Comparison of IRC clients
This article's
factual accuracy may be compromised due to out-of-date information.
Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (August 2012 )
The following tables compare general and technical information between a number of notable IRC client programs which have been discussed in independent, reliable prior published sources.
General
Basic general information about the notableclients: creator/company, license, etc. Clients listed on a light purple background are no longer in active development.
Client
Primary developers
Distribution model
Software license
User interface
Programming language
Adium
Thijs Alkemade
Free software
GPL-2.0-or-later
GUI
Objective-C and C
AmIRC
Oliver Wagner, Nicolas Sallin, Costel Mincea
Free software
GNU General Public License
GUI
?
Bersirc [ 1]
Jamie Frater, Nicholas Copeland
Free software
LGPL
GUI
C (Delphi originally)
BitchX
Colten Edwards
Free software
BSD
TUI , GUI
C
ChatZilla
James Ross, Robert Ginda, Samuel Sieb, Gijs Kruitbosch
Free software
MPL , GPL , LGPLtri-license
GUI[ Note 1]
JavaScript , XUL
Colloquy
Timothy Hatcher, Kiji Roshi
Free software
Desktop: GPL Mobile: BSD
GUI
Objective-C
ERC
Alexander L. Belikoff, Sergey Berezin
Free software
GPL-3.0-or-later
TUI, GUI
Emacs Lisp
HexChat [ 2]
Berke Viktor
Free software
GPL-2.0-or-later
TUI, GUI
C
Instantbird
Florian Quèze
Free software
GPL
GUI
C++ , JavaScript , CSS , XUL
ircII
Michael Sandrof
Free software
BSD
TUI
C
Ircle
Onno Tijdgat
Commercial, 30-day trial
Proprietary
GUI
C
Irssi
Timo Sirainen
Free software
GPL-2.0-or-later
TUI
C
KVIrc
Szymon Stefanek
Free software
GPL
GUI
C++
Konversation
KDE
Free software
GPL-2.0-or-later
GUI
C++
LeafChat [ 3]
Samuel Marshall
Free software
GPL-3.0-or-later
GUI
Java
Linkinus
Conceited Software
Commercial, 15-day trial
Proprietary
GUI
Objective-C
Mibbit
Jimmy Moore
Textual Adbar
Proprietary
Web
JavaScript frontend,Java backend
mIRC
Khaled Mardam-Bey
Shareware , 30-day trial[ 4]
Proprietary
GUI
C /C++ [ 5]
Nettalk
Nicolas Kruse
Free software
Apache-2.0
GUI
Visual Basic
Pidgin
Free software
GPL-2.0-or-later
GUI
C
PIRCH
Northwest Computer Services
Shareware
Proprietary
GUI
Delphi
PJIRC
Philippe Detournay
Free software
GPL
GUI
Java
Quassel
Manuel Nickschas, Marcus Eggenberger, Alexander von Renteln
Free software
GPL-2.0-or-3.0
TUI[ Note 2] , GUI[ Note 3]
C++
rcirc
Ryan Yeske
Free software
GPL-3.0-or-later
TUI
Emacs Lisp
Smuxi
Mirco Bauer
Free software
GPL-2.0-or-later
GUI, TUI, server[ Note 3]
C#
Snak
Kent Sorensen
Commercial
Proprietary
GUI
?
Thunderbird
Mozilla Foundation
Free software
MPL-2.0
GUI
C , C++ , JavaScript
Visual IRC
Jesse McGrew
Free software
GPL
GUI
Delphi
WeeChat
Sebastien Helleu
Free software
GPL-3.0-or-later
TUI, GUI[ Note 4]
C
XiRCON
Mark Hanson
Freeware
Proprietary
GUI
Borland C++ , scripted with Tcl
Client
Primary developers
Distribution model
Software license
User interface
Programming language
^ Can be installed as part of a web browser
^ Incomplete, proof of concept
^ a b Separate client and daemon
^ No official GUI, several options available (e.g. Glowing Bear, a web frontend)
Release
A brief overview of the release history.
First public release
First stable release
Latest stable release
Client
Date
Version
Date
Version
AmIRC
1995
Bersirc
1999
2.2.14 (12 August 2005; 19 years ago (2005-08-12 ) ) [±]
BitchX
1996
1.2.1 (November 14, 2014; 9 years ago (2014-11-14 ) ) [±]
ChatZilla
2001
0.9.93 (November 8, 2016; 7 years ago (2016-11-08 ) [ 6] ) [±]
Colloquy
2005
2.4.3 (6011) (March 22, 2014; 10 years ago (2014-03-22 ) ) [±]
DMDirc
2007
0.7 (January 5, 2013; 11 years ago (2013-01-05 ) [ 7] ) [±]
ERC
1999?
