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The following tables compare general and technical information between a number of IRC client programs. Please see the individual products articles for further information.

General

Basic general information about the clients: creator/company, license/price 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 Computing platform
AmIRC[1][2] Oliver Wagner, Jamie van den Berge Commercial Proprietary GUI C m68k, PowerPC
Bersirc Jamie Frater, Nicholas Copeland Free software LGPL GUI C x86
BitchX Colten Edwards Free software BSD License TUI, GUI C x86, x86-64, s390, SPARC, MIPS
ChatZilla Free software MPL/GPL/LGPL
tri-license 		GUI [Note 1] JavaScript, XUL
Colloquy Timothy Hatcher, Kiji Roshi Desktop: Free software,
Mobile: Commercial 		Desktop: GPL,
Mobile: BSD License 		GUI Objective-C PowerPC, x86 [Note 2], ARM (Mobile)
ERC Free software GPL TUI Emacs Lisp
HydraIRC Hydra Freeware Proprietary but source available] GUI C++/WTL x86
ircII Michael Sandrof Free software BSD License TUI C x86
Ircle Onno Tijdgat Commercial 30-day trial Proprietary GUI ? PowerPC, x86 [Note 2]
Irssi Timo Sirainen Free software GPL TUI C x86
KVIrc Szymon Stefanek Free software GPL GUI C++ PowerPC, x86, x86-64
Konversation Free software GPL GUI C++ PowerPC, x86, x86-64
Mibbit Jimmy Moore Textual Adbar Proprietary Web-based JavaScript frontend,
Java backend 		N/A
mIRC Khaled Mardam-Bey Commercial, 30-day trial[3] Proprietary GUI C/C++ (originally Borland C++)[4] x86
Opera Freeware Proprietary GUI [Note 3] C++
PIRCH Shareware Proprietary GUI ? x86
Smuxi Mirco Bauer Free software GPL TUI, [Note 4] GUI [Note 5] C# x86, x86-64
Snak Kent Sørensen Commercial Proprietary GUI ? PowerPC, x86 [Note 2]
Visual IRC Free software GPL GUI ? x86
WeeChat Sebastien Helleu Free software GPL TUI, GUI [Note 6] C x86
XChat Unix/Linux: Free software, Windows: Commercial, 30-day trial[5] GPL but Proprietary for Windows TUI, GUI C x86, ARM
XChat-WDK Viktor Berke Free software GPL GUI C x86, x86-64
Client Primary developers Distribution model Software license User interface Programming language Computing platform
  1. ^ Can be installed as part of a web browser
  2. ^ a b c Distributed as a Universal Binary
  3. ^ Web browser component
  4. ^ Not complete, proof of concept
  5. ^ Separate client and daemon
  6. ^ In development

Release history

A brief overview of the release history.

Client First public release First stable release Latest stable release
Date Version Date Version
Bersirc 1999 2.2.14 (12 August 2005; 19 years ago (2005-08-12)) [±]
BitchX 1996 1.2.1 (November 14, 2014; 9 years ago (2014-11-14)) [±]
ChatZilla 2001 0.9.93 (November 8, 2016; 7 years ago (2016-11-08)[6]) [±]
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)[7]) [±]
ircII 1990 20210314 (March 14, 2021; 3 years ago (2021-03-14)) [±]
Ircle 1995 3.5a6 (November 17, 2007; 16 years ago (2007-11-17)) [±]
Irssi 1999 1.4.4 (March 31, 2023; 17 months ago (2023-03-31)) [±][8]
KVIrc 1998 0.6.0 December 21, 1999 1.0.0 4.0.2 - August 1, 2010
Konversation 2002 Template:Latest stable software release/Konversation
LeetIRC 2006 Template:Latest stable software release/LeetIRC
LimeChat 2007 Template:Latest stable software release/LimeChat
Linkinus 2007 2.4.3 (August 23, 2011; 13 years ago (2011-08-23)[9]) [±]
Mibbit 2008 web application, no version
mIRC 1995 7.77 (11 June 2024; 2 months ago (2024-06-11)[10]) [±]
Neebly December 13, 2008 1.0.1 Template:Latest stable software release/Neebly
Nettalk 2004 6.7.16 (October 30, 2012; 11 years ago (2012-10-30)[11]) [±]
nexIRC 2004 Template:Latest stable software release/nexIRC
Opera 1996 100.0.4815.21 (June 20, 2023; 14 months ago (2023-06-20)[12][13][14])


