What are the best IRC clients for UNIX-like systems?

Question

LinuxSoftwareChatUnixIRCBSDUnix-like

What are the best IRC clients for UNIX-like systems?

21

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Considered

379

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Jan 6, 2024

Last
Updated

20 Options Considered

Best IRC clients for UNIX-like systems	Price	SSL	Multi-server
59 HexChat	-	Yes	Yes
55 WeeChat	-	-	-
50 IRSSI	-	-	-
-- Quassel	-	Yes	Yes
40 Konversation	-	-	-

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score 77 · Answer 1

HexChat

Top Pro

Works for any level of user

HexChat is an advanced IRC client that is good for beginners as well as those users who like to get under the hood. It is easy to get up and running, but has all the advanced features that a power user would need. See More

Top Con

Setup not dead simple

FantasticKupala's Experience

I love how easy to navigate through it, and over all its just good to get the over. See More

Specs

Top Pro

Actively developed

GitHub repository shows active development. See More

Top Con

Bad character support

Writing normal apostrophes and certain characters is not possible without a certain plugin installed. Additionally, it does not render all glyphs like most other programs would. See More

RobustEriu's Experience

Depends on unmaintained library GTK2 which has been EOL for years See More

Top Pro

Great interface

HexChat's default interface is clear, well-organized and intuitive. Channels can be laid out as both tabs and in a tree structure. All components such as user lists, topics bar or even menu bar can be hidden to provide a clean way to interact. Conversely the interface can be configured to show quick access buttons for changing channel flags, sending files or performing operator actions. See More

SuccinctVicaPota's Experience

amazing See More

Top Pro

Free and open source

HexChat is available as a free download with source code licensed under GPL v2 and available on GitHub. See More

Ajay Kumar Rawani's Experience

Awesome ! See More

Top Pro

Simple, clear interface

HexChat's default interface is clear, well-organized and intuitive. Channels can be laid out as both tabs and in a tree structure. All components such as user lists, topics bar or even menu bar can be hidden to provide a clean way to interact. Conversely the interface can be configured to show quick access buttons for changing channel flags, sending files or performing operator actions. See More

Top Pro

Highly customizable look

While most clients allow changing the theme or style of a window, HexChat gives complete control over what it looks like. It's possible to set a custom image as the background, changing font, or syntax colors. See More

Top Pro

Available in multiple languages

HexChat has either complete or partial translations in over 50 languages. See More

Top Pro

Functionality can be extended with plugins and scripts

HexChat has a great list of plugins and scripts and is compatible with most XChat plugins. XChats library is incredibly extensive. There is a wide range of both useful and fun plugins. It's possible to add an RSS feed or play a game of chess. Or maybe you want to control an mp3 player via chat while translating everything you type to l33t speek. See More

Top Pro

Excellent documentation

Hexchat has well-organized, extensive documentation that covers everything from a basic Getting Started guide to enabling Spell Check, connecting to Twitch chat or using Tor. See More

Top Pro

Highly scriptable

HexChat supports scripting in Perl and Python. Both languages can be used to extend functionality of the software - bots can be written, automation can be added, new dialogs can be created. See More

See All

score 101 · Answer 2

WeeChat

Top Pro

Terminal-based

WeeChat has a command line interface. See More

Top Con

No official GUI option

While there are some unofficial remote graphical interfaces available for WeeChat, it is intended to be used as a terminal client. As such it might be challenging to use to those accustomed to graphical interfaces. See More

DeterminedAdephagia's Experience

Wonderful See More

Specs

License:GPLv3

Proxy server:Yes

Top Pro

Accessible to less expert users out of the box

WeeChat has an easy to use interface and sane defaults, making it a great client for beginner users. See More

Top Con

Scripting API allows poorly written scripts to be used as attack vectors

Plugin documentation includes the following warning: In many functions, for speed reasons, WeeChat does not check if your pointer is correct or not. It’s your job to check you’re giving a valid pointer, otherwise you may see a nice crash report ;) See More

