Comparison of Internet Relay Chat clients

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This article is about Internet Relay Chat clients. For a comparison of instant messaging clients (including multi-protocol clients that support IRC), see Comparison of instant messaging clients. For a comparison of mobile Internet Relay Chat clients, see Comparison of mobile Internet Relay Chat clients.

The following tables compare general and technical information between a number of IRC client programs which have been discussed in independent published literature.

General[edit]

Basic general information about the clients: 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 Last stable release
Adium Thijs Alkemade Free software GPL GUI Objective-C and C April 22, 2016 (1.5.10.3)
Bersirc[1] Jamie Frater, Nicholas Copeland Free software LGPL GUI C (Delphi originally) August 12, 2005 (2.2.14)
BitchX Colten Edwards Free software BSD TUI, GUI C November 14, 2014 (1.2.1)
ChatZilla Mozilla Foundation Free software MPL, GPL, LGPL
tri-license		 GUI[Note 1] JavaScript, XUL November 8, 2016 (0.9.93)
Colloquy Timothy Hatcher, Kiji Roshi Desktop: free software,
mobile: commercial		 BSD: mobile,
GPL: desktop		 GUI Objective-C March 22, 2014 (2.4.3)
ERC Free software GPL TUI, GUI Emacs Lisp January 26, 2008 (5.3)
HexChat[2] Berke Viktor Free software GPL TUI, GUI C December 10, 2016 (2.12.4)
IceChat[3][4] Paul Vanderzee Free software GPL GUI C# (Visual Basic until 2004)[5] April 15, 2017 (9.15)
Instantbird Florian Quèze Free software GPL GUI C/C++, JavaScript, CSS, XUL December 17, 2013 (1.5)
ircII Michael Sandrof Free software BSD TUI C September 3, 2015 (20150903)
Ircle Onno Tijdgat Commercial 30-day trial Proprietary GUI C November 17, 2007 (3.5a6)
Irssi Timo Sirainen Free software GPL TUI C March 10, 2017 (1.0.2)
KiwiIRC Darren Whitlen Free software AGPL Web Javascript frontend, Node.js backend March 30, 2016 (0.9.4)
KVIrc Szymon Stefanek Free software GPL GUI C++ July 3, 2012 (4.2.0)
Konversation KDE Free software GPL GUI C++ April 15, 2017 (1.7)
LeafChat[6] Samuel Marshall Free software GPL GUI Java July 29, 2012 (2.5)
LimeChat[7][8][9] Satoshi Nakagawa Free software GPL[10] GUI RubyCocoa (2007–2010)[9][10]
Objective-C(2010–)[11]		 June 23, 2014 (2.42)
Linkinus Conceited Software Commercial, 15-day trial Proprietary GUI Objective-C August 23, 2011 (2.4.3)
Mibbit Jimmy Moore Textual Adbar Proprietary Web JavaScript frontend,
Java backend		 July 26, 2015 (4136)
mIRC Khaled Mardam-Bey Shareware 30-day trial[12] Proprietary GUI C/C++ (Borland C++ originally)[13] April 15, 2017 (7.48)
Nettalk Nicolas Kruse Freeware Apache 2.0 GUI Visual Basic October 30, 2012 (6.7.16)
Opera (until version 12.xx) [Note 2] Freeware Proprietary GUI[Note 3] C++ April 12, 2017 (44.0.2510.1218)
Pidgeon[14] Petr Bena Free software GPL GUI C# August 4, 2014 (1.6.1)
Pidgin Free software GPL GUI C March 9, 2017 (2.12.0)
PIRCH Shareware Proprietary GUI Delphi January 1, 2001 (1.0.1.1190)
PJIRC Philippe Detournay Free software GPL GUI Java November 29, 2004 (2.2.1)
Quassel Manuel Nickschas, Marcus Eggenberger, Alexander von Renteln Free software GPL TUI[Note 4], GUI[Note 5] C++ May 17, 2016 (0.12.4)
qwebirc Chris Porter Free software GPL Web JavaScript front end,
Python backend		 February 13, 2012 (0.92)
rcirc Ryan Yeske Free software GPL TUI Emacs Lisp June 10, 2012 (24.1)
Smuxi Mirco Bauer Free software GPL GUI, TUI, server[Note 5] C# August 9, 2015 (1.0)
Snak Kent Sorensen Commercial Proprietary GUI ? March 11, 2012 (5.3.4)
Visual IRC Free software GPL GUI ? July 15, 2007 (2.0pl2)
WeeChat Sebastien Helleu Free software GPL TUI, GUI[Note 6] C April 22, 2017 (1.7.1)
XChat (evolved into HexChat)[Note 7] Unix/Linux: free software; Windows: commercial, 30-day trial[15]

