com/self-hosting/">Self-hosting</a></li> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"><a href="https://zulip.com/security/">Security</a></li> </ul> </div> <div class="top-menu-mobile-submenu"> <span class="top-menu-mobile-submenu-section">FEATURES</span> <ul class="top-menu-submenu-list"> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"><a href="https://zulip.com/features/">Feature matrix</a></li> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"><a href="https://zulip.com/apps/">Desktop and mobile apps</a></li> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"><a href="https://zulip.com/integrations/">Integrations</a></li> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"><a href="/api/">API</a></li> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"><a href="/help/">Help center</a></li> </ul> </div> <div class="top-menu-mobile-submenu"> <span class="top-menu-mobile-submenu-section">USE CASES</span> <ul class="top-menu-submenu-list"> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"><a href="https://zulip.com/for/business/">Business</a></li> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"><a href="https://zulip.com/for/education/">Education</a></li> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"><a href="https://zulip.com/for/research/">Research</a></li> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"><a href="https://zulip.com/for/events/">Events and conferences</a></li> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"><a href="https://zulip.com/for/open-source/">Open source projects</a></li> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"><a href="https://zulip.com/for/communities/">Communities</a></li> </ul> </div> </details> <details> <summary class="top-menu-mobile-item-summary">Case Studies</summary> <div class="top-menu-mobile-submenu"> <span class="top-menu-mobile-submenu-section">BUSINESS</span> <ul class="top-menu-submenu-list"> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"> <a href="https://zulip.com/case-studies/idrift/"> Efficient distributed team management at iDrift AS </a> </li> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"> <a href="https://zulip.com/case-studies/gut-contact/"> Easy communication for 1000 agents at GUT contact </a> </li> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"> <a href="https://zulip.com/case-studies/end-point/"> Managing hundreds of projects at End Point Dev </a> </li> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"> <a href="https://zulip.com/case-studies/semsee/"> More efficient communication than Slack at Semsee </a> </li> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"> <a href="https://zulip.com/case-studies/atolio/"> Open distributed communication at Atolio </a> </li> </ul> <span class="top-menu-mobile-submenu-section">EDUCATION and RESEARCH</span> <ul class="top-menu-submenu-list"> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"><a href="https://zulip.com/case-studies/tum/">Organized chat for 1000s of students at TUM</a></li> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"><a href="https://zulip.com/case-studies/ucsd/">Communication hub across 6 continents at UCSD</a></li> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"><a href="https://zulip.com/case-studies/lean/">Research collaboration at scale in the Lean mathematical community</a></li> </ul> <span class="top-menu-mobile-submenu-section">OPEN SOURCE and COMMUNITIES</span> <ul class="top-menu-submenu-list"> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"><a href="https://zulip.com/case-studies/asciidoctor/">Inclusive discussion in the open-source Asciidoctor community</a></li> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"><a href="https://zulip.com/case-studies/rust/">Faster decision-making in the Rust language community</a></li> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"><a href="https://zulip.com/case-studies/recurse-center/">Platform for a worldwide community since 2013 at Recurse Center</a></li> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"><a href="https://zulip.com/communities/">Open communities directory</a></li> </ul> </div> </details> <details> <summary class="top-menu-mobile-item-summary">Resources</summary> <div class="top-menu-mobile-submenu"> <span class="top-menu-mobile-submenu-section">FOR USERS</span> <ul class="top-menu-submenu-list"> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"><a href="/help/getting-started-with-zulip">Getting started</a></li> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"><a href="/help">Help center</a></li> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"><a href="https://zulip.com/development-community/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Community chat</a></li> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"><a href="https://zulip.com/help/contact-support">Contact support</a></li> </ul> <span class="top-menu-mobile-submenu-section">FOR ADMINISTRATORS</span> <ul