Zulip - Powerful open source group chat

[andreasdueren]

As for Chat alternatives I'd by now recommend Matrix. I've been using it for a few years for personal communication and it's been a bit of a painful growth but can say that it's probably the best choice currently. I'ts free and I don't really see that changing since Element seems to have a good portion of paying customers and the new mobile apps are quite snappy. I've been test running them for a week or two and they feel super responsive and intuitive, very much like one would expect from a Telegram alternative.

NC Talk is great but really is more of a business solution.

[alex-a-soto]

I'm self-hosting Zulip and would love to see it packaged for Cloudron. I'm open to sponsoring the work or contracting someone to make this happen. If anyone from the community or the Cloudron team is interested, please reach out to alex[at]modos.tech, and we can figure out the details together. Thanks.

[crazybrad]

@alex-a-soto Great idea. I'm interested. Let's see if anyone else has a similar interest. In either case, I will reach out as you suggested.

[LoudLemur]

I was sure that Cloudron had started supporting Zulip. I looked for it and was surprised that it is still not there.

Improvements have been considerable since the original request. Lets support Zulip!

Based on the search results, here are the main advances in Zulip since March 2018 categorized by client and server improvements:

Server Improvements

Performance & Scalability (2018-2025)

• Reworked message feed rendering with improved client-side caching for instant rendering of recently visited views
• Optimized presence synchronization protocol using dramatically less network/CPU resources in large organizations
• Squashed almost 700 database migrations to optimize new database creation runtime
• Improved performance of creating channels with thousands of initial subscribers
• Replaced pip with uv for better dependency management
• Implemented typed_endpoint abstraction backed by Pydantic v2 for improved performance and readability

Security & Privacy (2020-2025)

• Added end-to-end encryption (E2EE) for mobile push notifications
• Hardened message-fetching code path against access control bugs
• Added server-to-server Zoom integration with better security
• Improved LDAP integration with better user role synchronization
• Added data export features with member consent controls
• Fixed multiple CVEs including authentication bypass and channel permission issues

File Management (2021-2025)

• Added TUS chunked-upload protocol support for arbitrarily large files
• Increased default MAX_FILE_UPLOAD_SIZE from 25MB to 100MB+
• Added support for HEIC and TIFF image thumbnails
• Improved video previews with better play button experience

Administration & Management (2019-2025)

• Channel archiving now preserves names and content access (with unarchiving support)
• Group-based permissions system with granular channel controls
• SCIM integration for user synchronization
• Custom welcome messages for new users
• Automated mobile push notification service registration
• Improved user role management and permission systems

Client Improvements

User Interface (2020-2025)

• Channel folders for organizing team channels
• Recent topics view for channel overview
• Improved left sidebar with search filters and unread count controls
• Cleaner image/video thumbnail layouts
• Enhanced message composition with better destination visualization
• Modernized settings UI with minimal, clean design

Messaging Experience (2019-2025)

• Message reminders functionality
• Support for channels without topics
• Bulk message management (mark as read for muted topics)
• Improved search with better operators and filters
• Pasting large text now convertible to uploaded files
• Read receipts and user status/availability

Mobile App (2021-2025)

• Complete rewrite with modern architecture
• Added search, status, read receipts, and sharing features
• End-to-end encrypted push notifications
• Autocomplete for user group mentions
• Broader TeX math support

Integration Ecosystem (2018-2025)

• Added integrations with OpenProject, OpenSearch, Airbyte, Onyx
• Improved GitHub, GitLab, Jotform, Linear, NewRelic integrations
• Removed deprecated integrations (OpsBeat, Desk.com)
• Enhanced SAML and Microsoft Entra ID authentication

The platform has evolved from a basic chat system to a comprehensive team collaboration platform with enterprise-grade security, scalability, and user experience improvements across all clients.

[scooke]

One hundred times YES!

[LoudLemur]

@scooke There is a relatively new (and strange) restriction on "open source" community edition rocketchat: only 25 users. Sessions are restricted, too.

[scooke]

@LoudLemur I tried RocketChat once; I think I liked the layout and functions, but it was ssslllooowwww, compared to Mattermost and Matrix/Element. But what I've seen, and tried, with Zulip really makes me want to use it!

[avatar1024]

I agree Zulip would really be a great addition. Best out of all of them.

[crazybrad]

So I too would love to see Zulip supported on Cloudron. So much so, that I considered tackling this myself (with the help of one of my programmers). As a prelude, I asked my favorite AI tool to perform an assessment on the difficulty of packaging Zulip for Cloudron. What came back shocked me. Zulip is non-trivial to package, and even more non-trivial to maintain. Here are the details: https://www.perplexity.ai/search/on-a-scale-of-1-to-10-with-10-0nrnZisTRb28m6FIXyHycA#0

I would welcome some comments from the Cloudron team on this assessment and if correct, whether this is something possible to for the team to tackle? My (disappointed) gut says "no"...

[timconsidine]

@crazybrad my AI says (edited for brevity) :

Based on the complexity of Zulip and the requirements of Cloudron packaging, I'd rate this a 7 or 8 out of 10 in terms of difficulty.

For someone familiar with both Cloudron packaging and Docker, this could take 40-80 hours of work, depending on how smoothly the integration goes.

So maybe a bit more optimistic but certainly a non-trivial project.

[crazybrad]

@timconsidine Appreciate the expert opinion. This has certainly opened my eyes about why some apps might "make the cut" and be added to the platform, and why others might not. I think what concerned me the most is the frequent updates and non-trivial data migrations. This might be a case where paying for Zulip Cloud is the smartest option.

[robi]

@crazybrad a group buy might make that trivially affordable for the individuals.