(HexChat is free of charge)

 GPL; or proprietary for Windows TUI, GUI C August 28, 2010 (2.8.9)
Client Primary developers Distribution model Software license User interface Programming language
  1. ^ Can be installed as part of a web browser
  2. ^ Opera 12.xx was the last version with IRC support. When Opera was rebased from Opera's own Presto layout engine to the Chromium browser, IRC and Mail were not ported.
  3. ^ Web browser component
  4. ^ Incomplete, proof of concept
  5. ^ a b Separate client and daemon
  6. ^ No official GUI, several options available (e.g. Glowing Bear, a web frontend)
  7. ^ xChat is no longer being developed by its original creators. Hexchat is entirely based on xChat and is now designed by new people.

Release history[edit]

A brief overview of the release history.

First public release First stable release Latest stable release
Client Date Version Date Version
Bersirc 1999 2.2.14 (12 August 2005; 12 years ago (2005-08-12)) [±]
BitchX 1996 1.2.1 (November 14, 2014; 3 years ago (2014-11-14)) [±]
ChatZilla 2001 0.9.93 (November 8, 2016; 13 months ago (2016-11-08)[23]) [±]
Colloquy 2005 2.4.3 (6011) (March 22, 2014; 3 years ago (2014-03-22)) [±]
degesch 2015 0.9 2015 0.9
DMDirc 2007 0.7 (January 5, 2013; 5 years ago (2013-01-05)[24]) [±]
ERC 1999? ERC improvements are now released as part of Emacs. [±]
HexChat 2009-10-04 r249 2009-10-09 2.86.0 2.12.4 (December 10, 2016; 12 months ago (2016-12-10)) [±]
HydraIRC 2002 0.3.165 (December 12, 2008; 9 years ago (2008-12-12)) [±]
IceChat 2002 3.0 2002-04-08 3.0 9.20 (October 27, 2017; 2 months ago (2017-10-27)) [±]
ircII 1990 20170704 (July 4, 2017; 6 months ago (2017-07-04)) [±]
IRCjr 2008 2008 mTCP_2013-04-26 (April 26, 2013; 4 years ago (2013-04-26)[25]) [±]
Ircle 1995 3.5a6 (November 17, 2007; 10 years ago (2007-11-17)) [±]
Irssi 1999 1.0.5 (October 22, 2017; 2 months ago (2017-10-22)) [±][26]
jIRCii  ?  ?  ?
KVIrc 1998 0.6.0 1999-12-21 1.0.0 4.2.0 (July 3, 2012; 5 years ago (2012-07-03)[27]) [±]
Konversation 2002 1.7.4 (15 November 2017; 52 days ago (2017-11-15)[28]) [±]
LeafChat  ? 1.0 2.41 (October 4, 2011; 6 years ago (2011-10-04)) [±]
LimeChat 2007 Mavericks / Mountain Lion

2.42 (June 22, 2014; 3 years ago (2014-06-22)) [±]