Orion (IRC client) 1.0 Template:Latest stable software release/Orion (IRC client)
PIRCH 1995 1.0.1.1190 (January 1, 2001; 23 years ago (2001-01-01)) [±]
Smuxi 2008 1.2.1 (April 23, 2023; 16 months ago (2023-04-23)) [±]
Snak 1997 5.3.4 (March 11, 2012; 12 years ago (2012-03-11)[15]) [±]
Visual IRC 1995 2.0pl2 (December 30, 2007; 16 years ago (2007-12-30)) [±][16]
WeeChat 2003 4.4.0 (August 17, 2024; 15 days ago (2024-08-17)[17]) [±]
XChat 1998 Template:Latest stable software release/XChat
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 Mac OS X (Intel/PPC) OS 9 OS 8 System 7 (PPC/68k) BeOS, Haiku OS/2, eCS AmigaOS (68k) AmigaOS 4, MorphOS (PPC) DOS Other
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 [Note 2] Yes Yes No
ChatZilla Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes ? ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes No
Colloquy No No No No No No No No Yes [Note 3] No No No No No No No No
DMDirc Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes 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
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
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 No Yes Yes No No No No No No No
LeetIRC No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No Yes
LimeChat No No No No No No No No Yes [Note 3] [Note 4] No No No No No No No No
Linkinus No No No No No No No No Yes [21] 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
Neebly Yes Yes [22] No No No No No No 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
nexIRC Yes Yes No No No No No ? No No No No No No No No No
Opera Yes Yes Dropped (10.10) No Dropped Dropped Dropped No[24] Yes Dropped Dropped No Dropped Dropped No No No
Orion (IRC client) Yes Yes No No No 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
Smuxi Yes Yes ? 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 Mac OS X (Intel/PPC) OS 9 OS 8 System 7 (PPC/68k) BeOS, Haiku OS/2, eCS AmigaOS (68k) AmigaOS 4, MorphOS (PPC) DOS Other
  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Requires Cygwin[18][19]
  2. ^ Requires EMX[18]
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Requires Mac OS X v10.4 or later[20]
  4. ^ Requires RubyCocoa 1.0.0 or later[20]
  5. ^ Does not support Windows 95 or Windows 98[23]

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 UNIX 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 [Note 1] ? ? Yes [Note 1] Yes [Note 1] ?
ChatZilla ? ? Yes Yes ? Yes ? Yes Yes ? Yes ? Yes ? Yes ? Yes Yes
Colloquy No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No
DMDirc ? ? Yes 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 ? Yes Yes Yes
Konversation ? ? Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Yes ? Yes ? ? ? ? Yes
KVIrc ? ? Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Yes ? Yes ? ? ? ? ?
LeetIRC No No No No No No No No No No No No No 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
Neebly 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
nexIRC 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
Orion (IRC client) 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
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 UNIX 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[18]
  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[25]
  3. ^ In development[25]
  4. ^ XChat tested on HP-UX 10.20 and 11[26]

mIRC will run on *NIX systems under WINE — Confirmed

Protocol support

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

Client CTCP DCC IPv6 SSL TLS OCSP CRL
Bersirc ? Partial No No ? ? ?
BitchX Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ?
ChatZilla Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? ?
Colloquy Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? ?
DMDirc Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? ?
ircII Yes Yes Yes No ? ? ?
Ircle Yes Yes ? Yes ? ? ?
Irssi Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? ?
Konversation Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? ?
KVIrc Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No
KoolChat Yes Yes ? ? ? ? ?
LeetIRC ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
LimeChat ? Yes Yes No ? ? ?
Linkinus Yes Yes No Yes ? ? ?
Mibbit ? Partial [Note 1] [Note 2] No Yes ? ? ?
mIRC Yes Yes Partial [Note 3] Partial [30] [Note 3] ? ? ?
Neebly Yes Yes No No ? ? ?
Nettalk Yes Yes No No ? ? ?
nexIRC ? Yes No No ? ? ?
Opera Yes[32] Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ?
Orion (IRC client) Yes Yes Yes No No No No
PIRCH Yes Yes No No ? ? ?
Smuxi Yes No No No ? ? ?
Snak ? Yes Yes Yes ? ? ?
Visual IRC Yes Yes No No ? ? ?
WeeChat Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? ?
XChat Yes Yes Partial [Note 2] Yes ? ? ?
Client CTCP DCC IPv6 SSL TLS OCSP CRL
  1. ^ Can not send files, can only receive files up to 2MB
  2. ^ a b DCC is not always successful at this stage
  3. ^ a b Wrapper library available[27] Cite error: The named reference "wrapper" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).

