Comparison of Internet Relay Chat clients

The following tables compare general and technical information between a number of IRC client programs. Please see the individual products pages for more information. This page is does not include everything and may not be current.

 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 AdiIRC Per AmundsenFreeware  GUI .NET Framework/C# Adium Thijs Alkemade Free software  GUI Objective-C and C AmbassadorAmbassador release statement Isengrim Free software  GUI JavaScript, XUL AmIRC Oliver Wagner, Nicolas Sallin, Costel Mincea Free software  GUI ? AndroIRC MadalynnFreeware  GUI ? BersircBersirc IRC Client - about Bersirc  Jamie Frater, Nicholas Copeland Free software  GUIC (Delphi originally) BitchX Colten Edwards Free software  TUI, GUI C ChatZilla James Ross, Robert Ginda, Samuel Sieb, Gijs Kruitbosch Free software  GUI JavaScript, XUL Colloquy Timothy Hatcher, Kiji Roshi Free software  GUI Objective-C ERC Alexander L. Belikoff, Sergey Berezin Free software  TUI, GUI Emacs Lisp GrumpyChatGitHub project. Petr Bena Free software  GUIC++ HexChat Berke Viktor Free software  TUI, GUIC IceChat Paul Vanderzee Free software  GUI C# (Visual Basic until 2004)IceChat History. IceChat.net Igloo Jordan Koch Commercial  GUI Swift Instantbird Florian Quèze Free software  GUI C++, JavaScript, CSS, XUL Irccloud IRCCloud Ltd. Freemium  Web JavaScript frontend, Erlang backend ircII Michael Sandrof Free software  TUIC Ircle Onno Tijdgat Commercial, 30-day trial  GUIC Irssi Timo Sirainen Free software  TUIC Kiwi Darren Whitlen Free software  WebJavaScript frontend, Node.js backend KVIrc Szymon Stefanek Free software  GUIC++ Konversation KDE Free software  GUIC++ LeafChat Samuel Marshall Free software  GUIJava LimeChat"LimeChat: IRC Client for Mac" . Official site. Satoshi Nakagawa Free software "Limechat". GitHub. GUI RubyCocoa (2007–2010)Objective-C (2010–)“do not load RubyCocoa” Commit on GitHub. Linkinus  Conceited Software Commercial, 15-day trial  GUIObjective-C Mibbit Jimmy Moore Textual Adbar  WebJavaScript frontend,Java backend mIRC Khaled Mardam-Bey Shareware, 30-day trial  GUIC/C++ MonochromePeter PawlowskiFree softwareGUIC# Nettalk Nicolas KruseFree software  GUI Visual Basic Pidgin Free software  GUIC PIRCH Northwest Computer ServicesShareware  GUIDelphi PJIRC Philippe Detournay Free software  GUIJava Quassel Manuel Nickschas, Marcus Eggenberger, Alexander von Renteln Free software  TUI, GUIC++ rcirc Ryan Yeske Free software  TUI Emacs Lisp Smuxi Mirco Bauer Free software  GUI, TUI, serverC# Snak Kent Sorensen Commercial  GUI ? Thunderbird Mozilla Foundation Free software  GUI C, C++, JavaScript Tiny Ömer Sinan Ağacan Free software  TUIRust Visual IRC Jesse McGrew Free software  GUIDelphi WeeChat Sebastien Helleu Free software  TUI, GUIC XiRCON Mark Hanson Free software  GUI Borland C++, scripted with Tcl Client Primary developers Distribution model Software license User interface Programming language

 Release history 
A brief overview of the release history.