Top Pro

Builtin SSL support

Easy to configure weechat connect to server using certificates See More

Top Pro

Highly customizable and configurable

Many dotfiles are publicly available. See More

Top Pro

Flexible window splitting

Weechat allows very flexible window splitting behavior to show multiple IRC channels at once. Windows can be split vertically and horizontally. See More

Top Pro

Fully keyboard driven

Weechat can be fully driven by keyboard shortcuts. Navigating between buffers, switching between windows and changing text styling can all be achieved with keyboard shortcuts. See More

Top Pro

Extensible via plugins and scripts

Supports scripting in C, Python, Perl, Ruby, Lua, Tcl, Scheme and Javascript. See More

Top Pro

Persistent connection

Works perfectly with a poor connection. See More

Top Pro

Smart filtering

Smart filtering lets set a series of rules for IRC channels. For example, it allows instructing the client to show /quit and /join messages only if the user was speaking in the last 20 minutes. See More

Top Pro

Free and open source

WeeChat is a free program licensed under GPL with source code available on GitHub. See More

Top Pro

Can act as a relay for mobile client

It's possible to leave WeeChat running at home/on a server, then connect to it with a smartphone client. This way a choppy mobile internet connection won't disconnect from IRC, and still allow using a touch screen optimized UI. See More

Top Pro

Active and helpful community support

Weechat community can be found on #weechat @ Freenode. The community, including devs, is helpful in answering any WeeChat related questions. See More

Top Pro

Built-in script manager

WeeChat has a built-in tool for searching, downloading, installing and updating scripts and plugins. See More

Top Pro

Intuitive, detail-oriented interface

By default WeeChat has a chat area surrounded by a nicklist on the right, title bar on top, and status and input bars at the bottom. The layout, though, can be completely customized and split vertically or horizontally. It supports 256 colors as long as the terminal supports 256 colors as well as bolded, italicized and underlined text. Even includes little touches as differently colored nicknames for people /away. See More

Top Pro

Huge library of scripts

WeeChat scripts repository has hundreds of scripts including url shorteners, music player integrations and bandwidth monitors. See More

Top Pro

Mouse support

Mouse click and gestures are supported on a local terminal as well as remote terminal accessed via ssh regardless of screen/tmux. To enable mouse support use /mouse enable command or press alt+m. See More

Top Pro

Easy to customize

You are able to modify configurations inside application or via modifying files(i.e. colors). See More

Top Pro

Actively developed

Top Pro

Offers a choice of remote interfaces

WeeChat has html5, qt, android, emacs and javascript remote interface options. See More

Top Pro

Incremental text search

Text is searched through in real time as search terms are being written. See More

See All

score 36 · Answer 3

IRSSI

Top Pro

Terminal-based

Screen multiplexing and remote connection options with screen or tmux. See More

Top Con

No GUI

Actually a plus for some, lower memory overhead. See More

ResponsibleTellumo's Experience

I needed something that would work from iPhone, so I set up a vps with irssi running, and it works great over ssh. I read the getting started documentation on irssi.org and was set up in like 5 minutes. See More

Top Pro

Themes

Allows the modification of IRSSI's look and feel. See More

Top Con

Gives little direction upfront

Actually, Irssi.org has it's own GREAT documentation for new irssi users. Inline /help options are pretty well documented. See More

Top Pro

Free and open-source

Top Con

Cryptic configuration files

Top Pro

Quick and easy setup

3 or 4 commands and you're ready to chat with all your old friends. See More

Top Pro

Perl scripting

Allows the user to create and use perl scripts to perform actions. See More

Top Pro

Command line outputs can be sent to a channel or message

/exec -o figlet "Slant.co" See More

Top Pro

Easy logging

Top Pro

Persistent connection

Top Pro

Has a plugin for encrypted communications

See All

score 13 · Answer 4

Quassel

Top Pro

Persistent Connection

Quassel can run as a client for a quassel core (server) which maintains permanent connections with IRC servers. This allows you to log into the quassel core and retrieve backlogs and notifications that you missed while away. See More

