New plans for self-hosted Zulip customers

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Zulip’s move to start charging self‑hosted installations $6.67–$8 per user per month for mobile push notifications and support is prompting debate over the sustainability of open‑source business models. Commenters weigh the fairness of pricing that matches Zulip’s fully hosted cloud offering, the technical constraints imposed by Apple and Google that make DIY push infrastructure hard, and the impact on small teams that previously relied on “free” self‑hosting as a Slack‑style alternative. Some see the change as a necessary step to fund ongoing development, while others view it as a de‑facto rug pull that will discourage adoption and push users toward competing chat platforms.

Scope of the Change

  • New policy: self-hosted Zulip instances with >10 users lose free mobile push via Zulip’s servers; must either pay per-seat (same price as Zulip Cloud Standard/Business) or self-manage notifications by rebuilding mobile apps.
  • Existing self-hosters also lose free push after a grace period.
  • Only push notifications are functionally gated behind payment; other features remain open source and self-hostable.

Technical Constraints Around Push

  • For official iOS/Android apps, push must be routed through Zulip’s central service due to Apple/Google policies and app-store tying of app IDs to a single developer account and push credentials.
  • Self-hosting push is possible but requires:
    • Config changes on the Zulip server.
    • Publishing custom Android/iOS builds (or using TestFlight/MDM/private distribution), which is seen as high-friction.
  • Several comments compare this to Matrix/XMPP:
    • Those ecosystems also use centralized push relays run by client vendors.
    • Some argue those vendors are effectively subsidizing users; others insist it’s still viable and commonly free.
    • Alternative schemes (UnifiedPush, persistent TCP, web push) are discussed but iOS is highlighted as a hard blocker for generic background services.

Pricing, Fairness, and Business Model

  • Many self-hosters consider $6.67–$8/user/month “too steep” for what they experience as “just notifications,” especially for small teams (e.g., going from 10 to 11 users).
  • Some see the identical pricing to full cloud hosting as a nudge away from self-hosting and borderline “dark pattern.”
  • Others argue:
    • Running and supporting a self-hosted ecosystem costs more human time than multi-tenant cloud.
    • The real product is support plus ongoing development, not raw push bandwidth.
    • Compared to open-core competitors that lock many features, Zulip’s 100% OSS stance is still relatively generous.
  • Several ask for:
    • A cheaper, notifications-only plan.
    • Per-device or “only users with mobile app installed” billing.
    • Per-notification pricing; Zulip’s representative rejects this due to unpredictability and perverse incentives.

Impact on Adoption and Sentiment

  • Some admins state they will stop evaluating or may migrate to Matrix, Mattermost, or other tools.
  • Others accept the change as a necessary monetization step to keep a non-VC, fully open-source project viable.
  • Concerns raised about “rug pull” feelings and the risk of discouraging decentralized, self-hosted communication platforms.