ERC improvements are now released as part of Emacs. [±]
HexChat
2009-10-04
r249
2009-10-09
2.86.0
2.16.2[ 8] [ 9] (7 February 2024; 8 months ago (7 February 2024 ) ) [±]
ircII
1989
2.0.0
1989
2.0.0
20240918 (September 18, 2024; 29 days ago (2024-09-18 ) ) [±]
Ircle
1995
3.5a6 (November 17, 2007; 16 years ago (2007-11-17 ) ) [±]
Irssi
1999
1.4.4 (March 31, 2023; 18 months ago (2023-03-31 ) ) [±] [ 10]
KVIrc
1998
0.6.0
1999-12-21
1.0.0
5.2.0 (January 14, 2024; 9 months ago (2024-01-14 ) [ 11] ) [±]
Konversation
2002
1.9.23083[ 12] 9 November 2023; 20 October 2023; Error: first parameter cannot be parsed as a date or time. (9 November 2023; 20 October 2023 )
LeafChat
?
1.0
2.5 (July 29, 2012; 12 years ago (2012-07-29 ) ) [±]
Linkinus
2007
2.4.3 (August 23, 2011; 13 years ago (2011-08-23 ) [ 13] ) [±]
Mibbit
2008
web application , no version
mIRC
1995
7.77 (11 June 2024; 4 months ago (2024-06-11 ) [ 14] ) [±]
Nettalk
2004
6.7.16 (October 30, 2012; 11 years ago (2012-10-30 ) [ 15] ) [±]
PIRCH
1995
1.0.1.1190 (January 1, 2001; 23 years ago (2001-01-01 ) ) [±]
PJIRC
2002
2.2.1 (November 29, 2004; 19 years ago (2004-11-29 ) ) [±]
Quassel
2008-08-27
0.3.0
0.14.0 (January 1, 2022; 2 years ago (2022-01-01 ) ) [±]
rcirc
?
?
rcirc improvements are now released as part of Emacs. [±]
Smuxi
2008-07-29
0.6
2010-09-03
0.8
1.2.1 (April 23, 2023; 17 months ago (2023-04-23 ) ) [±]
Snak
1997
5.3.4 (March 11, 2012; 12 years ago (2012-03-11 ) [ 16] ) [±]
Visual IRC
1995
2.0pl2 (December 30, 2007; 16 years ago (2007-12-30 ) ) [±] [ 17]
WeeChat
2003
4.4.0 (August 17, 2024; 2 months ago (2024-08-17 ) [ 18] ) [±]
Client
Date
Version
Date
Version
Latest stable release
First public release
First stable release
Operating system support
The operating systems on which the clients can run natively (without emulation).
Client
Windows 7 , Vista
XP , 2000
NT 4.0
NT 3.x
Me , 98
95
3.1x
ReactOS
macOS (Intel/PPC)
OS 9
OS 8
System 7 (PPC/68k)
BeOS , Haiku
OS/2 , eCS , ArcaOS
AmigaOS (68k)
AmigaOS 4 , MorphOS (PPC)
DOS
AmIRC
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
Yes
Yes
No
Bersirc
Yes
Yes
?
No
?
?
No
?
?
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
BitchX
Yes[ Note 1]
Yes[ Note 1]
Yes[ Note 1]
No
Yes[ Note 1]
Yes[ Note 1]
No
?
Yes
No
No
No
?
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
ChatZilla
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
?
Yes
No
Colloquy
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
Yes
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
ERC
Yes
Yes[ 21]
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
?
Yes
No
No
No
Yes[ 22]
Yes[ 23]
?
?
Yes[ 24]
HexChat
Yes
Dropped (2.9.5)
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
?
No
No
No
No
ircII
Yes[ Note 1]
Yes[ Note 1]
Yes[ Note 1]
No
Yes[ Note 1]
Yes[ Note 1]
No
?
Yes
No
No
No
No
No
No
?
No
Ircle
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
Yes[ Note 2]
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
No
No
No
No
Irssi
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
No
?
Yes
No
No
No
Yes
Yes
?
Yes
No
Konversation
Partial
Partial
Partial
No
Partial
Partial
No
?
Partial
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
KVIrc
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
No
No
Yes[ 25]
Yes
Yes
No
No
No
Yes[ 26]
No
No
No
LeafChat
Yes
Yes
No
No
No
No
No
No
Yes
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
Linkinus
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
Yes[ Note 2]
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
Mibbit
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
mIRC
Yes
Yes
Yes
Partial
Yes
Yes
Partial
?