Top Con

File transfers not implemented

EmbiggenedPhobos's Experience

Miserable waste of time attempting to get to do anything, with documentation that implies it's easily set up, and yet a reality that suggests just the opposite. The "Core" is described as an essential part of the application but has curiously little documentation compared to the rest of it. Videos show it being installed by command line and immediately connecting to IRC servers. Well, that's just not how it worked in my experience. Repeated "connection refused" errors. Other IRC clients work fine, so what's wrong with this one? I liked the alleged feature set and the look of things but if it's this impossible to get it to do anything on IRC, maybe those are overblown too. See More

Specs

Top Pro

Solid Android app

Quassel Android application is available on the Play Store. See More

Top Pro

Client / Server model

Top Pro

Cross Platform

See All

score 26 · Answer 5

Konversation

Top Pro

Regularly maintained

Konversation is still being updated with new features and bug fixes. Konversation 1.5(released January 15, 2014) has added plenty of major features. See More

Top Con

Updating to a new version overwrites configuration settings

Colors, fonts and autojoin behaviors may be customizable, but backing up the settings prior to updating the software is imperative. See More

IntuitiveBoinayel's Experience

Very professional UI design direct channel jump functions, bookmarks See More

Specs

License:GPLv2

Top Pro

Notifications

Konversation has an OSD(On Screen Display) feature that gives you an overlay message anytime your nick is mentioned. This means you won't be interrupted from your work and reduces the need to keep the window open. See More

Top Con

Crashes when trying to download search results (on Ubuntu 16.04)

Top Pro

Plenty of useful smaller features

Koversation is full of features to make IRC simpler and smoother. It comes with tools like a channel bookmarker, the ability to insert special characters easily and the "URL catcher", which gives quick access to any links mentioned in the channel. See More

Top Pro

Quick Buttons

The Quick Buttons features allows you to set a button to any IRC command that you frequently use. It has several defaults such as whois, and kick but a button can be created for any command you need. See More

Top Pro

Very professional UI design

See All

score 21 · Answer 6

Pidgin

Top Pro

Support for a wide range of additional chat services

Pidgin not only supports IRC, it also supports plenty of other services such as AIM, Google Talk, MSN, ICQ and plenty of others. This way, you can have all of your conversations in the same app and won't have to deal with multiple chat windows being open. See More

Top Con

Miserable IRC font controls (as of 2.13.0.17)

Does its best to avoid putting sensible default font controls in any place where you can get to it. And when it does grudgingly change it, based on system preferences (not local preferences), it does so in an inconsistent and unpredictable fashion. See More

HonestFuxi's Experience

Icon sits at page edge and alerts on monitored messages. Works reliably. See More

Specs

License:GPL

Platforms:Windows, Linux

Media:Video send/receive, Images

Message history:Optional

See All Specs

Top Pro

Free and open source

Pidgin and its code is completely free and open source. Pidgin has no ads and no features behind a paywall. See More

Top Con

No native VoIP support

While there are plugins there is no built in support for VoIP in Pidgin which is time consuming to implement instead of being baked in from the jump. See More

SpiritedVanapagan's Experience

Poor GUI. See More

Top Pro

Cross platform

The Pidgin instant messaging client is cross platform, working on Linux, Windows and OSX. See More

HumbleFurrina's Experience

Good experiences with Pidgin PPC, but the current x86 version seems to have something against display fonts in IRC. When it does grudgingly change it, based on system preferences (not local preferences), it does so in an inconsistent fashion. Maybe if I fiddled around with it long enough, I could fix it, but it should work sensibly out of the box. See More

Top Pro

Convenient notification features

Like other quality IRC clients, Pidgin features notifications that the user can set in order to have a variety of things happen when the users is mentioned, such as an audio cue or changing the system tray icon. See More

Top Pro

Highly customisable with plugins

Pidgin not only has a large plugin library built-in, but also an array of third party plugins for a variety of functions. See More

See All

score 7 · Answer 7

KVIrc

Top Pro

Plenty of customization options

Top Con

Image

The banner on their home page looks like something from the seedy side of mid-2000's second life. Just makes it appear ridiculous and wierd. But it's a solid program. See More