class="top-menu-submenu-list"> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"><a href="/help/moving-to-zulip">Moving to Zulip</a></li> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"><a href="https://zulip.readthedocs.io/en/stable/production/install.html">Installing a Zulip server</a></li> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"><a href="https://zulip.readthedocs.io/en/stable/production/upgrade.html">Upgrading a Zulip server</a></li> <li class="top-menu-submenu-list-item"><a href="https://github.com/zulip/zulip" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">GitHub</a></li> </ul> </div> </details> <div class='top-menu-mobile-item'><a href="https://zulip.com/plans/">Pricing</a></div> <div class='top-menu-mobile-item'><a href="https://zulip.com/apps/">Download</a></div> </div> <div class="top-menu-mobile-items-group-2"> <div class='top-menu-mobile-item'><a href="/new/">New organization</a></div> <div class='top-menu-mobile-item'><a href="/login/">Log in</a></div> </div> </details> <div class="portico-landing why-page solutions-page"> <div class="hero bg-education"> <div class="bg-dimmer"></div> <h1 class="center">Zulip for communities</h1> <p> Open-source projects, research collaborations, volunteer organizations. <br />Many communities are <a href="/help/zulip-cloud-billing#free-and-discounted-zulip-cloud-standard">eligible</a> for free or discounted pricing! </p> <div class="hero-text"> Learn how the <a href="/case-studies/recurse-center/">Recurse Center</a>, <a href="/case-studies/rust/">Rust language</a>, <a href="/case-studies/asciidoctor/">Asciidoctor</a>, and <a href="/case-studies/rush-stack/">Rush Stack</a> communities are using Zulip. </div> <div class="hero-buttons center"> <a href="/new/" class="button"> Create organization </a> <a href="/accounts/go/?next=/sponsorship/" class="button"> Request sponsorship </a> <a href="/self-hosting/" class="button"> Self-host Zulip </a> </div> </div> <div class="main"> <div class="padded-content"> <div class="inner-content markdown"> <blockquote> <p>“The core of the Recurse Center is the community, and the core of our online community is Zulip… Switching to Zulip has turned out to be one of the best decisions we’ve made, and it’s impossible to imagine RC today without it. No other tool has a user experience that scales to a community of our size.”</p> <p>— Nick Bergson-Shilcock, founder and CEO, <a href="https://www.recurse.com/">Recurse Center</a>; check out <a href="/case-studies/recurse-center/">the story of how the Recurse Center uses Zulip</a></p> </blockquote> <h2 id="zulip-designed-with-communities-in-mind">Zulip: Designed with communities in mind</h2> <p>Zulip is designed to help thoughtful people work on difficult problems together, whether they work from a shared office or from all over the world. Zulip offers an ideal platform for communities of all types, including open-source projects, research collaborations, volunteer organizations, and other groups of people who share a common pursuit.</p> <p>The Zulip core developers have decades of combined experience leading and growing open source communities, and we use Zulip to fashion the day-to-day experience of being a part of our project. No other chat product comes close to Zulip in facilitating contributor engagement and inclusion, and making efficient use of everyone’s time.</p> <p> </p> <blockquote> <p>“When we made the switch to <a href="https://twitter.com/zulip">@zulip</a> a few months ago for chat, never in my wildest dreams did I imagine it was going to become the beating heart of the community, and so quickly. It's a game changer. 🧑💻🗨️👩💻”</p> <p>— Dan Allen (@mojavelinux), <a href="https://twitter.com/mojavelinux/status/1409702273400201217">June 29, 2021</a> </p> </blockquote> <h2 id="challenges-with-other-communication-tools">Challenges with other communication tools</h2> <p>Problems with the Slack/Discord/IRC model, discussed in detail <a href="/why-zulip/">here</a>, are even more important for open communities:</p> <ul> <li>Members of open communities may be scattered all over the world and in every time zone. Traditional communication tools like email lists, forums, and issue trackers work well in this context, because you can communicate effectively asynchronously. A Slack community is a bad experience if you’re rarely online at the same time as most other members, making it harder to be inclusive of all participants.</li> <li>Many members of open communities have other fulltime obligations and can only spend a few hours a week on the community. Because Slack is very hard to skim, these part-time community members cannot efficiently use their time participating in an active Slack. So either they don’t participate in the Slack, or they do, and their other contributions to the community’s efforts suffer.