Comparison of IRC 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.
ClientPrimary developersDistribution modelSoftware licenseUser interfaceProgramming language
AdiumThijs AlkemadeFree softwareGUIObjective-C and C
AmIRCOliver Wagner, Nicolas Sallin, Costel MinceaFree softwareGUI?
BersircJamie Frater, Nicholas CopelandFree softwareGUIC
BitchXColten EdwardsFree softwareTUI, GUIC
ChatZillaJames Ross, Robert Ginda, Samuel Sieb, Gijs KruitboschFree softwareGUIJavaScript, XUL
ColloquyTimothy Hatcher, Kiji RoshiFree softwareGUIObjective-C
ERCAlexander L. Belikoff, Sergey BerezinFree softwareTUI, GUIEmacs Lisp
HexChatBerke ViktorFree softwareTUI, GUIC
InstantbirdFlorian QuèzeFree softwareGUIC++, JavaScript, CSS, XUL
ircIIMichael SandrofFree softwareTUIC
IrcleOnno TijdgatCommercial, 30-day trialGUIC
IrssiTimo SirainenFree softwareTUIC
KVIrcSzymon StefanekFree softwareGUIC++
KonversationKDEFree softwareGUIC++
LeafChatSamuel MarshallFree softwareGUIJava
LinkinusConceited SoftwareCommercial, 15-day trialGUIObjective-C
MibbitJimmy MooreTextual AdbarWebJavaScript frontend,
Java backend
mIRCKhaled Mardam-BeyShareware, 30-day trialGUIC/C++
NettalkNicolas KruseFree softwareGUIVisual Basic
PidginFree softwareGUIC
PIRCHNorthwest Computer ServicesSharewareGUIDelphi
PJIRCPhilippe DetournayFree softwareGUIJava
QuasselManuel Nickschas, Marcus Eggenberger, Alexander von RentelnFree softwareTUI, GUIC++
rcircRyan YeskeFree softwareTUIEmacs Lisp
SmuxiMirco BauerFree softwareGUI, TUI, serverC#
SnakKent SorensenCommercialGUI?
ThunderbirdMozilla FoundationFree softwareGUIC, C++, JavaScript
Visual IRCJesse McGrewFree softwareGUIDelphi
WeeChatSebastien HelleuFree softwareTUI, GUIC
XiRCONMark HansonFreewareGUIBorland C++, scripted with Tcl
ClientPrimary developersDistribution modelSoftware licenseUser interfaceProgramming language

Release

A brief overview of the release history.

Operating system support

The operating systems on which the clients can run natively.

ClientWindows 7, VistaXP, 2000NT 4.0NT 3.xMe, 98953.1xReactOSmacOS OS 9OS 8System 7 BeOS, HaikuOS/2, eCS, ArcaOSAmigaOS AmigaOS 4, MorphOS DOS
AmIRC
Bersirc
BitchX
ChatZilla
Colloquy
ERC
HexChat
ircII
Ircle
Irssi
Konversation
KVIrc
LeafChat
Linkinus
Mibbit
mIRC
Nettalk
PIRCH
PJIRC
Quassel
rcirc
Smuxi
Snak
Visual IRC
WeeChat
ClientWindows 7, VistaXP, 2000NT 4.0NT 3.xMe, 98953.1xReactOSOS X OS 9OS 8System 7 BeOS, HaikuOS/2, eCSAmigaOS AmigaOS 4, MorphOS DOS


Unix and Unix-like operating systems:

Client386BSDBSD/OS FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSDSunOSULTRIXAIXA/UXHP-UXIRIXSCO OpenServerSolarisUnixWareLinuxNeXTSTEPOpenVMSOSF/1QNXTru64 UNIX
Bersirc
BitchX
ChatZilla
Colloquy
ERC
HexChat
ircII
Ircle
Irssi
Konversation
KVIrc
LeafChat
Linkinus
Mibbit
mIRC
Nettalk
PIRCH
PJIRC
Quassel
rcirc
Smuxi
Snak
Visual IRC
WeeChat
Client386BSDBSD/OS FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSDSunOSULTRIXAIXA/UXHP-UXIRIXSCO OpenServerSolarisUnixWareLinuxNeXTSTEPOpenVMSOSF/1QNXTru64 UNIX


