Riot vs Zulip: What are the differences?

# Introduction
Riot and Zulip are two popular communication platforms that offer real-time messaging and collaboration features. While both platforms are designed to streamline communication within teams and organizations, they have distinct differences that set them apart.

1. **User Interface**: Riot offers a more traditional chat interface with a clean and straightforward layout, making it easy for users to navigate and use. On the other hand, Zulip takes a unique approach with its "topic-based threading" feature, categorizing conversations into specific topics for better organization and follow-up.

2. **Integration Capabilities**: Zulip has a strong focus on integrations with third-party tools and services, allowing users to connect different applications seamlessly. In contrast, Riot may have fewer integrations available, limiting the platform's extensibility.

3. **Open Source Nature**: Riot is built on the Matrix protocol, an open-source real-time communication standard that emphasizes decentralization and security. This gives users more control over their data and communication infrastructure compared to Zulip, which is also open source but does not emphasize decentralization as heavily.

4. **Customization Options**: Zulip offers a high level of customization, allowing users to tailor the platform to their specific needs by adjusting settings, themes, and notification preferences. Riot, while customizable to a certain extent, may not offer as many options for personalization.

5. **Search Functionality**: Zulip is known for its powerful search functionality, making it easy for users to find specific messages or information within their conversations quickly. Riot, while also offering search capabilities, may not be as robust or efficient as Zulip's search feature.

6. **Community Support**: Riot has a dedicated community of users and developers who actively contribute to the platform's growth and development through feedback, feature requests, and bug reporting. Zulip, while having its own community, may not have as large or active of a user base as Riot.

In Summary, Riot and Zulip differ in their user interface, integration capabilities, open-source nature, customization options, search functionality, and community support.