lilavsZulip
Two self-hosted projects, compared on the numbers selfhost.directory tracks live: score, popularity, release cadence and setup effort.
| lila | Zulip | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 76/100 | 82/100 |
| Rank in category | #3 of 62 in Game Servers | #1 of 110 in Chat |
| GitHub stars | 18 917 | 26 134 |
| Stars, last 30 days | +157 | +191 |
| Stable releases, 12 months | 0 | 6 |
| Latest release | — | 12.3 · 21 Sept 2026 |
| Setup | Advanced | Moderate |
| Official Docker image | No | Yes |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Main language | Scala | Python |
Which one should you pick?
Zulip scores 82/100 against 76/100 for lila, so it is the safer default.
Zulip ships more often: 6 stable releases in the past year, against 0 for lila.
If you want the quickest setup, Zulip is easier to run; lila needs more configuration.