</li> </ul> <blockquote> <p>“Zulip helped the FHIR community grow from a tiny group of dreamers to 500 active users sending 6000 messages per month, all driving the creation of better healthcare standards. Zulip’s topic-based threading helps us manage simultaneous discussions with clarity, ensuring the right people can pay attention to the right messages. This makes our large-group discussion far more manageable than what we’ve experienced with Skype and Slack.”</p> <p>— Grahame Grieve, founder, FHIR health care standards body</p> </blockquote> <ul> <li>Many of us are busy people, who really wish we had more time to do focus work. Because active participation in Slack fundamentally requires constant interruptions, leaders of communities that use Slack end up making unpleasant choices between participating in the Slack community (limiting their ability to do focus work) or ignoring the Slack community (leaving it effectively without their input and potentially unmoderated).</li> <li>Writing to a busy Slack channel often means interrupting another existing conversation. This makes it harder for newer and shyer members to jump into the community. Often this disproportionately affects groups that are already underrepresented.</li> <li>The lack of organization in Slack message history (and its 90 day message history limit!) mean that users asking for help cannot effectively do self-service support. This results in the community answering a lot of duplicate questions.</li> </ul> <p>The overall effect is that Slack is a poor communication tool for communities that want to have an inclusive, global, community and that many busy individuals can happily participate in.</p> <p> </p> <blockquote> <p>"We just moved the Lichess team (~100 persons) to <a href="https://twitter.com/zulip">@zulip</a>, and I'm loving it. The topics in particular make it vastly superior to slack & discord, when it comes to dealing with many conversations. Zulip is also open-source!"</p> <p>— <a href="https://twitter.com/ornicar">Thibault D (@ornicar)</a></p> </blockquote> <p> </p> <h2 id="solution-zulips-topic-based-threading">Solution: Zulip’s topic-based threading</h2> <p>Zulip’s topic-based threading model solves the problems described above:</p> <ul> <li>Community members in any time zone can send messages and expect to get a reply and have an effective (potentially asynchronous) conversation with the rest of the community.</li> <li>Zulip’s topic-based threading helps include part-time community members in two major ways. First, they can easily browse what conversations happened while they were away from the community, and prioritize which conversations to read now, skip, or read later (e.g., on the weekend). Second, Zulip makes it easy for them to have public conversations with participation from other community members (potentially split over hours, days, or weeks as needed), allowing them to fully participate in the work of the community.</li> <li>Community leaders can effectively participate in a Zulip community without being continuously online. Using Zulip’s <a href="/help/keyboard-shortcuts">keyboard shortcuts</a>, it’s extremely efficient to inspect every potentially relevant thread and reply wherever one’s feedback is useful, and replying hours after a question was asked is still a good experience for community members. As a result, leaders can do multi-hour sessions of focus work while still being available to their community.</li> <li>Topics make it easier to provide a safe, welcoming, online community. Asking a question never has to feel like an interruption of an ongoing conversation or like one's sticking one's neck out.</li> </ul> <blockquote> <p>“Wikimedia uses Zulip for its participation in open source mentoring programs. Zulip’s threaded discussions help busy organization administrators and mentors stay in close communication with students during all phases of the programs.”</p> <p>— Srishti Sethi, Developer Advocate, Wikimedia Foundation</p> </blockquote> <p> </p> <h2 id="try-zulip-today">Try Zulip today!</h2> <p>You can see Zulip in action in our own <a href="/development-community/">Zulip development community</a>, or in other open communities that have <a href="/help/communities-directory">opted in</a> to be listed in our <a href="/communities/">directory</a>. We often get feedback from contributors around the world that they love how responsive Zulip’s project leaders are in public Zulip conversations. We are able to achieve this despite the project leaders collectively spending only a few hours a day managing the community and spending most of their time integrating improvements into Zulip.</p> <p>Many communities that migrated from <a href="/help/import-from-slack">Slack</a>, <a href="/help/import-from-mattermost">Mattermost</a>, <a href="/help/import-from-rocketchat">Rocket.Chat</a>, or Gitter to Zulip tell us that Zulip helped them manage and grow an inclusive, healthy community. We hope Zulip can help your community succeed too!