Protocol support

What IRC related protocols and standards are supported by each client.
ClientIPv6SSLTLSDANEOCSPCRLSASLOTR
Bersirc
BitchX
ChatZilla
Colloquy
ERC
HexChat
ircII
Ircle
Irssi
Konversation
KVIrc
Linkinus
Mibbit
mIRC
Nettalk
PIRCH
PJIRC
Quassel
rcirc
Smuxi
Snak
Visual IRC
WeeChat
ClientIPv6SSLTLSDANEOCSPCRLSASLOTR

Direct Client-to-Client (DCC) support

The Direct Client-to-Client Protocol 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.

ClientCHATSENDRESUMETSENDSEND TXMITPassive DCCServerRDCCREVERSERSENDReverse / Firewall DCCFile servers (FSERVs)XDCCVOICEWhiteboard
Bersirc
BitchX
ChatZilla
Colloquy
ERC
HexChat
ircII
Ircle
Irssi
Konversation
KVIrc
Linkinus
Mibbit
mIRC
Nettalk
PIRCH
PJIRC
Quassel
rcirc
Smuxi
Snak
Visual IRC
WeeChat
ClientCHATSENDRESUMETSENDSEND TXMITPassive DCCServerRDCCREVERSERSENDReverse / Firewall DCCFile servers (FSERVs)XDCCVOICEWhiteboard


IRCv3 support

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

ClientsCAPCAP 302Cap-notifyAccount-notifyaccount-tagAway-notifybatchBot Modechghostecho-messageextended-joinInvite-notifylabeled-responsemessage-tagsMonitormsgidmulti-prefixSASL v3.1SASL v3.2server-timesetnamestsuserhost-in-namesUTF8ONLYWHOX+typingdraft/
chathistory		WebIRCdraft/
account-registration		draft/
extended-monitor		draft/
multiline		+draft/
react		+draft/
reply
BitchX
Colloquy
HexChat2.162.162.162.16
IrssiGitGitGitGitGitGitGitGitGit
KVIrcGitGitGitGitGitGitGit
Konversationv20.11.80+v21.03.80+v21.03.80+v21.04.0+
Mibbit
Mozilla Thunderbird72.0+72.0+73.0+72.0+60.0+
Quassel IRC0.14+0.14+ 0.14+0.14+0.14+0.14+
WeeChat2.2+2.2+2.2+3.3+3.3+3.3+3.3+
mIRC7.62+7.62+


IRCv3 SASL mechanisms

IRC SASL authentication primarily uses the same mechanisms as SASL in other protocols. Most commonly:
  • PLAIN as defined by
  • EXTERNAL as defined by
  • SCRAM-SHA-256 as defined by RFC 7677
ClientEXTERNALPLAINSCRAM-SHA-256
BitchX
Colloquy
HexChat
Irssi
KVIrc
Konversation
Mozilla Thunderbird
WeeChat3.2+
catgirl
mIRC7.68+
pydle
senpai
zIRC

Features

Information on what features each of the clients support.
ClientMulti-serverUTF-8Proxy serverirc:// URI schemeAutomatic updatesScripting language
Bersirc
BitchXEnhanced IrcII script
ChatZillaJavaScript
ColloquyAppleScript, Cocoa, F-Script, JavaScript, Python
ERCEmacs Lisp
HexChatPerl, Python, Tcl, Lua, JavaScript, C, C++, and via D-Bus.
ircIIIrcII script
IrcleAppleScript
IrssiPerl
KonversationShell script, Ruby, Python, Perl, Java, C++, C#, JavaScript
KVIrcKVS, Perl, Python, C++
LeafChatJava
LinkinusAppleScript, Cocoa
Mibbit
mIRCmIRC script
NettalkSOCKSVBScript, custom
PIRCH
PJIRCPartial, JavaScript
Quassel
rcircEmacs Lisp
Smuxi
SnakAppleScript, IrcII script
Visual IRCVersus
WeeChatC, Perl, Python, Ruby, Lua, Tcl, Scheme
ClientMulti-serverUTF-8Proxy serverirc:// URI schemeAutomatic updatesScripting language