Lion
2.38 (September 12, 2013; 4 years ago (2013-09-12)) [±]
Linkinus 2007 2.4.3 (August 23, 2011; 6 years ago (2011-08-23)[29]) [±]
Mibbit 2008 web application, no version
mIRC 1995 7.51 (September 18, 2017; 3 months ago (2017-09-18)[30]) [±]
Nettalk 2004 6.7.16 (October 30, 2012; 5 years ago (2012-10-30)[31]) [±]
Opera 1996 50.0.2762.45 (January 4, 2018; 2 days ago (2018-01-04)[32])
PIRCH 1995 1.0.1.1190 (January 1, 2001; 17 years ago (2001-01-01)) [±]
PJIRC 2002 2.2.1 (November 29, 2004; 13 years ago (2004-11-29)) [±]
Quassel 2008-08-27 0.3.0 0.12.4 (May 17, 2016; 19 months ago (2016-05-17)) [±]
qwebirc 2009 0.81 0.92 (February 13, 2012; 5 years ago (2012-02-13)) [±]
rIRC 2010 Preview Release 1 2012 1.44 1.4.4 (January 16, 2012)
Scrollback 2013 2013
rcirc  ?  ? 24.1 (June 10, 2012; 5 years ago (2012-06-10)) [±]
Smuxi 2008-07-29 0.6 2010-09-03 0.8 1.0 (August 9, 2015; 2 years ago (2015-08-09)) [±]
Snak 1997 5.3.4 (March 11, 2012; 5 years ago (2012-03-11)[33]) [±]
Visual IRC 1995 2.0pl2 (200/187) (July 15, 2007; 10 years ago (2007-07-15)) [±]
WeeChat 2003 2.0.1 (December 20, 2017; 17 days ago (2017-12-20)[34]) [±]
XChat 1998 2.8.8 (source) (May 30, 2010; 7 years ago (2010-05-30)) [±]
2.8.9 (windows) (August 28, 2010; 7 years ago (2010-08-28)) [±]
Client Date Version Date Version Latest stable release
First public release First stable release

Operating system support[edit]

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 OS X (Intel/PPC) OS 9 OS 8 System 7 (PPC/68k) BeOS, Haiku OS/2, eCS AmigaOS (68k) AmigaOS 4, MorphOS (PPC) DOS
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
degesch No No No No No No No No ? No No No No No No No No
ERC Yes Yes ? No ? ? No ? ? No No No No No ? ? ?
HexChat Yes Dropped (2.9.5) No No No No No No Yes No No No ? No No No No
HydraIRC Yes Yes No No Yes No No No No No No No No No No No No
IceChat Yes Yes No No Yes Yes 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
IRCjr No Yes[Note 2] Yes[Note 2] No No No No No No No No No No No No No Yes
Ircle No No No No No No No No Yes[Note 3] Yes Yes Yes No No No No No
Irssi Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes No ? Yes No No No Yes Yes ? Yes No
jIRCii Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes No ? Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes ? Yes No
KiwiIRC Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes 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[38] Yes Yes No No No Yes[39] No No No
LeafChat Yes Yes No No No No No No Yes No No No No No No No No
LimeChat No No No No No No No No Yes[Note 4] No No No No No No No No
Linkinus No No No No No No No No Yes[Note 3] 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 5] No No ? No No No No No No No No No
Opera Yes Yes Dropped (10.10) No Dropped Dropped Dropped No[42] Dropped[43] Dropped Dropped No Dropped Dropped 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 No No No No
qwebirc Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
rIRC Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? ? ? No No No No No No No No No
rcirc Yes Yes ? ? No No No No ? No No No No No No No No
Scrollback Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes 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][Note 3] Partial[Note 1][Note 3] Partial[Note 1][Note 3] No Partial[Note 1][Note 3] Partial[Note 1][Note 3] No ? Yes No No No Partial No No No No
XChat Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes No ? Yes No No 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
  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Requires Cygwin[35][36]
  2. ^ a b Requires SwsVpkt[37]
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Requires OS X v10.4.3 or later
  4. ^ [40]
  5. ^ Does not support Windows 95 or Windows 98[41]

