When comparing IRCCloud vs XChat, the Slant community recommends XChat for most people. In the question“What are the best IRC clients for Windows?” XChat is ranked 10th while IRCCloud is ranked 15th. The most important reason people chose XChat is:
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.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Inline media
IRCCloud has the ability to embed pictures, youtube videos, vines, etc straight within the chat window.
Pro Can stay connected while user is absent
IRCCloud offers an option to keep idling in a channel even when the user is not connected. This way no conversations or mentions will be missed while away.
Pro Drag and drop filesharing
Files can be shared simply by dragging and dropping them into a channel. They will be hosted on IRCCloud's servers and linked.
Pro Simple interface
IRCCloud has a simple two-pane interface with a chat window on the left and server and channel lists on the right. It includes colorized nicknames to easier tell users apart and allows customizing details such as clock format, usermode symbols and alerts.
Pro Pastebin integration
IRCCloud will suggest putting long snippets of text on pastebin and link that instead of flooding the channel.
Pro Free tier
While IRCCloud is generally a subscription service, a limited free tier is available. It's limited to 2 external IRC networks besides irc.irccloud.com, accounts get disconnected after 2h while no frontend is used (does not apply for the first 7 days) and 100MB file sharing limit as well as it lacks a number of team and enterprise oriented features.
Pro Native emoji support
Pro Cloud saving of logs
Never lose logs again, IRCCloud keeps them backed up and can email a zip of them to you on request.
Pro BNC by default
All other irc clients are only connected to the network as long as you are online. IRCCloud provides a bouncer by default, i.e. an irc proxy that maintains your presence and logs all chat. Said BNC remains online for 3 hours by default, papering over connectivity losses, or for a small fee of 4€ per month, you can remain online forever (good for travels and such).
Pro Private servers for teams
Pro Amazing mobile app
Available on android and apple stores. It's just as good as the desktop client, comparable with discord though not as fully featured, being IRC.
Pro Prototype web wrapper client
There is a primitive, but consistently updated web wrapper that can act as a desktop client available on github. They don't exactly publicize it, but it is being actively developed all the same. It will likely evolve into a full-featured dedicated desktop client in time.
Pro Takes security seriously
Offers bounties for reporting security bugs through HackerOne.
Pro Custom authentication support for enterprises
Pro On-premises hosting for enterprises
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.
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.
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.
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.
Cons
Con Lack of bold, strikethrough, italic and color codes
This seems like something that should have been obvious.
Con Potential for networks blocking IRCCloud's connections
Since IRCCloud acts as a bouncer with all user connections coming from the same IP range, IRCCloud might be shut off from a network once a network's session limit is reached.
Con Development stopped
The latest release of XChat was in 2010. An active fork is HexChat.