Discord vs Zulip

Discord is a communications platform for voice, video, and text, with communities organized into servers and channels. People can create servers for groups to talk and spend time together, and use calls in direct messages, group direct messages, or voice channels. The service supports streaming games to friends, and supported consoles can stream gameplay directly. On desktop and in a browser, the App Directory lets users find apps to add to a server or account. Account Connections can link services such as Spotify, Xbox, and PlayStation to a profile; developers can use the Embedded App SDK to build interactive experiences inside Discord. It runs on the web, Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android. The free plan includes voice, video, and text chat, community servers, and browser, desktop, and mobile access. Nitro Basic is $2.99 a month and includes 50 MB file uploads; Nitro is $9.99 a month and includes custom emoji and stickers, HD video streaming, and two Server Boosts. Discord says calls use end-to-end encryption, but messages are not encrypted and remain subject to its content moderation approach.

Zulip is team chat software that organizes conversations in channels and supports guest access. It runs on the web, Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android, and also supports an API. Listed integrations include GitHub, GitLab, Jira, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Google Calendar, Zoom, Jitsi Meet, Zapier, IFTTT, Sentry, and Zendesk. Zulip offers cloud and self-hosted plans. Cloud Free costs nothing and includes 10,000 messages of search history and 5 GB total file storage. Cloud Standard is $6.67 a month, billed annually, with 5 GB file storage per user. Self-hosted Basic is $3.50 a month, billed monthly. Other options include Cloud Plus, Self-hosted Free, Self-hosted Business, and Self-hosted Enterprise. Cloud Plus and Self-hosted Business have minimum user counts of 10 and 25, respectively. Zulip was founded in 2012 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California, United States.