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[Note 1] Yes[Note 1] Yes[Note 1] Yes[Note 1] Yes[Note 1] ? Yes[Note 1] Yes[Note 1] ? Yes[Note 1] Yes Yes[Note 1] Yes ? Yes[Note 1] Yes[Note 1] ?
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
degesch ? ? Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Yes ? ? ? ? ?
DMDIrc Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
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
HydraIRC No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No
IceChat No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No
ircII Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes
IRCjr No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No
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
KiwiIRC Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes 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
LimeChat No No No No No No No No No No No No No 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
Opera No No Yes No No No No No No No Yes No Yes No No No Dropped 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 ? ? ? ? ?
qwebirc ? ? Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes ? ? Yes
rcirc ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
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[Note 2] ? ? ? ? Yes Partial[Note 3] ? Yes[Note 2] ? Yes ? ? ? Yes[Note 2] ?
XChat ? ? Yes Yes ? Yes ? Yes[Note 4] Yes ? 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
  1. ^ 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
  2. ^ 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[44]
  3. ^ In development[44]
  4. ^ XChat tested on HP-UX 10.20 and 11[45]

Protocol support[edit]

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

Client CTCP DCC IPv6 SSL TLS DANE OCSP CRL SASL OTR
Bersirc ? Partial No No ? ? ? ? ? No
BitchX Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? ? No
ChatZilla Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes script No
Colloquy Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? ? Yes No[46]
degesch Yes Yes Yes No Yes ? ? ? ? No
DMDirc Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? ? ? No
ERC Partial Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? Yes[Note 1] No
HexChat Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No Yes Yes[Note 2]
HydraIRC Yes Yes ? No No ? No No ? No
IceChat Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? ? Yes No
ircII Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? ? ? No
IRCjr Yes No No No No ? No No No No
Ircle Yes Yes ? Yes ? ? ? ? ? No
Irssi Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No ? script Yes[47][48][Note 2]
jIRCii Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? ? ? No
KiwiIRC Yes No Yes Yes Yes ? No No Yes No
Konversation Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? Yes No
KVIrc Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? No No Yes No
LimeChat ? Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? ? Yes No
Linkinus Yes Yes No Yes ? ? ? ? No No
Mibbit ? Partial[Note 3][Note 4] No Yes ? ? ? ? Yes No
mIRC Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? script No
Nettalk Yes Yes No No ? ? ? ? ? No
Opera Yes[49] Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? ? No
PIRCH Yes Yes No No ? ? ? ? ? No
PJIRC ? Yes No No ? ? ? ? ? No
Quassel Yes No Yes Yes Yes ? No No Yes No[50]
qwebirc Yes No No Yes No ? No No No No
rcirc Partial No No Yes Yes ? ? ? ? No
Scrollback Partial No Yes Yes ? ? ? ? No No
Smuxi Yes No Yes Yes ? ? ? ? No No[51]
Snak Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? ? ? No
Visual IRC Yes Yes No No ? ? ? ? ? No
WeeChat Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? Yes Yes[47][52][Note 2]
XChat Yes Yes Partial[Note 4] Yes ? No ? ? script Yes[47][48][Note 2]
Client CTCP DCC IPv6 SSL TLS DANE OCSP CRL SASL OTR
  1. ^ Supported via patch
  2. ^ a b c d Supported via plugin
  3. ^ Cannot send files, can receive files up to 2 MB only
  4. ^ a b DCC does not always succeed at this stage

Direct Client-to-Client (DCC) support[edit]

