@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.

What non-trivial data migrations are we talking about?

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.

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"...

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.

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

Support for Zulip on Cloudron would be timely and might bring in quite a large number of new users.

If this gets on Cloudron "soon", I'll do all I can do promote Cloudron and Zulip!!! Maybe I'll even use my code.

https://github.com/zulip/docker-zulip

People resist anything they think is effort or unpopular.

That is so true! People never seem to ask themselves, "which is the wisest way?" only "which is the popular and easiest?"

If you are first mover, you will, for a while, be the most popular way.

@jdaviescoates said in Zulip - Powerful open source group chat:

@avatar1024 said in Zulip - Powerful open source group chat:

Yes there is

$3.50/user/month just for that seems a bit steep

Actually Zulip may be the most affordable open source chat app out there. Those $3.5/user/month only come into play if you have more than ten users and want to have mobile notifications using Zulip's relay server.

For Mattermost, you only get a basic version if you don't pay at least $10/user/month for a non-open source version.

Rocket.chat limits the open source community edition to 10,000 notifications per month. Depending on the usage, this may not be enough even for ten users. Yes, you could use the starter edition up to 25 users for free. But that is apples and oranges as it is not open source anymore.

And with Cloudron you can have multiple instances running, so if you are really on a budget, but want mobile notifications, each team of less than 10 people gets its own instance of Zulip.