snapshot of https://github.com/zulip/zulip.git @ 48c69911c7dd4e03b20552eb3bd77ad8151c1357 (2026-09-15)

templates/corporate/case-studies/rush-stack-case-study.md

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+[Rush Stack](https://rushstack.io/) is an open-source collection of specialized
+tooling for working with the world's largest source code repositories.
+
+Providing support is often a challenge for open-source projects, especially when
+maintainers are juggling internal investigations at work alongside their
+open-source correspondence.  Yet to be successful, the Rush Stack community
+needs to systematically handle questions and feedback.
+
+Zulip makes it easy for the Rush Stack community to provide the level of support
+required for mission-critical enterprise tools. “With Zulip, we have a system
+that feels professional, where once a topic is opened, we can make sure that it
+gets resolved,” says Rush Stack maintainer [Pete
+Gonzalez](https://github.com/octogonz).
+
+
+> With Zulip, we have a system that feels professional.
+>
+> — Rush Stack maintainer Pete Gonzalez
+
+
+## Choosing a chat product? Focus on the features that matter.
+
+Pete Gonzalez started researching chat platform options for the Rush Stack
+community in early 2020, looking to replace Gitter. “I had worked on
+[Yammer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viva_Engage), and even wrote my own
+client, so I was thinking about chat apps very deeply,” Pete recalls. “Although
+chat apps may seem similar, there are actually many subtle design tradeoffs
+whose combination determines whether an app will work well for a particular use
+case.”
+
+Rush Stack needed a space for maintainers and community members to have serious,
+long-running conversations. “Rush Stack discussions have the character of
+support tickets,” Pete explains. “Someone can ask a question that might take two
+years to finally solve.”
+
+Pete identified Zulip as the best fit for the needs of the community. With
+Zulip’s topic-based organization, conversations can run their course, with the
+full context of the discussion easily at hand when someone has a new idea.
+“Zulip gives you control,” Pete points out. “You can edit or move messages to
+fix anything that might be incorrect or confusing, which is important for
+long-running discussions.”
+
+
+> Zulip gives you control.
+>
+> — Rush Stack maintainer Pete Gonzalez
+
+To make the transition, Rush Stack imported the project’s full chat history from
+Gitter into Zulip, making it an easily searchable resource. Enabling Zulip’s
+feature for logging in with GitHub meant that users didn’t have to make new
+accounts. Users could also control how their messages looked with familiar
+Markdown formatting.
+
+
+## “Zulip has better features for the way we use it”
+
+Over the years, Pete had continued to keep an eye on the evolution of team chat
+products. “Compared to Discord, Slack, GitHub discussions… Zulip has better
+features for the way we use it,” he says.
+
+Pete has seen open-source maintainers struggle to manage a Discord community:
+“There are all these people asking questions… If an important question scrolls
+out of view, how would you follow up? Maintainers end up giving up on community
+management, leaving casual participants to sort things out on their own.”
+
+Slack’s paid plans, which start at $8.75/user/month, are unaffordable for
+community use. “You have to pay a lot for Slack history, and users can’t log in
+with their GitHub account,” Pete says. On the free plan, communities have access
+to just 90 days of message history, which is unworkable for a community with a
+large knowledge base and long-running investigations.
+
+
+> Of all the apps I tested, Zulip’s approach stood out as the best fit for how
+> we work.
+>
+> — Rush Stack maintainer Pete Gonzalez
+
+
+## Software that’s built in the open and always improving
+
+Pete has been impressed by how Zulip handles user feedback. “I can go into the
+development community to talk to them, and often the tech lead of the team will
+reply,” he notes. “Even if their answer is that my request is a lower priority
+right now, there is context to understand that. New features are always being
+added, and with the team’s daily discussions being public, I can see what they
+are working on and why. It’s a really different dynamic from trying to make
+feature requests or bug reports for a closed source product with an invisible
+engineering team.”
+
+
+> New features are always being added, and with the team’s daily discussions
+> being public, I can see what they are working on and why.
+>
+> — Rush Stack maintainer Pete Gonzalez
+
+Pete was pleased to learn that organizations can now allow [public
+access](/help/public-access-option) to channels. It lowers the bar for people to
+view Zulip discussions that are linked from Rush Stack GitHub issues.
+
+Pete has also seen Zulip’s onboarding experience transform over the past few
+years. “In the past, Zulip was optimized for daily users, and so had a bit of a
+learning curve for occasional Rush Stack participants. But the UX has improved a
+lot in this regard. The [recent conversations](/help/recent-conversations) view
+that’s been added has largely addressed the challenge for new users,” Pete says.
+This view lists the topics being discussed, and is also the go-to for Pete to
+check in on what’s happening.
+
+
+> The folks who make Zulip listen to customers, and the product continues to
+> improve.
+>
+> — Rush Stack maintainer Pete Gonzalez
+
+---
+
+Check out our guide on using Zulip for [open source](/for/open-source/), and
+learn how Zulip [helps communities scale](/for/communities/)!