Client CHAT Whiteboard SEND RESUME TSEND SEND T XMIT Passive DCC Server RDCC REVERSE RSEND Reverse / Firewall DCC File servers (FSERVs) XDCC VOICE
Bersirc ? ? ? ? ? ? ? No No ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
BitchX Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes ? No No ? ? ? ? ? Yes ?
ChatZilla Yes No Yes No[57] ? ? No No[Note 1] No No No No No No ? ?
Colloquy Yes ? Yes Yes ? ? ? Yes No ? ? ? ? ? Yes ?
degesch No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No
DMDirc Yes No Yes Yes ? ? No Yes No No No No Yes No No ?
ERC Yes ? Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
HexChat Yes No Yes Yes ? ? ? Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? Yes ?
HydraIRC Yes No Yes Yes ? ? No ? ? ? ? ? ? No No ?
IceChat Yes No Yes ? ? ? No ? ? ? ? ? ? No No ?
ircII ? ? ? ? ? ? ? No No ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
IRCjr No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No ?
Ircle ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Irssi Yes No Yes Yes ? ? ? Yes Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
KiwiIRC No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No ?
Konversation Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? Yes No ? ? ? Yes ? ? ?
KVIrc Yes No Yes Yes Yes No No Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes[Note 2] Yes[Note 2] Yes[Note 3]
LimeChat ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Yes Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Linkinus ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Yes No ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Mibbit No ? ? ? ? ? ? No No ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
mIRC Yes ? Yes Yes[Note 4] ? ? ? Yes Yes Yes[Note 5] ? ? Yes Yes Yes[Note 5] ?
Nettalk Yes No Yes Yes No No No No Partial No No No No ? ? ?
Opera No ? ? ? ? ? ? Yes No ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
PIRCH Yes No Yes Yes[Note 4] ? ? No No No No No No No No No ?
PJIRC Yes No Yes Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Quassel No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No ?
qwebirc 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[Note 4] ? ? ? Yes No ? ? ? Yes ? ? Yes[Note 3]
WeeChat Yes ? Yes ? ? ? ? No No ? ? ? ? ? Yes ?
XChat Yes ? Yes Yes No No ? Yes Yes ? ? ? Yes ? Yes[Note 6] ?
Client CHAT Whiteboard SEND RESUME TSEND SEND T XMIT Passive DCC Server RDCC REVERSE RSEND Reverse / Firewall DCC File servers (FSERVs) XDCC VOICE
  1. ^ Planned for a later version
  2. ^ a b Supported via scripting
  3. ^ a b Incompatible with other IRC clients[58]
  4. ^ a b c Supports the DCC Resume protocol[59]
  5. ^ a b Supported via a script[60]
  6. ^ Supported via scripts and plugins[61]

Features[edit]