Direct Client-to-Client (DCC) support

Client CHAT Whiteboard SEND RESUME TSEND SEND T XMIT Passive DCC Server RDCC REVERSE RSEND Reverse / Firewall DCC File servers (FSERVs) XDCC
Bersirc ? ? ? ? ? ? ? No No ? ? ? ? ? ?
BitchX Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes ? No No ? ? ? ? ? Yes
ChatZilla Yes No Yes No[33] ? ? No No [Note 1] No No No No No No ?
Colloquy Yes ? Yes Yes ? ? ? Yes No ? ? ? ? ? Yes
DMDirc Yes No Yes Yes ? ? No Yes No No No No Yes No No
ircII ? ? ? ? ? ? ? No No ? ? ? ? ? ?
Ircle ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Irssi Yes ? Yes Yes ? ? ? Yes Yes ? ? ? ? ? ?
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]
KoolChat Yes ? Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
LeetIRC ? ? Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
LimeChat ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Yes Yes ? ? ? ? ? ?
Linkinus ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Yes No ? ? ? ? ? ?
Mibbit ? ? ? ? ? ? ? No No ? ? ? ? ? ?
mIRC Yes ? Yes Yes [Note 3] ? ? ? Yes Yes Yes [Note 4] ? ? Yes Yes Yes [Note 4]
Neebly ? ? Yes ? ? ? ? No No ? ? ? ? ? ?
Nettalk Yes No Yes Yes No No No No Partial No No No No ? ?
nexIRC ? ? ? ? ? ? ? No No ? ? ? ? ? ?
Opera No ? ? ? ? ? ? Yes No ? ? ? ? ? ?
Orion (IRC client) Yes No Yes Yes No No No No No No No No No No No
PIRCH Yes No Yes Yes [Note 3] ? ? No No No No No No No No No
Smuxi ? ? ? ? ? ? ? No No ? ? ? ? ? ?
Snak ? ? ? ? ? ? ? No No ? ? ? ? ? ?
Visual IRC ? Yes ? Yes [Note 3] ? ? ? Yes No ? ? ? Yes ? ?
WeeChat Yes ? Yes ? ? ? ? Yes No ? ? ? ? ? Yes
XChat Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? Yes Yes ? ? ? Yes ? Yes [Note 5]
Client CHAT Whiteboard SEND RESUME TSEND SEND T XMIT Passive DCC Server RDCC REVERSE RSEND Reverse / Firewall DCC File servers (FSERVs) XDCC
  1. ^ Planned for a later version
  2. ^ a b Supported via scripting
  3. ^ a b c Supports the DCC Resume protocol[34]
  4. ^ a b Supported via a script[35]
  5. ^ Supported via scripts and plugins[36]

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 JavaScript
Colloquy Yes Yes ? Yes Yes [Note 1] AppleScript, Cocoa, F-Script, JavaScript, Python
DMDirc Yes Partial ? Yes Yes Custom "Actions" system, Java plugins
ircII Yes Yes [Note 2] ? ? ? IrcII script
Ircle Yes No ? ? ? AppleScript
Irssi Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Perl
Konversation Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Shell script, Ruby, Python, Perl, Java, C++, C#, JavaScript [Note 3]
KoolChat ? ? ? ? ? ?
KVIrc Yes Yes Yes Yes No KVS (Custom), Perl, Python, C++
LeetIRC ? ? ? — ? ?
LimeChat Yes Yes ? ? ? —
Linkinus Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes AppleScript, Cocoa API
Mibbit Yes Yes ? Yes — —
mIRC Yes Yes ? Yes Yes mIRC script
Neebly No No ? ? ? —
Nettalk Yes Yes SOCKS Yes Yes VBScript, Custom
nexIRC Yes No ? ? ? VBScript, Custom
Opera Yes Yes ? Yes Yes —
Orion (IRC client) Yes No No No No Partial
Pidgin Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ?
PIRCH Yes No ? ? No Yes
Smuxi Yes Yes No[Note 4] ? ? ?
Snak Yes Yes ? ? ? AppleScript, IrcII script
Visual IRC Yes No ? ? ? Versus
WeeChat Yes Yes ? ? ? C, Perl, Python, Ruby, Lua, Tcl
XChat Yes Yes Yes Yes ? 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. ^ Supported as of version 20050921
  3. ^ 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.
  4. ^ Planned in version 0.8

