When comparing AdiIRC vs CIRC, the Slant community recommends AdiIRC for most people. In the question“What are the best IRC clients for Windows?” AdiIRC is ranked 3rd while CIRC is ranked 26th. The most important reason people chose AdiIRC is:
AdiIRC is constantly being developed and improved. It's among the most actively developed IRC clients nowadays, with a great beta team behind it. The [changelog](http://www.adiirc.com/changelog.php) shows multiple substantial releases every month.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Actively developed
AdiIRC is constantly being developed and improved. It's among the most actively developed IRC clients nowadays, with a great beta team behind it. The changelog shows multiple substantial releases every month.
Pro Nick Column
Nick Column feature support too.
Pro Free
It's a free IRC client supported by donations.
Pro It has all the needed features
It works perfectly with Windows 10, has all the needed functions like:
1 - handle all irc:// links.
2 - start with windows.
3 - start minimized.
4 - close to tray icon when pressing X(close button).
5 - it can open all the channels in one window or open each channel in new windows (it is up to you).
6 - tons of options to pick up from.
Pro Non-disruptive installation
Configurations, scripts and snippets are saved within the installation folder, allowing you to easily move them to a different installation. It also means that nothing is changed in your system.
Does not create registry keys.
Does not create any other folder than it's own on any other location.
Even when the installer is used, you can make it portable by just moving the folder around, don't need to worry about anything else.
Pro Receptive dev
Feature requests, suggestions and bug reports get prompt feedback.
Pro Portable
A portable version is also available in the download section. It can be run without installation allowing it to be run off of external devices such as USB sticks.
Pro Simple Layout or Complex Layout
You choose, Simple or Complex layout. Check the screenshots section in here.
Pro mIRC themes support
miRC themes also works well in AdiIRC.
Pro Now playing support for most popular media players
Supports Foobar2000, Winamp, QCDPlayer, iTunes, MusikCube, MediaMonkey, XMPlay, Spotify, VLC Media Player, Media Player Classic, MusicBee, PotPlayer and SMPlayer.
Pro MSL support
The vast majority of mIRC scripts/snippets work in AdiIRC, with compatibility constantly being improved.
Pro It has a notification window built-in
Unlike hexchat, which needs to manually add a script.
Pro Emoticons
Inline support for custom emotes and icons. Adding , removing or editing images replaces whole chat buffer tags in real time. AdiIRC makes your irc experience much more fun.
Pro Plugins support
Plugins support too, with certain scripting languages to write.
Pro Built-in spell checker
Spellcheck for over 120 different languages is available. Full list of languages can be found here.
Pro Interface localizations
The user interface has full internationalization support and the developer is quick to integrate translations created by users or other contributors. Currently, full translations are included with the standard installation for Danish, German, Polish and Brazilian Portuguese.
Pro Automatic updates
The application can be configured to search for available updates at user-defined intervals for both the Stable and Beta release channels, and provides a dialog which automatically retrieves the updated installer and launches it.
Pro Custom Modify Hotkeys
You can modify or add your own hotkeys to your desire function.
Pro Activity Monitors
You can monitor any event you like via a dockable panel that will record and optionally notify you upon detection of anything matching the set criteria.
Pro Theme Manager
The standard installer includes several standard color schemes to choose from, and it is possible from within the Options dialog to export any that you customize or create to share with others, or import those shared by others. The syntax of the file which defines them is well-documented and can be modified in any text editor if desired.
Pro Lightweight
The client weighs less than 1MB.
Low CPU usage. Almost no CPU usage, in fact...
Pro Ability to save themes, including custom icons into a single file
Pro First and only IRC client to reach full implementation of IRCv3 specification
IRC is still very much alive and the protocol specification continues to evolve with new features and standards developed and published by the IRCv3 Working Group. As part of their work, they track the adoption and implementation of the specification they publish, and they announced on their website that as of the release of AdiIRC v3.9 on September 30, 2020, it was the first IRC client they were aware of to correctly implement support for all of the features in the current IRCv3 spec. This was accomplished only five months after two of the major IRCd servers (InspIRCd and Oragono) had released versions implementing all of those same features.
Pro "One Identity" ability
Create a personal "bouncer" of sorts, using CIRC "/make-server" (/help make-server for more details) give you a connection so that you can using the same Ident/Nick from multiple devices.
Pro Mobile
Access it everywhere where Chrome is.
Pro Easy setup
Few clicks to install.
Cons
Con mSL is not fully compatible (yet)
The mSL (mIRC Scripting Language) is not fully compatible at the most of its engine functions (identifiers, commands, events).
Con Ugly defaults
Ugly defaults with only one theme preinstalled.
Con Bugs and Crashes
Because of its tons of features and options it may have crashes or bugs.
Con Bad proxy support
Supposedly supports proxies but it can be difficult to get it to work with some proxies. HexChat works with it, but not AdiIRC.
Con Unintuitive interface
If you come from a mIRC, Xchat or Hexchat background, the interface seems unfamiliar and complex.