When comparing CIRC 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 CIRC is ranked 26th. 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 "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.
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 Development stopped
The latest release of XChat was in 2010. An active fork is HexChat.