Peter J. Mello's Experience

Far and away my favorite IRC client for Linux with great themes and logging options and activity pop-ups that route natively through KDE Plasma or GNOME. See More

Specs

Top Pro

Split view sets it apart

The ability to split the main window pane horizontally and separate server messages and commands from normal chat is beautiful. I don't know why all IRC clients don't do that. Really what sells me on this over Konversation, which is very clean, or Quassel which has a very nice chat monitor feature where you can split the window horizontally and have a pane that pulls just the chat from all channels which can be nice with how dead IRC can get. Aside from that it's nicely customizable and just works. Also it works with SASL and even has a setting to auto disconnect if SASL fails. See More

ArticulateVidarr's Experience

No other client gets near to it in terms of features and weirdness. You either love it or hate it. Biggest downside is that despite having an in-app IDE (!??!??), its native scripting language is even weirder than the application. If they weren't NIH about the scripting engine and just adopt something more common (python, lua, tcl, ruby, whatever) it would be way better. See More

Top Pro

Portable

KVIrc does not need to be installed. It can be kept on a flash drive and run from there. See More

Top Pro

Extensive documentation available

Help files and online resources show all of the feature and scripting capabilities. See More

Top Pro

Still active development

Despite what's been said, development has been continuing at a steady pace on version 4.3.1 and more recently 4.3.2. See More

See All

score 21 · Answer 8

XChat

Top Pro

Highly customizable look

While most clients allow changing the theme or style of a window, XChat gives complete control over what it looks like. It's possible to set a custom image as the background, changing font, or syntax colors. See More

Top Con

Development stopped

The latest release of XChat was in 2010. An active fork is HexChat. See More

Specs

License:GPL Proprietary

Top Pro

Works for any level of user

XChat is an advanced IRC client that is good for beginners as well as those users who like to get under the hood. It is easy to get up and running, but has all the advanced features that a power user would need. See More

Top Pro

Excellent Plugin Library

XChat has a great list of plugins and scripts. Most quality IRC clients support plugins but XChats library is incredibly extensive. There is a wide range of both useful and fun plugins. It's possible to add an RSS feed or play a game of chess. Or maybe you want to control an mp3 player via chat while translating everything you type to l33t speek. XChats Plugin Library is truly extensive. See More

Top Pro

Great interface

XChat's default interface is clear, well-organized and intuitive. Channels can be laid out as both tabs and in a tree structure. All components such as user lists, topics bar or even menu bar can be hidden to provide a clean way to interact. Conversely the interface can be configured to show quick access buttons for changing channel flags, sending files or performing operator actions. See More

See All

score 4 · Answer 9

ii

Top Pro

Everything is a file

ii is a minimalist FIFO and filesystem-based IRC client. It creates an irc directory tree with server, channel and nick name directories. In every directory a FIFO in file and a normal out file is created. The in file is used to communicate with the servers and the out files contain the server messages. For every channel and every nick name there are related in and out files created. This allows IRC communication from command line and adheres to the Unix philosophy. See More

score 4 · Answer 10

The Lounge

Top Pro

Free

Top Con

Server, not an application

This is a server, not an application, so there's that extra bit of overhead. See More

Specs

Top Pro

Highly maintained

You can see the activity here. For example 62 pull requests were merged from 2018-02-17 to 2018-02-24. See More

Top Con

Uses NodeJS

Javascript... See More

Top Pro

Hosted on the web

Always up. See More

See All

score 7 · Answer 11

Polari

Top Con

Some advanced features are lacking

Polari's users will find some advanced features lacking, such as Direct Client-to-Client (DCC). See More

Top Pro

Great UI

The CSD-based UI is great to look at. No screen space goes entirely wasted and is presented neatly. See More

DiligentSunWukong's Experience

Lacks ability to provide authentication to common bounces like ZNC, authors have shown no movement on requests in several years. See More

Top Con

May seem too simple

Unlike Hexchat or other alternatives, it does not expose much of its functionality though some of it might really be present. See More

Top Pro

Easy to use

Polari is very straight forward to use. See More

Top Pro

GNOME-Integration

Polari integrates nice with GNOME, on a visual and technical level. It uses GNOME online accounts and runs empathy in the background. See More