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
Nettalk
Yes
Yes
?
No
Partial[ Note 3]
No
No
?
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
PIRCH
Yes
Yes
Yes
?
Yes
Yes
Yes
?
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
PJIRC
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
No
No
Yes
Yes
No
No
No
No
Quassel
Yes
Yes
No
No
No
No
No
No
Yes
No
No
No
No
Yes
No
No
No
rcirc
Yes
Yes
?
?
No
No
No
No
Yes
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
Smuxi
Yes
Yes
No
No
No
No
No
No
Yes
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
Snak
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
?
No
No
No
No
No
Visual IRC
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
No
?
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
WeeChat
Partial[ Note 1]
Partial[ Note 1]
Partial[ Note 1]
No
Partial[ Note 1]
Partial[ Note 1]
No
?
Yes
No
No
No
Partial
No
No
No
No
Client
Windows 7, Vista
XP, 2000
NT 4.0
NT 3.x
Me, 98
95
3.1x
ReactOS
OS X (Intel/PPC)
OS 9
OS 8
System 7 (PPC/68k)
BeOS, Haiku
OS/2, eCS
AmigaOS (68k)
AmigaOS 4, MorphOS (PPC)
DOS
Unix and Unix-like operating systems:
Unix (BSD ): 386BSD , BSD/OS , FreeBSD , NetBSD , OpenBSD , SunOS , ULTRIX
Unix (System V ): AIX , A/UX , HP-UX , IRIX , SCO OpenServer , Solaris , UnixWare
Unix-like: Linux , NeXTSTEP , OpenVMS [citation needed ] , OSF/1 , QNX , Tru64 UNIX
^ a b c d e f g h i j k BitchX is known to work on BSDI 2.0, 2.1, 3.1, 4.0; FreeBSD 2.x, 3.x, 4.0; NetBSD 3.x, 4.x; SunOS 4.1.4; Ultrix; AIX; HP-UX 9.x, 10.x; IRIX 5.x, 6.x; Solaris 5.x and later; Linux; OSF/1 (DEC Alpha); QNX
^ a b c WeeChat tested on FreeBSD 4.11, 5.4, 6.0; NetBSD 2.0, 2.1; OpenBSD 3.6, 3.7, 3.8; Solaris 5.10; QNX 6.3[ 28]
^ In development[ 28]
Protocol support
What IRC related protocols and standards are supported by each client.
^ Supported via patch
^ a b Supported via plugin
Direct Client-to-Client (DCC) support
The Direct Client-to-Client Protocol (DCC) has been the primary method of establishing connections directly between IRC clients for a long time now. Once established, DCC connections bypass the IRC network and servers, allowing for all sorts of data to be transferred between clients including files and direct chat sessions.
^ Planned for a later version
^ a b Supported via scripting
^ a b Incompatible with other IRC clients[ 36]
^ a b c Supports the DCC Resume protocol[ 37]
^ a b Supported via a script[ 38]
IRCv3 support
This software is compliant natively; other software may be compliant with extensions.[ 39] [ 40]
Clients
CAP
CAP 302
Cap-notify
Account-notify
account-tag
Away-notify
batch
Bot Mode
chghost
echo-message
extended-join
Invite-notify
labeled-response
message-tags
Monitor
msgid
multi-prefix
SASL v3.1
SASL v3.2
server-time
setname
sts
userhost-in-names
UTF8ONLY
WHOX
+typing
draft/chathistory
WebIRC
draft/account-registration
draft/extended-monitor
draft/multiline
+draft/react
+draft/reply
BitchX
Yes
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
Yes
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
?
?
?
?
?
?
Colloquy
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
No
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
No
No
Yes
No
Yes
No
No
?
?
No
No
No
No
HexChat
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
2.16
Yes
No
No
Yes
No
Yes
2.16
No
No
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
2.16
No
Yes
2.16
Yes
No
No
?
?
?
?
?
?
Irssi
Yes
Git
Git
Git
No
Git
No
No
Git
No
Git
Git
No
Git
No
No
Yes
Yes
No
No
Git
No
No
No
Yes
No
No
?
?
?
?
?
?
KVIrc
Yes
No
No
Git
No
Git
No
No
Git
No
Git
No
No
No
No
No
Git
Yes
No
Git
No
No
Git
No
No
No
No
?
?
?
?
?
?
Konversation
Yes
v20.11.80+
v21.03.80+
Yes
No
Yes
No
No
v21.03.80+
No
Yes
No
No
No
No
No
Yes
Yes
v21.04.0+
Yes
No
No
Yes
No
Yes
No
No
?
