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Moving to Zulip

Welcome to Zulip! This page will guide you through the process of transitioning your organization to Zulip. It assumes that you have completed you initial evaluation of Zulip, decided whether to use Zulip Cloud or self-host, and are ready to introduce Zulip to your organization.

The following steps are described in more detail below:

  • Instructions for all platforms

  1. Create your organization.

  2. Sign up for a plan.

  3. Configure your organization.

  4. Prepare users for the transition.

  5. Invite users to join.

  6. Update your guidelines.

Each organization is unique, but we hope these common practices will help you think through the transition process in your own context.

Create your organization

You can create a new Zulip Cloud organization in less two minutes. Setting up a self-hosted server will take a bit longer, but is easy to do with Zulip's robust installer.

Zulip has import tools for Slack, Mattermost and Rocket.Chat. You can import your organization's chat data, including message history, users, channels, and custom emoji. To inquire about importing data from another product, contact Zulip support.

Data is imported into Zulip as a new organization, so the best time to import is when your team is about to start using Zulip for day-to-day work. This may be part of your evaluation process, or after you've made the decision to move to Zulip.

  • New organizations
  • Imported organizations

  1. If you plan to self-host, set up your Zulip server. You can self-host Zulip directly on Ubuntu or Debian Linux, in Docker, or with prebuilt images for Digital Ocean and Render.

  2. Create a Zulip organization on Zulip Cloud or on your self-hosted server.

  1. If you plan to self-host, set up your Zulip server. You can self-host Zulip directly on Ubuntu or Debian Linux, in Docker, or with prebuilt images for Digital Ocean and Render.

  2. To import data, follow the steps in the detailed import guides:

Sign up for a plan

If you require features that are not available on Zulip Cloud Free or the Zulip Free plan for self-hosted organizations, you will need to upgrade your plan.

  • Zulip Cloud
  • Self hosting

  1. Follow the instructions to upgrade to a Zulip Cloud Standard or Plus plan. If your organization may be eligible for a free or discounted plan, you can apply for sponsorship.

  1. Follow the instructions to upgrade to a Zulip Basic or Zulip Business plan. If your organization may be eligible for a free or discounted plan, you can apply for sponsorship. To inquire about Zulip Enterprise, please reach out to sales@zulip.com.

Configure your organization

  • Instructions for all platforms

  1. Create your organization profile, which is displayed on your organization's registration and login pages.

  2. Review organization permissions, such as who can invite users, create channels, etc.

  3. If your organization uses an issue tracker (e.g., GitHub, Salesforce, Zendesk, Jira, etc.), configure linkifiers to automatically turn issue numbers (e.g., #2468) into links.

  4. Set up custom profile fields, which make it easy for users to share information, such as their pronouns, job title, or team.

  5. Review default user settings, including language, default visibility for email addresses, and notification preferences.

  6. Create channels, unless you've imported channels from another app. Zulip's topics give each conversation its own space, so one channel per team should be enough to get you started.

  7. (optional) Set up integrations so that your team can experience all their regular workflows inside the Zulip app. Zulip's Slack-compatible incoming webhook makes it easy to move your integrations when migrating an organization from Slack to Zulip.

Prepare users for the transition

  • Instructions for all platforms

  1. Plan how you will introduce users to Zulip. You may want to:

    • Share Zulip's getting started guide.
    • Prepare a live demo / training session. Consider recording it for future use.

  2. Inform users about the transition, including why you're moving to Zulip, the timeline, and what they'll need to do.

Invite users to join

  • Require invitations
  • Allow anyone to join
  • Imported organizations

  1. Configure allowed authentication methods. Zulip offers a variety of authentication methods, including email/password, Google, GitHub, GitLab, Apple, LDAP and SAML. Users can log in with any allowed authentication method, regardless of how they signed up.

  2. Invite users by sending email invitations or sharing a reusable invitation link.

  1. Allow users to join without an invitation.

  2. Configure the appropriate email domain restrictions for your organization.

  3. Share a link to your registration page, which is https://your-domain.zulipchat.com for Zulip Cloud organizations.

  1. Configure allowed authentication methods. Zulip offers a variety of authentication methods, including email/password, Google, GitHub, GitLab, Apple, LDAP and SAML. Users can immediately log in with any allowed authentication method that does not require a password.

  2. Share a link to your Zulip organization, which is https://your-domain.zulipchat.com on Zulip Cloud.

  3. (optional) To log in with an email/password, users will need to set their initial password. You can:

    • Automatically send password reset emails to all users in your organization. If you imported your organization into Zulip Cloud, simply email support@zulip.com to request this. Server administrators for self-hosted organizations should follow these instructions.

    • Let users know that they can request a password reset on your organization's login page.

Update your guidelines

  • Instructions for all platforms

  1. Update any links and login instructions to point to your Zulip organization.

  2. Share basic instructions for getting started with Zulip. You can refer users to Zulip's help center, getting started guide, and any onboarding content you've created.

  3. Consider updating your organization's communication policies and best practice recommendations to take advantage of Zulip's organized conversations:

    • Many organizations find that with Zulip, there’s no longer a reason to use email for internal communications. You get the organization of an email inbox together with all the features of a modern chat app, like instant delivery of messages, emoji reactions, typing notifications, @-mentions, and more.

    • Using Zulip, you can discuss complex topics and make decisions with input from all stakeholders, without the overhead of scheduling meeting. Are there standing meetings you might not need?

    • With conversations organized by topic, you can review prior discussions to understand past work, explanations, and decisions — your chat history becomes a knowledge base. Should it be standard practice to link to Zulip conversations from docs, issue trackers, etc. for additional context?

Congratulations on making the move! If you have any questions or feedback throughout this process, please reach out to the Zulip team.

Don't see an answer to your question? Contact this Zulip server's administrators for support.