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Comparison of IRC clients facts for kids

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For a comparison of instant messaging clients (including multi-protocol clients that support IRC), see Comparison of cross-platform instant messaging clients.

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 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, LGPL
tri-license		 GUI 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 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 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 Proprietary GUI C/C++
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, GUI 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 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 C
XiRCON Mark Hanson Freeware Proprietary GUI Borland C++, scripted with Tcl
Client Primary developers Distribution model Software license User interface Programming language

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  (August 12, 2005; 19 years ago (2005-08-12))
BitchX 1996 1.2-final  (January 1, 2013; 11 years ago (2013-01-01))
ChatZilla 2001 0.9.90.1  (July 7, 2013; 11 years ago (2013-07-07))
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) )
ERC 1999? ERC improvements are now released as part of Emacs.
HexChat 2009-10-04 r249 2009-10-09 2.86.0 Lua error in Module:Wd at line 1575: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).  (Lua error in Module:Wd at line 1575: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).; Error: first parameter cannot be parsed as a date or time. (Lua error in Module:Wd at line 1575: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).))
ircII 1989 2.0.0 1989 2.0.0 20111115  (November 15, 2011; 13 years ago (2011-11-15))
Ircle 1995 3.5a6  (November 17, 2007; 17 years ago (2007-11-17))
Irssi 1999 0.8.15  (April 3, 2010; 14 years ago (2010-04-03))
KVIrc 1998 0.6.0 1999-12-21 1.0.0 4.2.0  (July 3, 2012; 12 years ago (2012-07-03) )
Konversation 2002 1.9.23083 Edit this on Wikidata 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  (August 23, 2011; 13 years ago (2011-08-23) )
Mibbit 2008 web application, no version
mIRC 1995 7.32  (May 23, 2013; 11 years ago (2013-05-23) )
Nettalk 2004 6.7.16  (October 30, 2012; 12 years ago (2012-10-30) )
PIRCH 1995 1.0.1.1190  (December 31, 2000; 23 years ago (2000-12-31))
PJIRC 2002 2.2.1  (November 29, 2004; 19 years ago (2004-11-29))
Quassel 2008-08-27 0.3.0 0.12.4  (May 17, 2016; 8 years ago (2016-05-17))
rcirc  ?  ? rcirc improvements are now released as part of Emacs.
Smuxi 2008-07-29 0.6 2010-09-03 0.8 0.8.11  (May 22, 2013; 11 years ago (2013-05-22))
Snak 1997 5.3.4  (March 11, 2012; 12 years ago (2012-03-11) )
Visual IRC 1995 2.0pl2 (200/187)  (July 15, 2007; 17 years ago (2007-07-15))
WeeChat 2003 0.3.8  (June 3, 2012; 12 years ago (2012-06-03) )
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 Yes Yes No Yes Yes 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 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes No No No Yes Yes ? ? Yes
HexChat Yes Dropped (2.9.5) No No No No No No No No No No ? No No No No
ircII Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes No ? Yes No No No No No No ? No
Ircle No No No No No No No No Yes 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 Yes Yes No No No Yes 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 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 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 Partial Partial No Partial Partial 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:

Client 386BSD BSD/OS (BSD/386, BSDI) FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD SunOS ULTRIX AIX A/UX HP-UX IRIX SCO OpenServer Solaris UnixWare Linux NeXTSTEP OpenVMS OSF/1 QNX Tru64 UNIX
Bersirc ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Yes ? No ? ? ?
BitchX ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes ?
ChatZilla No No Yes Yes No Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes No Yes Yes
Colloquy No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No
ERC Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
HexChat ? ? Yes Yes ? Yes ? Yes Yes ? Yes ? Yes ? ? ? ? Yes
ircII Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes
Ircle No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No
Irssi Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes
Konversation ? ? Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Yes ? Yes ? ? ? ? Yes
KVIrc ? ? Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Yes ? Yes ? ? ? ? ?
LeafChat No No No No No No No No No No No No Yes No No No No No
Linkinus No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No
Mibbit ? ? Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes ? ? Yes
mIRC No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No
Nettalk No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No
PIRCH No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No
PJIRC Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Quassel ? ? Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Yes ? Yes ? ? ? ? ?
rcirc Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Smuxi ? ? Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Yes ? Yes ? ? ? ? ?
Snak No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No
Visual IRC No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No
WeeChat ? ? Yes ? ? ? ? Yes Partial ? Yes ? Yes ? ? ? Yes ?
Client 386BSD BSD/OS (BSD/386, BSDI) FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD SunOS ULTRIX AIX A/UX HP-UX IRIX SCO OpenServer Solaris UnixWare Linux NeXTSTEP OpenVMS OSF/1 QNX Tru64 UNIX

Protocol support

What IRC related protocols and standards are supported by each client.