 First public release First stable release Latest stable release Client Date Version Date Version AdiIRC 2005 1.0 4.2 (29 March 2022) AmIRC 1995  Bersirc 1999  BitchX 1996  ChatZilla 2001  Colloquy 2005  degesch 2015	 0.9 2015 0.9 DMDirc	 2007				  ERC	 1999? 		  F-IRC2006?0.11.36 (February 23, 2014) HexChat 2009-10-04 r249 2009-10-09 2.86.0  HydraIRC 2002       IceChat 2002 3.0 2002-04-08 3.0  ircII 1989 2.0.0 1989 2.0.0  IRCjr 2008 2008  Ircle 1995  Irssi 1999  jIRCii ? ? ? kirc 2020 0.0.1    KVIrc 1998 0.6.0 1999-12-21 1.0.0  Konversation 2002   LeafChat ?1.0  LimeChat 2007  Linkinus 2007  Mibbit 2008 web application, no version mIRC 1995  Nettalk 2004  PIRCH 1995  PJIRC 2002  Quassel 2008-08-27 0.3.0  qwebirc 2009 0.81  rIRC 2010 Preview Release 1 2012 1.44 1.4.4 (January 16, 2012) Scrollback 2013  2013   rcirc ? ?  Smuxi 2008-07-29 0.6 2010-09-03 0.8  Snak 1997  Visual IRC 1995  WeeChat 2003  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                  Bersirc                  BitchX                  ChatZilla                  Colloquy                  degesch                  ERC                  HexChat   (2.9.5)                HydraIRC                  IceChat   (9.50)                IRCCloud                  ircII                  IRCjr                  Ircle         Requires OS X v10.4.3 or later         Irssi                  jIRCii                  KiwiIRC                  Konversation                  KVIrc        Connect to the ReactOS IRC Channels      2012-07-03: 4.2.0 Released!    LeafChat                  LimeChat                  Linkinus                  Mibbit                  mIRC                  Nettalk                  PIRCH                  PJIRC                  Quassel                  qwebirc                  rIRC                  rcirc                  Scrollback                  Smuxi                  Snak                  Visual IRC                  WeeChat                  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, 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                   BitchX                   ChatZilla                   Colloquy                   degesch                   DMDIrc                   ERC                   HexChat                   HydraIRC                   IceChat                   IRCCloud                   ircII                   IRCjr                   Ircle                   Irssi                   KiwiIRC                   Konversation                   KVIrc                   LeafChat                   LimeChat                   Linkinus                   Mibbit                   mIRC                   Nettalk                   PIRCH                   PJIRC                   Quassel                   qwebirc                   rcirc                   Smuxi                   Snak                   Visual IRC                   WeeChat                   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         BitchX         ChatZilla         Colloquy         degesch         DMDirc         ERC         HexChat         HydraIRC         IceChat         IRCCloud         ircII         IRCjr         Ircle         Irssi         jIRCii         KiwiIRC         Konversation         KVIrc         LimeChat         Linkinus         Mibbit         mIRC         Nettalk         PIRCH         PJIRC         Quassel         qwebirc         rcirc         Scrollback         Smuxi         Snak         Visual IRC         WeeChat         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                 BitchX                 ChatZilla                 Colloquy                 degesch                 DMDirc                 ERC                 HexChat                 HydraIRC                 IceChat                 IRCCloud                 ircII                 IRCjr                 Ircle                 Irssi                 KiwiIRC                 Konversation                 KVIrc                 LimeChat                 Linkinus                 Mibbit                 mIRC                 Nettalk                 PIRCH                 PJIRC                 Quassel                 qwebirc                 rcirc                 Smuxi                 Snak                 Visual IRC                 WeeChat                 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 AdiIRC    3.0+  3.0+        3.0+            3.9+  3.4+    3.4+      3.0+    3.9+  3.4+            ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ? Adium  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ? Ambassador                                                        ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ? AndroIRC  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ? Bersirc  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ? BitchX                                                        ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ? ChatSharp                                                ?    ?  ?    ?  ?  ?  ?  ? ChatZilla  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ? Colloquy                                                        ?  ?         Communi                                                ?    ?  ?    ?  ?  ?  ?  ? CoreIRC                                                ?    ?  ?  ?  ?         ERC  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ? F-IRC  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ? Glirc                                                        ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ? Goguma                                                 ?    ?  ?  ?  ?         GrumpyChat                                                                   HexChat          2.16              2.16                  2.16      2.16        ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ? IRC for Android                                                ?    ?  ?  ?  ?         IRCCloud                                                 ?      ?             IRCjr  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ? IceChat                                                        ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ? Igloo  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ? Instantbird  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ? Ircle  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ? Irssi    Git  Git  Git    Git      Git    Git  Git    Git              Git              ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ? KVIrc        Git    Git      Git    Git            Git      Git      Git          ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ? Kitteh IRC Client Library                                                ?    ?  ?    ?  ?  ?  ?  ? Kiwi IRC                                                ?      ?             Konversation    v20.11.80+  v21.03.80+            v21.03.80+                    v21.04.0+                  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ? LeafChat  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ? LimeChat                                                        ?  ?         Linkinus  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ? Mibbit                                                ?      ?             Mobile  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ? Monochrome  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ? Mozilla Thunderbird    72.0+  72.0+              73.0+                  72.0+  60.0+                ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ? Net::Async::IRC                                                ?    ?  ?    ?  ?  ?  ?  ? Nettalk  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ? PIRC.pl web client                                                ?      ?             PIRCH  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ? PJIRC  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ? Palaver                          draft cap  draft cap    draft tag          draft cap      ?    ?  ?  ?  ?         Pidgin  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ? Quassel          0.14+          0.14+ (opt in)    0.14+    0.14+            0.14+  0.14+              ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ? Quasseldroid          0.14+ core          0.14+ core (opt in)    0.14+ core    0.14+ core            0.14+ core  0.14+ core      ?    ?  ?  ?  ?         Rust irc                                                ?    ?  ?    ?  ?  ?  ?  ? Smuxi  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ? Snak  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ? Srain                                                        ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ? Swirc                                                        ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ? Textual                  v7.1.1+                                      ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ? The Lounge                                                ?      ?             Tiny  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ? Visual IRC  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ? Warren                                                ?    ?  ?    ?  ?  ?  ?  ? WeeChat    2.2+              2.2+      2.2+    3.3+          3.3+    3.3+          3.3+    ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ? XiRCON  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ? catgirl                                            TLS-only            ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ? gamja                                                ?      ?             girc                                                ?    ?  ?    ?  ?  ?  ?  ? irc-framework                                                ?    ?  ?    ?  ?  ?  ?  ? ircII  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ? ircrobots                                                ?    ?  ?    ?  ?  ?  ?  ? kirc  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ? mIRC                          7.62+                7.62+              ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ? pydle                                                ?    ?  ?    ?  ?  ?  ?  ? qwebirc  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ? rcirc  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ? senpai                                                        ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ? tri-license  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ? zIRC    1.2.4+  1.2.4+                                1.2.4+          ?    ?  ?    ?  ?  ?  ?  ?

