What are the best command line IRC clients?

Question

6

Options
Considered

25

User
Recs.

Aug 14, 2022

Last
Updated

Here’s the Deal

4 Options Considered

Best command line IRC clients	Price	License	Proxy server
-- WeeChat	-	GPLv3	Yes
-- Irssi	-	-	-
-- ERC	-	-	-
-- KISS for IRC (kirc)	-	MIT	-

See Full List

ERC

Add Video or Image

Sublime Text

See flagged products

I Recommend...

Built By the Slant team

Find the best product instantly.

4.7 star rating

Try it now - it's free

score 8 · Answer 1

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

Specs

License:GPLv3

Proxy server:Yes

Top Pro

Light and extensible

WeeChat is designed to be light and extensible: a lightweight core with optional plugins. 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

Built-in script manager

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

Interactive configuration plugin

With /fset you can easily customise weechat. 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

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

Highly customisable buffer plugin

Buflist plugin to display buffers. See More

Top Pro

Incremental text search

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

Huge library of scripts

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

Highly customizable and configurable

With many dotfiles that 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

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 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

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

See All

score 8 · Answer 2

Irssi

Top Pro

Has a plugin for encrypted communications

Top Con

Cryptic configuration files

Top Pro

Free and open-source

Top Con

Gives little direction upfront

Top Pro

Command line outputs can be sent to a channel or message

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

Top Pro

Persistent Connection

Top Pro

Terminal-based

Top Pro

Can be upgraded without losing connection

Upgrading your Irssi client to the latest version can be easily done without losing the connections to the IRC servers and without restarting Irssi. See More

Top Pro

Perl Scripting

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

Top Pro

Themes

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

See All

score 1 · Answer 3

KISS for IRC (kirc)

Top Pro

Lightweight

Kiss is smaller than 1 MB. See More

Specs

License:MIT

Platforms:Linux, Windows (WSL), MacOS

SSL:Yes

SASL:Yes

See All Specs

Top Pro

Fast

Kiss is written in C99. See More

See All

Answer 4

What are the best command line IRC clients?

4 Options Considered

WeeChat

My Recommendation for WeeChat

My Recommendation for WeeChat

Terminal-based

No official GUI option

Light and extensible

Fully keyboard driven

Built-in script manager

Can act as a relay for mobile client

Interactive configuration plugin

Extensible via plugins and scripts

Mouse support

Highly customisable buffer plugin

Incremental text search

Active and helpful community support

Huge library of scripts

Free and open source

Highly customizable and configurable

Flexible window splitting

Accessible to less expert users out of the box

Smart filtering

Intuitive, detail-oriented interface

Irssi

My Recommendation for Irssi

My Recommendation for Irssi

Has a plugin for encrypted communications

Cryptic configuration files

Free and open-source

Gives little direction upfront

Command line outputs can be sent to a channel or message

Persistent Connection

Terminal-based

Can be upgraded without losing connection

Perl Scripting

Themes

ERC

My Recommendation for ERC

My Recommendation for ERC

KISS for IRC (kirc)

My Recommendation for KISS for IRC (kirc)

My Recommendation for KISS for IRC (kirc)

Lightweight

Fast

Don't see your favorite option? Add it.

Sublime Text

My Recommendation for Sublime Text

My Recommendation for Sublime Text

V-eConnect+ app

My Recommendation for V-eConnect+ app

My Recommendation for V-eConnect+ app

One sec!