See also

References

  1. ^ Bouma, Mike (August 19, 2002). "Classic AmigaOS Emulation - A Guide for WinUAE". OS News. Retrieved March 24, 2010.
  2. ^ Sallin, Nicolas. "AmIRC". www.biclodon.com. Retrieved March 24, 2010.
  3. ^ "mIRC: Register mIRC". Retrieved 2009-07-14.
  4. ^ "Khaled's Nutshell: Frequently Asked Questions". Archived from the original on 2008-02-13. Retrieved 2009-07-14.
  5. ^ "XChat for Windows". Retrieved 2010-11-27.
  6. ^ "ChatZilla :: Versions :: Add-ons for Firefox". Retrieved 2016-11-11.
  7. ^ Mc Cormack, Shane (January 25, 2013). "DMDirc 0.7". Retrieved 2013-05-08.
  8. ^ "Irssi 1.4.4 Released". 31 March 2023. Retrieved 3 May 2023.
  9. ^ "Release Notes – Linkinus". Conceited Software. Retrieved 2011-03-02.
  10. ^ "mIRC: Latest News". mirc.com. Retrieved 2024-07-12.
  11. ^ "Nettalk - www.ntalk.de - IRC-Client". Retrieved 2013-03-23.
  12. ^ "Thanks for downloading Opera". Opera Norway. Retrieved 21 June 2023.
  13. ^ "Thanks for downloading Opera". Opera Norway. Retrieved 21 June 2023.
  14. ^ "Index of /ftp/pub/opera/desktop/100.0.4815.21/". Opera Norway. Retrieved 21 June 2023.
  15. ^ "Snak - IRC for Mac". Retrieved 2012-03-11.
  16. ^ https://sourceforge.net/projects/visualirc/files/ViRC/2.0pl2/
  17. ^ "Version 4.4.0". weechat.org. Retrieved 2024-08-17.
  18. ^ a b c See "INSTALL" included with BitchX "SourceForge: BitchX files". Retrieved 2009-09-18.
  19. ^ "WeeChat cygwin". Retrieved 2009-09-18.
  20. ^ a b "LimeChat". Retrieved 2009-09-18.
  21. ^ Requires Mac OS X v10.4.3 or later
  22. ^ Requires Windows XP Service Pack 2 or later
  23. ^ "Nettalk: Download". Retrieved 2009-10-09.
  24. ^ "ReactOS compatibility database: Opera". Retrieved 2010-01-05.
  25. ^ a b "WeeChat: Supported OS". Retrieved 2009-09-18.
  26. ^ "X-Chat README". Retrieved 2009-09-18.
  27. ^ "mircv6: IPv6 support for mIRC". Retrieved 2009-07-14.
  28. ^ "Using SSL with mIRC". Retrieved 2009-07-14.
  29. ^ "mIRC SSL How-to". Retrieved 2009-07-14.
  30. ^ Requires the OpenSSL library[28][29]
  31. ^ "mircv6: IPv6 support for mIRC". Retrieved 2009-07-14.
  32. ^ "Changelog for Opera 9.0 for Windows". Retrieved 2009-07-14.
  33. ^ "Mozilla ChatZilla: Bugzilla Bug 285630: chatzilla does not support resume for dcc downloads". 2009-02-20. Retrieved 2009-07-14.
  34. ^ "DCC Resume protocol". Retrieved 2009-07-14.
  35. ^ "SysReset mIRC FileServer". Retrieved 2009-07-14.
  36. ^ "XChat: Scripts + Plugins". Retrieved 2009-07-14.

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