Rocket.Chat
8.2#1 in secure team chat softwareFree planFree planAndroidiOSWebAPI
VisitRocket.Chat vs Zulip
What both publish
| Fact | Rocket.Chat | Zulip |
|---|---|---|
| Channels | Yes | Channels define the audience for conversations and can be public or private. |
| Founded | 2015 | 2012 |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Guest access | Yes | Yes |
| Headquarters | Wilmington, Delaware, United States | San Francisco, California, United States |
| Integrations | The marketplace lists integrations including Trello, Zapier, Zoom and Rocket.Chat AI, and supports public and private apps. | Zulip lists more than 130 native integrations and hundreds more through Zapier and IFTTT. |
| Message history | unlimited | limited |
| Rating on Apple App Store | 4.4 out of 5 from 3.7K ratings. | 4.1 out of 5 from 7 ratings. |
| Rating on Google Play | 4.5 out of 5 from 15.8K reviews. | 3.6 out of 5 from 700 reviews. |
| Security controls | Official security guidance describes TLS termination, upload controls, ClamAV malware scanning, notification-content suppression and data-loss-prevention rules. | Self-hosted deployments can run behind firewalls or on air-gapped networks and offer configurable password, session, timeout, log-rotation and API-rate-limit policies. |
| Self-hosting | Rocket.Chat provides Docker Compose deployment instructions that include HTTPS reverse proxy, monitoring, backups and MongoDB configuration. | Self-hosting is supported with installer scripts, Docker and prebuilt DigitalOcean or Render images, but administrators handle setup, upgrades and maintenance. |
Rocket.Chat plans
- CommunityFree
- StarterFree
- CommercialPriced on request
- DefensePriced on request
- GovernmentPriced on request
Zulip plans
- Cloud FreeFree
- Cloud Standard$6.67 a month
- Cloud Plus$10 a month
- Self-hosted FreeFree
- Self-hosted Basic$3.50 a month
- Self-hosted Business$6.67 a month
Pick Rocket.Chat if…
Rocket.Chat suits teams that need messaging across desktop, mobile or web, with guest access, channels and integrations. Its named plans also address organizations seeking self-hosted or specialized cloud deployments and the listed government or defense controls.
Pick Zulip if…
Zulip suits teams that want channel-based chat across desktop, mobile, and web platforms. Its cloud and self-hosted options provide different deployment choices.