See All

score 2 · Answer 12

Communi

Top Pro

Elegant and minimalist interface

Communi user interface for desktop and mobile is minimal, which helps you focus on the task at hand instead of being distracted by extra UI elements. See More

Top Con

No DCC

Communi does not support DCC (for a reason) See More

Top Pro

Good ZNC integration

The author is involved in ZNC development, so the latest ZNC goodies are guaranteed to be well supported (http://communi.github.io/znc/). With help of the documented ZNC modules, Communi retains its state well across sessions. No repetitive buffer playback on reconnect, notifications and banners for newly received messages only, queries stay open until closed etc. See More

Top Con

No scripting

Communi has no support for scripts See More

Top Pro

UI runs on multiple platforms

While Communi itself is a IRC framework, the project offers several UI implementations such as desktop, SailfishOS, Meego and Symbian. See More

Top Pro

Quassel protocol implementation

Communi is integrated with Quassel. See More

Top Pro

Event merging

Consequent events (joins, parts, quits etc.) are merged to reduce noise and to keep focus on the discussion. See More

See All

score 1 · Answer 13

irc.c

Top Pro

Single server

Each instance of the client can only connect to one server and then you can join multiple channels with the join command. Example: "irc -s irc.freenode.net", then "j #lua" and "j #chicken" See More

Top Con

Documentation

Its website and README do not give enough information about shortcuts and commands. You have to look those things up in the source file. See More

Top Pro

Open-source

The source code (a single C file) is under public domain. See More

Top Pro

Infinite scrollback

You can move up and down the history with the "Page Up" and "Page Down" keys. See More

Top Pro

Automatic reconnection

It automatically connects you back if you happen to get disconnected. See More

See All

score 3 · Answer 14

KISS for IRC (kirc)

Top Pro

portable

written in POSIX C99 See More

Specs

License:MIT

SSL:Yes

SASL:Yes

Platforms:Linux, Windows (WSL), MacOS

See All Specs

20 Options Considered

My Recommendation for HexChat

My Recommendation for HexChat

Works for any level of user

Setup not dead simple

Actively developed

Bad character support

Great interface

Free and open source

Simple, clear interface

Highly customizable look

Available in multiple languages

Functionality can be extended with plugins and scripts

Excellent documentation

Highly scriptable

My Recommendation for WeeChat

My Recommendation for WeeChat

Terminal-based

No official GUI option

Accessible to less expert users out of the box

Scripting API allows poorly written scripts to be used as attack vectors

Builtin SSL support

Highly customizable and configurable

Flexible window splitting

Fully keyboard driven

Extensible via plugins and scripts

Persistent connection

Smart filtering

Free and open source

Can act as a relay for mobile client

Active and helpful community support

Built-in script manager

Intuitive, detail-oriented interface

Huge library of scripts

Mouse support

Easy to customize

Actively developed

Offers a choice of remote interfaces

Incremental text search

My Recommendation for IRSSI

My Recommendation for IRSSI

Terminal-based

No GUI

Themes

Gives little direction upfront

Free and open-source

Cryptic configuration files

Quick and easy setup

Perl scripting

Command line outputs can be sent to a channel or message

Easy logging

Persistent connection

Has a plugin for encrypted communications

My Recommendation for Quassel

My Recommendation for Quassel

Persistent Connection

File transfers not implemented

Solid Android app

Client / Server model

Cross Platform

My Recommendation for Konversation

My Recommendation for Konversation

Regularly maintained

Updating to a new version overwrites configuration settings

Notifications

Crashes when trying to download search results (on Ubuntu 16.04)

Plenty of useful smaller features

Quick Buttons

Very professional UI design

My Recommendation for Pidgin

My Recommendation for Pidgin

Support for a wide range of additional chat services

Miserable IRC font controls (as of 2.13.0.17)

Free and open source

No native VoIP support

Cross platform

Convenient notification features

Highly customisable with plugins

My Recommendation for KVIrc

My Recommendation for KVIrc