Zope 3 is a free/open source web application framework written in the Python programming language. Zope 3 provides a component architecture, transactional object database, tightly integrated security model and many other features.

Zope 3 is coming from the Zope community which is started around 1998. Initially Zope's core technologies were designed by Zope Corporation. The development of Zope 3 started in late 2001. In November 2004, Zope 3 was released. Zope 3 is a complete rewrite that only preserves the original ZODB object database. The design of Zope 3 is driven by the needs of large companies. It is directly intended for enterprise web application development using the newest development paradigms. Extreme programming development methodology has a real influence in Zope 3 development process. Automated testing is a major strength of Zope 3. Sprints were introduced as processes to help accelerate Zope 3 development. In 2006 Zope foundation was formed to help organize and formalize the relationships with the Zope community.

Developing for Zope 3 means writing components in Python. The steps for creating a simple package are:

1. Determine where in your file system you are going to work.
2. Define the interface(s) of the components in your package.
3. Implement unit tests against those interface(s).
4. Implement the component internals.
5. Create configuration files to integrate your package into Zope.
6. Implement functional tests for web-aspects of your components.
7. Create online usage documentation.
8. Prepare your package for distribution.