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[Note 1] AppleScript, Cocoa, F-Script, JavaScript, Python
degesch Yes Yes Yes N/A N/A Lua
DMDirc Yes Partial ? Yes Yes Custom Actions system, Java plugins
ERC Yes Yes Yes[Note 2] ? Yes[Note 3] Emacs Lisp
HexChat Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Perl, Python, Tcl, Lua[Note 4], Javascript, C, C++, and via D-Bus.
HydraIRC Yes Yes ? ? Yes No
IceChat Yes Yes No ? Yes VBScript
ircII Yes Yes[Note 5] ? ? ? IrcII script
IRCjr No No No No No N/A
Ircle Yes No ? ? ? AppleScript
Irssi Yes Yes Yes No No Perl
jIRCii Yes Yes Yes ? No Sleep
KiwiIRC Yes Yes Yes Yes N/A Javascript, Node.js
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 ? N/A Yes Java
LimeChat Yes Yes ? ? ? N/A
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
Opera Yes Yes ? Yes Yes N/A
PIRCH Yes No ? ? No Yes
PJIRC Yes Yes ? ? No Partial, JavaScript
Quassel Yes Yes Yes ? No No
qwebirc No Yes No Yes Yes 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)
XChat Yes Yes Yes Yes No Perl, Python, Tcl, Ruby, C++, ECMAScript, Scheme (Guile)
Client Multi-server UTF-8 Proxy server irc:// URI scheme Automatic updates Scripting language
  1. ^ Automatically updates via the Sparkle framework
  2. ^ Can be added with separate packages.
  3. ^ Supports automatic updates via the Emacs package manager
  4. ^ Since 2.9.5 HexChat is shipped only with Perl and Python.
  5. ^ Supported as of version 20050921
  6. ^ 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.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Bersirc IRC Client - about Bersirc Archived 2011-08-12 at the Wayback Machine.
  2. ^ "HexChat website". 
  3. ^ "IceChat Networks website". 
  4. ^ "IceChat IRC Client 7 review". download.com. CNET. October 16, 2006. Archived from the original on 2007-05-26. 
  5. ^ IceChat History. IceChat.net
  6. ^ "Download leafChat Free". Mac.softpedia.com. 2010-01-21. Retrieved 2012-11-18. 
  7. ^ Cooper, Peter (2009). Beginning Ruby: From Novice to Professional. Apress. p. 108. ISBN 978-1-4302-2363-4. Retrieved April 14, 2011. 
  8. ^ "LimeChat: IRC Client for Mac". Official site.
  9. ^ a b "LimeChat for the Mac releases version 1.5". IRC-Junkie.org. February 3, 2010. Archived from the original on August 31, 2011. 
  10. ^ a b "Limechat". Github.
  11. ^ “do not load RubyCocoa” Commit on GitHub.
  12. ^ "mIRC: Register mIRC". Retrieved 2009-07-14. 
  13. ^ "mIRC: Personal FAQ". Retrieved 2011-04-09. 
  14. ^ Pidgeon website.
  15. ^ "XChat for Windows". Retrieved 2010-11-27. 
  16. ^ "ChatZilla :: Versions :: Add-ons for Firefox". Retrieved 2016-11-11. 
  17. ^ Mc Cormack, Shane (January 25, 2013). "DMDirc 0.7". Retrieved 2013-05-08. 
  18. ^ jhall1. "FreeDOS Software List: Networking". Retrieved 2012-04-26. 
  19. ^ "Irssi 1.0.5 Released". 22 October 2017. Retrieved 5 November 2017. 
  20. ^ "KVIrc 4.2.0 released". Retrieved 2012-07-04. 
  21. ^ "Konversation Homepage". Retrieved 15 November 2017. 
  22. ^ "Release Notes – Linkinus". Conceited Software. Retrieved 2011-03-02. 
  23. ^ "mIRC: Latest News". mirc.com. Retrieved 2017-09-18. 
  24. ^ "Nettalk - www.ntalk.de - IRC-Client". Retrieved 2013-03-23. 
  25. ^ Kolondra, Krystian (2018-01-04). "New year, new browser. Opera 50 introduces anti-Bitcoin mining tool". Retrieved 2018-01-04. 
  26. ^ "Snak - IRC for Mac". Retrieved 2012-03-11. 
  27. ^ "Version 2.0.1". weechat.org. Retrieved 2017-12-20. 
  28. ^ "SourceForge: BitchX files See "INSTALL" included with BitchX". Retrieved 2009-09-18. 
  29. ^ "WeeChat cygwin". Archived from the original on 2009-09-12. Retrieved 2009-09-18. 
  30. ^ "SwsVpkt". Retrieved 2012-04-14. 
  31. ^ Connect to the ReactOS IRC Channels
  32. ^ 2012-07-03: 4.2.0 Released!
  33. ^ Requires RubyCocoa 1.0.0 or later
  34. ^ "Nettalk: Download". Archived from the original on 2009-05-07. Retrieved 2009-10-09. 
  35. ^ "ReactOS compatibility database: Opera". Archived from the original on 2011-07-28. Retrieved 2010-01-05. 
  36. ^ "Features removed from Opera 12 on Mac (IRC, BitTorrent)". Retrieved 2012-08-02. 
  37. ^ a b "WeeChat: Supported OS". Retrieved 2009-09-18. 
  38. ^ "X-Chat README". Retrieved 2009-09-18. 
  39. ^ "Ticket 3915 requesting OTR support". 
  40. ^ a b c "Cypherpunks - OTR-Enabled Software". Retrieved 2014-03-16. 
  41. ^ a b "Irssi-OTR and XChat-OTR homepage". Retrieved 2014-03-16. 
  42. ^ "Changelog for Opera 9.0 for Windows". Retrieved 2009-07-14. 
  43. ^ "Issue 1418 requesting OTR support". 
  44. ^ "Issue 651 requesting OTR support". 
  45. ^ "Github - weechat-otr - WeeChat script for Off-the-Record messaging". Retrieved 2014-03-16. 
  46. ^ "Mozilla ChatZilla: Bugzilla Bug 285630: chatzilla does not support resume for dcc downloads". 2009-02-20. Retrieved 2009-07-14. 
  47. ^ "DCC negotiation and connection". Retrieved 2014-12-16. 
  48. ^ "DCC Resume protocol". Retrieved 2009-07-14. 
  49. ^ "SysReset mIRC FileServer". Retrieved 2009-07-14. 
  50. ^ "XChat: Scripts + Plugins". Retrieved 2009-07-14. 
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