Zulip: Organized Team Chat for HackRange
Zulip provides chat communication services free of charge to HackRange students and instructors. Here is what Zulip does, and why we chose it.
Zulip provides chat communication services free of charge to HackRange students and instructors. Here is what Zulip does, and why we chose it.
Every HackRange class discussion, lab session, mentorship conversation, and announcement runs on Zulip, provided free of charge to our students and instructors. HackRange operates as a 100% non-profit, but it is not registered with the IRS as a 501(c)(3). Zulip supported us anyway. That generosity is exactly why we want to recognize them.
Zulip is an organized team chat app designed for efficient communication. Like other chat apps, it has channels. Unlike most of them, every conversation inside a channel is labeled with a topic, which keeps everything organized. You can read Zulip one conversation at a time, with every message in context, instead of scrolling through one long stream where five discussions are interleaved.
Zulip is designed for both synchronous and asynchronous communication. People can take part in a discussion when it suits them rather than the moment it happens, and in Zulip's own words, it "removes the stress of needing to respond to chat messages right away." For students balancing coursework with jobs and families across time zones, that matters.
Zulip is 100% open source, distributed under the Apache 2.0 license, with its code published on GitHub. It is available as a hosted service, Zulip Cloud, or as software you can self-host on your own servers. Every plan runs the same open source code.
According to its project README, more than 1,500 people have contributed to Zulip, and the repository has more than 26,000 stars on GitHub. Zulip also mentors new developers through Google Summer of Code.
We evaluated many team chat products before choosing a home for our students and instructors. HackRange chose Zulip over many of its competitors based on four things: functionality, API integrations, support, and pricing model.
Topic based conversations keep a class with dozens of simultaneous questions readable. Instructors can move, split, rename, and resolve topics, so a lab question never gets buried under the next announcement. Native LaTeX and syntax highlighted code blocks suit a technical curriculum.
More than 130 native integrations, thousands more through Zapier and IFTTT, a full REST API, custom webhooks, and interactive bots. Security tooling can post straight into the conversation where students are working.
Thorough documentation for users, administrators, and server administrators, an active development community at chat.zulip.com, and priority commercial support on paid plans. Because the code is open, nothing about how it works is a black box.
Zulip sponsors more than 1,000 organizations, including open source projects, academic research, and many non-profits, and offers dedicated education pricing. Most importantly, Zulip provides its chat services to HackRange students and instructors free of charge.
Many commercial providers tie their non-profit programs to formal IRS status. Google for Nonprofits requires U.S. organizations to be registered with the IRS as exempt under Section 501(c)(3). Microsoft's nonprofit offers require recognized legal status equal to 501(c)(3). Slack for Nonprofits asks U.S. applicants to hold valid charitable status with the IRS.
HackRange operates as a 100% non-profit, but it is not registered with the IRS as a 501(c)(3), so programs like those were not open to us. Zulip supported us anyway. They looked at what HackRange does for its students rather than at a filing status, and that is the kind of partner we are proud to recognize.
Zulip is packed with features built for focused, organized communication. These are the ones that make the biggest difference in a cyber security classroom.
Each conversation gets a topic. Read one discussion at a time, reply in context, and never lose a thread in a busy channel.
Mark a question resolved when it is answered. Move off-topic messages to the right place, split topics, or move a topic to another channel.
See exactly what is unread, organized by channel and topic, and catch up after a weekend away in minutes.
Syntax highlighted code blocks and code playgrounds make sharing scripts, payloads, and log excerpts clean and readable.
Write math directly in a message. Ideal for cryptography, probability, and risk quantification discussions.
Hide a hint or a challenge answer until a student chooses to reveal it. Perfect for capture the flag style exercises.
Run a quick poll on a lab time or track team tasks with a to-do list, right inside the conversation.
Schedule an announcement for the start of class, set a reminder on a message, and reuse common answers with saved snippets.
Fine grained permissions for course staff, user groups for teaching assistants, announcement only channels, guest accounts, and moderation tools.
Start a one to one or group call using the provider you choose, including Zoom, Jitsi, or BigBlueButton.
Web, desktop apps for Windows, macOS, and Linux, mobile apps for iOS and Android, and even a terminal app.