Client IPv6 SSL TLS DANE OCSP CRL SASL OTR
Bersirc No No ? ? ? ? ? No
BitchX Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? ? No
ChatZilla Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes script No
Colloquy Yes Yes ? ? ? ? Yes No
ERC Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? Yes No
HexChat Yes Yes Yes No No No Yes Yes
ircII Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? ? No
Ircle ? Yes ? ? ? ? ? No
Irssi Yes Yes Yes Yes No ? Yes Yes
Konversation Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? Yes No
KVIrc Yes Yes Yes ? No No Yes No
Linkinus No Yes ? ? ? ? No No
Mibbit No Yes ? ? ? ? Yes No
mIRC Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? Yes No
Nettalk No No ? ? ? ? ? No
PIRCH No No ? ? ? ? ? No
PJIRC No No ? ? ? ? ? No
Quassel Yes Yes Yes ? No No Yes No
rcirc No Yes Yes ? ? ? ? No
Smuxi Yes Yes ? ? ? ? No No
Snak Yes Yes ? ? ? ? ? No
Visual IRC No No ? ? ? ? ? No
WeeChat Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? Yes Yes
Client IPv6 SSL TLS DANE OCSP CRL SASL OTR

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.

Client CHAT SEND RESUME TSEND SEND T XMIT Passive DCC Server RDCC REVERSE RSEND Reverse / Firewall DCC File servers (FSERVs) XDCC VOICE Whiteboard
Bersirc ? ? ? ? ? ? No No ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
BitchX Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? No No ? ? ? ? ? Yes ? No
ChatZilla Yes Yes No ? ? No No No No No No No No ? ? No
Colloquy Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? Yes No ? ? ? ? ? Yes ? ?
ERC Yes Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
HexChat Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? Yes ? No
ircII Yes Yes No No No No No No No No No No No No No No
Ircle ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Irssi Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? Yes Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? No
Konversation Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? Yes No ? ? ? Yes ? Yes ? Yes
KVIrc Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Linkinus ? ? ? ? ? ? Yes No ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Mibbit No ? ? ? ? ? No No ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
mIRC Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? Yes Yes Yes ? ? Yes Yes Yes ? ?
Nettalk Yes Yes Yes No No No No Partial No No No No ? ? ? No
PIRCH Yes Yes Yes ? ? No No No No No No No No No ? No
PJIRC Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? No
Quassel No No No No No No No No No No No No No No ? No
rcirc No No No No No No No No No No No No No No ? No
Smuxi ? ? ? ? ? ? No No ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Snak Yes Yes Yes ? Yes ? No No ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Visual IRC ? ? Yes ? ? ? Yes No ? ? ? Yes ? ? Yes Yes
WeeChat Yes Yes ? ? ? ? No No ? ? ? ? ? Yes ? ?
Client CHAT SEND RESUME TSEND SEND T XMIT Passive DCC Server RDCC REVERSE RSEND Reverse / Firewall DCC File servers (FSERVs) XDCC VOICE Whiteboard

IRCv3 support

This software is compliant natively; other software may be compliant with extensions.

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 ? ? ? N/A
BitchX Yes No ? ? ? Enhanced IrcII script
ChatZilla Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes JavaScript
Colloquy Yes Yes ? Yes Yes AppleScript, Cocoa, F-Script, JavaScript, Python
ERC Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Emacs Lisp
HexChat Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Perl, Python, Tcl, Lua, JavaScript, C, C++, and via D-Bus.
ircII Yes Yes ? ? ? 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
KVIrc Yes Yes Yes Yes No KVS (custom), Perl, Python, C++
LeafChat Yes Yes ? N/A Yes Java
Linkinus Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes AppleScript, Cocoa
Mibbit Yes Yes ? Yes N/A N/A
mIRC Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes mIRC script
Nettalk Yes Yes SOCKS Yes Yes VBScript, custom
PIRCH Yes No ? ? No Yes
PJIRC Yes Yes ? ? No Partial, JavaScript
Quassel style="background: #90ff90; color: black; vertical-align: middle;" class="table-yes"|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 style="background: #90ff90; color: black; vertical-align: middle;" class="table-yes"|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

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Anexo:Clientes IRC para niños

  • Comparison of cross-platform instant messaging clients
    • Comparison of user features of messaging platforms
    • Comparison of instant messaging protocols
  • Comparison of VoIP software
    • List of SIP software
  • Comparison of LAN messengers
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