SHSelfHostIndex

Dendrite vs Zulip

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted apps from related categories — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

Not the right match-up?
DE Dendrite Second-generation Matrix homeserver written in Go VS ZU Zulip Threaded team chat that combines email and chat
FeatureDendriteZulip
CategoryMatrix & XMPPTeam Chat
LicenseApache-2.0Apache-2.0
LanguageGoPython
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM512 MB2,048 MB
Deploymentdocker, binary, sourcedocker, bare-metal
GitHub stars★ 5,632★ 25,619
First released20172015
ReplacesSlack, DiscordSlack, Microsoft Teams

Why pick each one

Choose Dendrite if…

  • Much lighter than Synapse
  • Active development by Matrix.org
Dendrite details

Choose Zulip if…

  • Excellent conversation organization
  • Strong async workflow
  • Fully open source
Zulip details

Frequently asked questions

Is Dendrite or Zulip better?

Neither is universally better. Zulip has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are Dendrite and Zulip free and open-source?

Yes. Dendrite is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Zulip under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Dendrite and Zulip with Docker?

Dendrite: yes. Zulip: yes.

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