cStatevsZulip
Two self-hosted projects, compared on the numbers selfhost.directory tracks live: score, popularity, release cadence and setup effort.
| cState | Zulip | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 62/100 | 82/100 |
| Rank in category | #7 of 51 in Monitoring & observability | #1 of 110 in Chat |
| GitHub stars | 2 901 | 26 134 |
| Stars, last 30 days | +6 | +184 |
| Stable releases, 12 months | 2 | 6 |
| Latest release | v7-r1 · 17 Oct 2026 | 12.3 · 21 Sept 2026 |
| Setup | Easy | Moderate |
| Official Docker image | No | Yes |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Main language | HTML | Python |
Which one should you pick?
Zulip scores 82/100 against 62/100 for cState, so it is the safer default.
Zulip ships more often: 6 stable releases in the past year, against 2 for cState.
If you want the quickest setup, cState is easier to run; Zulip needs more configuration.
Zulip is growing faster right now (+184 stars in 30 days).
cState details →Zulip details →
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