Team chat
What it costs to self-host Zulip
Zulip server and web application. Open-source team chat that helps teams stay productive and focused. Below is the server it needs at each team size, what that costs, and how long the 1 commercial product it replaces would take to cost more.
| Team size | Memory | Disk | Cheapest plan that fits | Server | With backups and your time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| solo | 5.0 GB | 25.5 GB | Starter 8 GB · VPSServer | $39.00 | $272 |
| 5 people | 5.1 GB | 27.5 GB | Starter 8 GB · VPSServer | $39.00 | $272 |
| 10 people | 5.2 GB | 30 GB | Starter 8 GB · VPSServer | $39.00 | $272 |
| 25 people | 5.4 GB | 37.5 GB | Starter 8 GB · VPSServer | $39.00 | $272 |
| 50 people | 5.7 GB | 50 GB | Starter 8 GB · VPSServer | $39.00 | $272 |
| 100 people | 6.5 GB | 75 GB | Starter 8 GB · VPSServer | $39.00 | $272 |
| 250 people | 8.7 GB | 150 GB | Starter 16 GB · VPSServer | $84.00 | $326 |
The sizing model for Zulip
Django with PostgreSQL, Redis, RabbitMQ and memcached. The topic-threaded model is genuinely better for asynchronous work than Slack's channels.
- 4 GB of memory for the whole stack at rest, every container the project ships included.
- 12 MB more per active user, then 25% on top so the box is not running at its ceiling.
- 25 GB of disk to begin with, growing 0.5 GB per user.
- 2 vCPU. Carried through from the project's baseline and not scaled with team size, because for this workload memory is what runs out first.
These base figures come from the project's own documented requirements. The per-user increments are ours in every case. They are deliberately generous rather than optimistic: a comparison that undersizes the server flatters self-hosting.
Time, not just money
Zulip is rated hard to operate, which in this model means about 16 hours to get it running properly the first time and 3 hours a month after that. At $75 an hour that is $1,200 once and $225 a month, which is usually the largest line in the whole calculation. This one is genuinely heavy: several stateful services, and an upgrade path where rushing can cost you data.
What it replaces
| Commercial product | Its cost at 10 people | Zulip at 10 people | Break-even | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Slack Pro | $95.63 | $272 | never | full breakdown |
Where to put Zulip
5.2 GB of memory and 30 GB of disk is what this needs at 10 people. The cheapest plan that fits, among the providers whose prices we have read ourselves, is the Starter 8 GB at VPSServer for $39.00 a month.
We are not claiming this is the cheapest server on the internet. It is the cheapest one we can honestly quote. Hetzner Cloud, Vultr and PikaPods publish prices we could not read programmatically, and Hetzner in particular is usually cheaper per gigabyte of memory than anything quoted above. Price them yourself before you commit.
The VPSServer link above is an affiliate link, run through the same programme as our Kamatera link; VPSServer and Kamatera belong to the same group. If you sign up through it we may earn a commission, but the programme does not state an amount for VPSServer. That never changes the computed costs, which server is chosen, or the conclusion of this page. The sizing model and every price source are published in full.
Project facts
| Licence | Apache License 2.0 |
|---|---|
| Written in | Python |
| GitHub stars | 25,882 |
| Open issues | 2,007 |
| Latest release | 12.2 |
| Last commit | 2026-09-11 |
| Repository checked | 2026-09-12 |
| Project | zulip.com · zulip/zulip |
Get the migration checklist for this tool
A one-page pre-flight list: data export path, sizing, backup plan, and the rollback step most people skip.