</p> <blockquote> <p>“I highly recommend Zulip to other communities. We’re coming from Freenode as our only real-time communication so the difference is night and day. Slack is a no-go for many due to not being FLOSS, and I’m concerned about vendor lock-in if they were to stop being so generous. Slack’s threading model is much worse than Zulip’s IMO. The channels/topics flow is an incredibly intuitive way to keep track of everything that is going on.”</p> <p>— RJ Ryan, Mixxx Developer</p> </blockquote> </div> </div> </div> <div class="bottom-register-buttons extra_margin_before_footer"> <div class="bottom-text-large"> <p> Many communities are <a href="/help/zulip-cloud-billing#free-and-discounted-zulip-cloud-standard">eligible</a> for free or discounted pricing. Please contact <a href="mailto:sales@zulip.com">sales@zulip.com</a> with any questions. </p> </div> <div class="hero-buttons center"> <a href="/new/" class="button"> Create organization </a> <a href="/accounts/go/?next=/sponsorship/" class="button"> Request sponsorship </a> <a href="/self-hosting/" class="button"> Self-host Zulip </a> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="alert-box"></div> <footer id="footer"> <div class='footer__container'> <div class="footer__section"> <h3 class="footer__section-title"> Product </h3> <ul> <li><a href="/why-zulip/">Why Zulip</a></li> <li><a href="/features/">Features</a></li> <li><a href="/plans/">Plans & pricing</a></li> <li><a href="/self-hosting/">Self-hosting</a></li> <li><a href="/security/">Security</a></li> <li><a href="/integrations/">Integrations</a></li> <li class="extra_margin"><a href="/apps/">Desktop & mobile apps</a></li> <li><a href="/new/">New organization</a></li> <li><a href="/accounts/go/">Log in</a></li> <li><a href="/accounts/find/">Find accounts</a></li> </ul> </div> <div class="footer__section"> <h3 class="footer__section-title"> Solutions </h3> <ul> <li><a href="/for/business/">Business</a></li> <li><a href="/for/education/">Education</a></li> <li><a href="/for/research/">Research</a></li> <li><a href="/for/events/">Events & conferences</a></li> <li><a href="/for/open-source/">Open source projects</a></li> <li class="extra_margin"><a href="/for/communities/">Communities</a></li> <li><a href="/use-cases/">Customer stories</a></li> <li><a href="/communities/">Open communities</a></li> </ul> </div> <div class="footer__section"> <h3 class="footer__section-title"> Resources </h3> <ul> <li><a href="/help/getting-started-with-zulip">Getting started</a></li> <li><a href="/help/">Help center</a></li> <li><a href="/development-community/" target="_blank">Community chat</a></li> <li><a href="/help/contact-support">Contact support</a></li> <li><a href="/request-demo/">Get a demo</a></li> <li class="extra_margin"><a href="https://status.zulip.com/">Zulip Cloud status</a></li> <li> <a href="/help/moving-to-zulip"> Moving to Zulip </a> </li> <li> <a href="https://zulip.readthedocs.io/en/stable/production/install.html"> Installing a Zulip server </a> </li> <li> <a href="https://zulip.readthedocs.io/en/stable/production/upgrade.html"> Upgrading a Zulip server </a> </li> </ul> </div> <div class="footer__section"> <h3 class="footer__section-title"> Contributing </h3> <ul> <li> <a href="https://zulip.readthedocs.io/en/latest/contributing/contributing.html"> Contributing guide </a> </li> <li><a href="/development-community/">Development community</a></li> <li> <a href="https://zulip.readthedocs.io/en/latest/translating/translating.html"> Translation </a> </li> <li><a href="/api/">API</a></li> <li><a href="https://github.com/zulip/zulip/">GitHub</a></li> </ul> </div> <div class="footer__section"> <h3 class="footer__section-title"> About us </h3> <ul> <li> <a href="/team/">Team</a> & <a href="/history/">History</a> </li> <li><a href="/values/">Values</a></li> <li><a href="/jobs/">Jobs</a></li> <li><a href="https://blog.zulip.com/" target="_blank">Blog</a></li> <li><a href="https://zulip.com/help/support-zulip-project">Support Zulip</a></li> </ul> <div class="footer-social-links"> <a class="footer-social-icon footer-social-icon-x" title="X (Twitter)" href="https://twitter.com/zulip" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"></a> <a class="footer-social-icon footer-social-icon-mastodon" title="Mastodon" href="https://fosstodon.org/@zulip" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"></a> <a class="footer-social-icon footer-social-icon-linkedin" title="LinkedIn" href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/zulip-by-kandra-labs/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"></a> </div> </div> </div> <div class="footer__legal "> <div class="footer__legal-container"> <div class="copyright">© Kandra Labs, Inc. (“Zulip”)</div> <div class="footer__legal-spacer"></div> <a href="https://zulipchat.com/policies/terms">Terms of Service</a> <a href="https://zulipchat.com/policies/privacy">Privacy policy</a> <a href="https://zulip.com/attribution/">Website attributions</a> </div> </div> </footer> </div> <div hidden id="page-params" data-params='{"page_type":"default","development_environment":false,"request_language":"en","google_analytics_id":"UA-79921909-3"}'></div> </body> </html>