Leaving Slack For Zulip – What You Need To Know

We’ve been considering leaving Slack for a few years. While the free Slack plan was always limited, the 90-day limit recently imposed made us realize we overstayed our welcome.

If we were to leave Slack, it would have to be an open-source chat solution. As an open-source project, we try to support and use other open-source projects. This was a good opportunity to do just that.

During our research, we considered several options:

• Matrix with Element suite of apps. A federated messaging protocol and apps.
• Mattermost. A close alternative to Slack.
• Rocket.chat. Another popular open-source chat platform.
• Zulip. An open-source chat platform with a hosted cloud version.

We are a small open-source community and team, so our needs are simple:

• Ability to have channels (streams or rooms) for different topics.
• Unlimited message history and search.
• Apps for all devices, including Linux.
• The easier it is to maintain and use, the better!

Why Zulip?

After careful consideration, we chose Zulip to replace our Slack. Let’s quickly discuss why:

• Zulip is an open-source chat software. 
• It offers full message history and quick search capabilities.
• It has apps for all devices – Windows, Macs, Android, iOS, and Linux.
• It even offers topic-based threading within streams (channels).
• Zulip supports open-source projects.

The last box Zulip checked for us was the ease of management. While it can be self-hosted for free, Zulip sells a Cloud version to businesses. The Zulip team was kind enough to sponsor a Standard plan for ClassicPress. That’s $8/user/mo value!

This means the ClassicPress team doesn’t have to spend money on a server to host Zulip (or any other chat app) while we get the benefits of Zulip’s Standard plan, which includes:

• Unlimited search history.
• 10GB per user file storage.
• and all other chat features.

Our resources will continue to be focused on the core development and ClassicPress infrastructure, a win for our community!

What You Need To Know

There are a few things you need to be aware of so you know what to expect:

• We are migrating Slack message history from 2018 until August 1st, 2023.
• All the user accounts will be migrated, which includes your email.
• Direct Messages (DMs) will not be migrated.
• Your Slack account will be migrated to Zulip, but your password will not! For security, Slack passwords are not migrated.
• ⚠️ When migration is complete, we will send a password reset email to access your Zulip account. ⚠️
• You also will have an option to manually reset your password using the same email address you used on Slack.

What’s Next

While we are migrating to Zulip, here are a few things you can do:

1. We recommend you check out Zulip’s Getting Started Guide to learn more.
2. Download apps for your devices.
3. Our organization URL is: https://classicpress.zulipchat.com
4. Keep an eye out for a password reset email from Zulip.
5. Avoid posting in Slack since data export ended on August 1st.

If you have any questions about Zulip, don’t hesitate to ask. We’re here to help.

🎉Let’s say a BIG THANK YOU to Zulip’s team for supporting open-source software and sponsoring ClassicPress!🎉

About Viktor Nagornyy

Director at ClassicPress Initiative. Marketing consultant. ClassicPress and WordPress expert. Navy vet.

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