?
?
?
?
?
Mibbit
Yes
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
Yes
No
No
No
No
No
?
No
No
?
No
No
No
No
No
No
Mozilla Thunderbird
Yes
72.0+
72.0+
No
No
No
No
No
No
73.0+
No
No
No
No
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
72.0+
60.0+
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
?
?
?
?
?
?
Quassel IRC
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
0.14+
Yes
No
No
Yes
0.14+ (opt in)
Yes
0.14+
No
0.14+
No
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
0.14+
0.14+
No
Yes
No
Yes
No
No
?
?
?
?
?
?
WeeChat
Yes
2.2+
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
No
No
2.2+
No
Yes
2.2+
No
3.3+
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
3.3+
Yes
3.3+
No
Yes
No
Yes
3.3+
No
?
?
?
?
?
?
mIRC
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
7.62+
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
7.62+
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
No
No
?
?
?
?
?
?
IRCv3 SASL mechanisms
IRC SASL authentication primarily uses the same mechanisms as SASL in other protocols. Most commonly:
PLAIN as defined by RFC 4616
EXTERNAL as defined by RFC 4422
SCRAM-SHA-256 as defined by RFC 7677
Client
EXTERNAL
PLAIN
SCRAM-SHA-256
BitchX
No
Yes
No
Colloquy
No
Yes
No
HexChat
Yes
Yes
No
Irssi
Yes
Yes
No
KVIrc
Yes
Yes
No
Konversation
Yes
Yes
No
Mozilla Thunderbird
No
Yes
No
WeeChat
Yes
Yes
3.2+
catgirl
Yes
Yes
No
mIRC
Yes
Yes
7.68+
pydle(lib.)
No
Yes
No
senpai
No
Yes
No
zIRC(lib.)
Yes
Yes
No
Features
Information on what features each of the clients support.
Client
Multi-server
UTF-8
Proxy server
irc:// URI scheme
Automatic updates
Scripting language
Bersirc
Yes
No
?
?
?
—
BitchX
Yes
No
?
?
?
Enhanced IrcII script
ChatZilla
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
JavaScript
Colloquy
Yes
Yes
?
Yes
Yes[ Note 1]
AppleScript , Cocoa , F-Script, JavaScript, Python
ERC
Yes
Yes
Yes[ Note 2]
Yes[ 41]
Yes[ Note 3]
Emacs Lisp
HexChat
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Perl , Python , Tcl , Lua [ Note 4] , JavaScript , C , C++ , and via D-Bus .
ircII
Yes
Yes[ Note 5]
?
?
?
IrcII script
Ircle
Yes
No
?
?
?
AppleScript
Irssi
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
No
Perl
Konversation
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
?
Shell script , Ruby , Python , Perl , Java , C++ , C# , JavaScript [ Note 6]
KVIrc
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
KVS (custom), Perl , Python , C++
LeafChat
Yes
Yes
?
—
Yes
Java
Linkinus
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
AppleScript , Cocoa
Mibbit
Yes
Yes
?
Yes
—
—
mIRC
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes[ Note 7]
mIRC script
Nettalk
Yes
Yes
SOCKS
Yes
Yes
VBScript , custom
PIRCH
Yes
No
?
?
No
Yes
PJIRC
Yes
Yes
?
?
No
Partial, JavaScript
Quassel
Yes
Yes
Yes
?
No
No
rcirc
Yes
Yes
?
?
No
Emacs Lisp
Smuxi
Yes
Yes
Yes
?
?
Yes (language agnostic)
Snak
Yes
Yes
?
?
?
AppleScript , IrcII script
Visual IRC
Yes
No
?
?
?
Versus
WeeChat
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
?
C , Perl , Python , Ruby , Lua , Tcl , Scheme (Guile )
Client
Multi-server
UTF-8
Proxy server
irc:// URI scheme
Automatic updates
Scripting language
^ Automatically updates via the Sparkle framework
^ Can be added with separate packages .
^ Supports automatic updates via the Emacs package manager
^ Since 2.9.5 HexChat is shipped only with Perl and Python.
^ Supported as of version 20050921
^ Any language which supports DCOP may be used for Konversation scripting. Virtually any language can be made to support Konversation scripting by executing the command line "dcop" program.
^ Only looks for updates, they need to be manually downloaded and installed.
See also
References
Common terms Related protocols Networks Technology See also Clients
macOS Microsoft Windows Unix-like Cross-platform Multi-IM Web-based Web browser components Library and plug-ins