# 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.
| 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 |
* ↑ Can be installed as part of a web browser
* ↑ Incomplete, proof of concept
* 1 2 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 public release | First stable release | First stable release | Latest stable release |
| Client | Date | Version | Date | Version | Latest stable release |
| AmIRC | 1995 | | | | |
| Bersirc | 1999 | | | | 2.2.14 (12 August 2005; 19 years ago (2005-08-12)) |
| BitchX | 1996 | | | | 1.2.1 (November 14, 2014; 10 years ago (2014-11-14)) |
| ChatZilla | 2001 | | | | 0.9.93 (November 8, 2016; 8 years ago (2016-11-08)) |
| Colloquy | 2005 | | | | 2.4.3 (6011) (March 22, 2014; 10 years ago (2014-03-22)) |
| DMDirc | 2007 | | | | 0.7 (January 5, 2013; 12 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 | 2.16.2 (7 February 2024; 13 months ago (7 February 2024)) |
| ircII | 1989 | 2.0.0 | 1989 | 2.0.0 | 20240918 (September 18, 2024; 6 months ago (2024-09-18)) |
| Ircle | 1995 | | | | 3.5a6 (November 17, 2007; 17 years ago (2007-11-17)) |
| Irssi | 1999 | | | | 1.4.4 (March 31, 2023; 23 months ago (2023-03-31)) |
| KVIrc | 1998 | 0.6.0 | 1999-12-21 | 1.0.0 | 5.2.0 (January 14, 2024; 14 months ago (2024-01-14)) |
| Konversation | 2002 | | | | 1.10.24083 7 November 2024; 4 months ago (7 November 2024) |
| 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)) |
| Mibbit | 2008 | | | | web application, no version |
| mIRC | 1995 | | | | 7.79 (3 February 2025; 44 days ago (2025-02-03)) |
| Nettalk | 2004 | | | | 6.7.16 (October 30, 2012; 12 years ago (2012-10-30)) |
| PIRCH | 1995 | | | | 1.0.1.1190 (January 1, 2001; 24 years ago (2001-01-01)) |
| PJIRC | 2002 | | | | 2.2.1 (November 29, 2004; 20 years ago (2004-11-29)) |
| Quassel | 2008-08-27 | 0.3.0 | | | 0.14.0 (January 1, 2022; 3 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; 22 months ago (2023-04-23)) |
| Snak | 1997 | | | | 5.3.4 (March 11, 2012; 13 years ago (2012-03-11)) |
| Visual IRC | 1995 | | | | 2.0pl2 (December 30, 2007; 17 years ago (2007-12-30)) |
| WeeChat | 2003 | | | | 4.4.0 (August 17, 2024; 7 months ago (2024-08-17)) |
| Client | Date | Version | Date | Version | Latest stable release |
| Client | First public release | First public release | First stable release | First stable release | | Latest 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 |
* 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Requires Cygwin
* 1 2 Requires OS X v10.4.3 or later
* ↑ Does not support Windows 95 or Windows 98
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, OSF/1, QNX, Tru64 UNIX
| 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 |
* 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 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
* 1 2 3 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
* ↑ In development

## 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 |
* ↑ Supported via patch
* 1 2 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.
| 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 |
* ↑ Planned for a later version
* 1 2 Supported via scripting
* 1 2 Incompatible with other IRC clients
* 1 2 3 Supports the DCC Resume protocol
* 1 2 Supported via a script

### 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 | ? | ? | ? | — |
| 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 | ? | — | Yes | Java |
| Linkinus | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | AppleScript, Cocoa |
| Mibbit | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | — | — |
| 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 | 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.