When comparing Fluid vs AstraChat, the Slant community recommends AstraChat for most people. In the question“What are the best Jabber/XMPP clients for Mac OS X?” AstraChat is ranked 4th while Fluid is ranked 6th.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Webchat webapp services are connected to more protocols than desktop apps on the mac
Pro Separate webchat from your webbrowser
Pro Direct connect
Pro Secure
Messages are received from clients using secured (TLS or SSL) XMPP (jabber) protocol.
Pro Network efficient
AstraChat is tuned to make very efficient use of the network connection and processor so you can be confident that it will use very little of your battery or data allowance.
Pro Supports a lot of protocol
- RFC-3920:Core
- RFC-3921:Instant Messaging and Presence
- XEP-0012 Last Activity
- XEP-0016 Privact lists
- XEP-0054 VCARD-temp
- XEP-0085 Chat State Notifications
- XEP-0153 vCard-Based Avatars
- XEP-0172 User Nickname
- XEP-0184 Message delivery receipts
- XEP-0191 Blocking commands
- XEP-0198 Stream Management
- XEP-0199 XMPP Ping
- XEP-0176: Jingle ICE-UDP
- XEP-0136: Message Archiving
- XEP-0045: Multi-User Chat
Cons
Con Video chat will not work with FB Messenger
Even though the fluid app is supposedly a full blown browser, video chat on FB Messenger does not work within the Fluid App.
Con Hacky
Hacky solution for a lack of better desktop clients. Some webapps may behave strangely/ be buggy.
Con No OTR service
Off-the-Record Messaging (OTR) is a cryptographic protocol that provides encryption for instant messaging conversations. Astrachat doesn't include this protocol, that it is often included in other XMPP services.