The interface is translated into more than 20 languages, welcoming students wherever they are learning from.
Zulip lists more than 130 native integrations, with thousands more available through Zapier and IFTTT. For a cyber security school, the integrations that matter most connect the tools students learn with the place they talk about them:
When an integration does not exist, Zulip's REST API, custom webhooks, and interactive bot framework make it straightforward to build one. A SIEM alert, a failed pipeline, or a newly published advisory can land in a dedicated topic where students can analyze it together. It is a natural fit for our Blue Team and DevSecOps coursework.
A cyber security school should hold its own tools to a high standard. Zulip's security posture is one we are comfortable teaching from:
Slack, Microsoft Teams, Google Chat, and Discord are capable, widely used products backed by some of the largest technology companies in the world, and each has earned its audience. Slack is one of the best known workplace chat apps, with its own app directory. Microsoft Teams is woven into Microsoft 365. Google Chat sits alongside Gmail, Meet, and Docs in Google Workspace. Discord built a home for online communities. For organizations that need deployments in restricted environments, Mattermost and Rocket.Chat offer commercial self-managed platforms.
We respect all of them. For a cyber security school that values openness, control, and organized discussion, Zulip stood apart in the areas below.
| Capability | Zulip | Slack | Microsoft Teams | Google Chat | Discord |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 100% open source code | Yes, Apache 2.0 | Proprietary | Proprietary | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Self-host on your own servers | Yes, including a free self-hosted plan | Vendor cloud only | Vendor cloud only | Vendor cloud only | Vendor cloud only |
| Conversation model | Every channel conversation has a topic | Optional reply threads | Optional reply threads | Optional reply threads | Optional reply threads |
| Project stewardship | Independent nonprofit Zulip Foundation | Salesforce | Microsoft | Discord Inc. |
Pricing reflects the same philosophy. Zulip Cloud Standard lists at $6.67 per user per month billed annually, below the $7.25 Slack lists for its Pro plan on annual billing. Zulip publishes education rates of $0.67 per user per month for non-profit education and $1 for for-profit education on annual billing, and it sponsors free plans for more than 1,000 organizations. And if you are moving from another platform, Zulip can import message history, users, channels, and custom emoji from Slack, and also supports importing from Microsoft Teams, Mattermost, and Rocket.Chat.
Prices and plan details are as published on each vendor's website on October 30, 2026, and may change. See the sources below.
Zulip is an organized team chat app designed for efficient communication. Every conversation in a Zulip channel is labeled with a topic, so you can read and reply one conversation at a time. It is 100% open source under the Apache 2.0 license and is available as Zulip Cloud or to self-host.
Zulip provides chat communication services free of charge to HackRange students and instructors. We use it for class discussion, labs, mentorship, and announcements.
Functionality, API integrations, support, and pricing model. Zulip's topic based conversations, open source code, self-hosting option, REST API, more than 130 native integrations, and its sponsorship and education pricing made it the best fit for a cyber security school.
Yes. Zulip is distributed under the Apache 2.0 license, and every Zulip plan, cloud or self-hosted, runs the same 100% open source software.
Yes. Zulip sponsors more than 1,000 organizations, including open source projects, academic research groups, and many non-profits, and it offers discounted education pricing. Zulip supported HackRange even though HackRange, while operating as a 100% non-profit, is not an IRS registered 501(c)(3). Many commercial providers, including Google, Microsoft, and Slack, require formal IRS charitable status for their non-profit programs.
Yes. Zulip can import message history, users, channels, and custom emoji from Slack, and it also supports importing from Microsoft Teams, Mattermost, and Rocket.Chat.
Since May 2026 the Zulip project has been stewarded by the Zulip Foundation, an independent nonprofit that fully owns Kandra Labs, the company that hosts and supports Zulip.
If your school, community, or company wants chat that stays organized, try Zulip. It is free to get started, and if you are an open source project, a researcher, a non-profit, or an educator, ask Zulip about its sponsorship and education programs.
Facts on this page were checked against the following official sources on October 30, 2026.
Zulip, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Google Chat, Discord, Mattermost, and Rocket.Chat are trademarks of their respective owners. The Zulip logo is used in accordance with Zulip's guidance on linking to the Zulip website.