 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 AdiIRC      3.4+ Ambassador       BitchX       ChatSharp (lib.)       Colloquy       Colloquy       Communi(lib.)       CoreIRC       Glirc       Goguma        HexChat       IRC for Android       IRCCloud        IceChat       Irssi       KVIrc       Kitteh IRC Client Library(lib.)       Kiwi IRC       Konversation       LimeChat       LimeChat       Mibbit       Mozilla Thunderbird       Net::Async::IRC(lib.)       PIRC.pl web client       Palaver       Quassel       Quasseldroid       Rust irc(lib.)       Srain       Swirc       Textual       The Lounge       Warren(lib.)       WeeChat      3.2+ catgirl       gamja       girc(lib.)       irc-framework(lib.)       ircrobots(lib.)       mIRC      7.68+ pydle(lib.)       senpai       zIRC(lib.)       Client  EXTERNAL  PLAIN  SCRAM-SHA-256

 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       BitchX      Enhanced IrcII script ChatZilla      JavaScript Colloquy      AppleScript, Cocoa, F-Script, JavaScript, Python degesch      Lua DMDirc      Custom Actions system, Java plugins ERC      Emacs Lisp HexChat     Perl, Python, Tcl, Lua, JavaScript, C, C++, and via D-Bus. HydraIRC       IceChat      VBScript ircII      IrcII script IRCjr       IRCCloud      JavaScript Ircle     AppleScript Irssi      Perl jIRCii      Sleep KiwiIRC     JavaScript, Node.js Konversation     Shell script, Ruby, Python, Perl, Java, C++, C#, JavaScript KVIrc      KVS (custom), Perl, Python, C++ LeafChat      Java LimeChat       Linkinus     AppleScript, Cocoa Mibbit       mIRC      mIRC script Nettalk   SOCKS   VBScript, custom PIRCH       PJIRC      Partial, JavaScript Quassel       qwebirc       rcirc      Emacs Lisp Smuxi       (language agnostic) Snak     AppleScript, IrcII script Visual IRC      Versus WeeChat      C, Perl, Python, Ruby, Lua, Tcl, Scheme (Guile) Client Multi-server UTF-8 Proxy server irc:// URI scheme Automatic updates Scripting language

References

Clients, Internet Relay Chat, Comparison of