Discourse vs Zulip Pricing (2026)
How do these two stack up on price? Here's what each one costs, what you get, and where the value sits.
| Discourse pricing | Zulip pricing | |
|---|---|---|
| Starts at | $100/mo | $8/mo |
| Number of plans | 3 | 3 |
| Free plan | — | |
| Free trial | — | |
| Pricing model | flat-rate | per-seat |
Price is one row. To weigh the features too, use our feature comparison template →
Pro
- Unlimited members & chat
- Unlimited public & private categories
- Unlimited tags
- Custom groups
- Email support
- Custom & community themes
- Custom domain
- API and Webhook access
- 15+ plugins
- 5 staff seats
Business
- Advanced reporting & analytics
- Automation
- Events
- Gamification
- SSO (Open ID & OAuth2)
- 20+ additional plugins
- 15 staff seats
- Priority support
- Standard migration services
Enterprise
- Expert design & development services
- 99.9% uptime guarantee
- Custom migration services
- GDPR & CCPA compliant hosting
- 50+ additional plugins
- Unlimited staff seats
Free
- 10,000 messages of search history
- File storage up to 5 GB total
- Complete team chat solution
- Hundreds of integrations
- Advanced roles and permissions
- Guest accounts
- Many organizations are eligible for a free Standard plan
Standard
- Unlimited search history
- File storage up to 5 GB per user
- Flexible permissions with custom groups
- Message retention policies
- Brand Zulip with your logo
- Priority commercial support
- Public access option
Plus
Popular- All Standard plan features
- File storage up to 25 GB per user
- SSO with SAML (Okta, OneLogIn, etc.)
- SCIM user and group sync
- Custom domain
- Limit user list access for guests
- Priority commercial support
Discourse vs Zulip FAQ
- Which one is cheaper?
- Zulip is the cheaper option, starting at $8/mo vs $100/mo for Discourse.
- Can I use either one for free?
- Zulip has a free plan. Discourse doesn't — though they do offer a free trial.
- How do they charge?
- Different approach here. Discourse uses flat-rate pricing, while Zulip goes with per-seat. That changes the math depending on your team size and usage.
- Which one is a better deal?
- Depends on what you need. Discourse: At $100-500/mo flat, Discourse undercuts enterprise community platforms like Khoros or Vanilla that price on usage or seats and can run into five figures monthly, but it's pricier than free/open-source alternatives since you're paying for hosting and support rather than the software itself. They're clearly courting mid-market teams who want a polished, maintained forum without either the DIY hosting hassle or enterprise-tier contracts. Zulip: Zulip sits mid-pack compared to Slack and Microsoft Teams, undercutting Slack's per-seat pricing while still offering a real free tier — but it's not fighting on price alone since it's also chasing open-source and nonprofit communities with free Standard access.
Still deciding? See the best Discourse alternatives or the best Zulip alternatives, ranked with verified pricing.
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