WeeChat vs Communi

WeeChat has a command line interface.

WeeChat has an easy to use interface and sane defaults, making it a great client for beginner users.

Easy to configure weechat connect to server using certificates

Many dotfiles are publicly available.

Weechat allows very flexible window splitting behavior to show multiple IRC channels at once. Windows can be split vertically and horizontally.

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.

Supports scripting in C, Python, Perl, Ruby, Lua, Tcl, Scheme and Javascript.

Works perfectly with a poor connection.

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.

WeeChat is a free program licensed under GPL with source code available on GitHub.

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.

Weechat community can be found on #weechat @ Freenode. The community, including devs, is helpful in answering any WeeChat related questions.

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

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.

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

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.

You are able to modify configurations inside application or via modifying files(i.e. colors).

WeeChat has html5, qt, android, emacs and javascript remote interface options.

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

Communi user interface for desktop and mobile is minimal, which helps you focus on the task at hand instead of being distracted by extra UI elements.

The author is involved in ZNC development, so the latest ZNC goodies are guaranteed to be well supported (http://communi.github.io/znc/). With help of the documented ZNC modules, Communi retains its state well across sessions. No repetitive buffer playback on reconnect, notifications and banners for newly received messages only, queries stay open until closed etc.

While Communi itself is a IRC framework, the project offers several UI implementations such as desktop, SailfishOS, Meego and Symbian.

Communi is integrated with Quassel.

Consequent events (joins, parts, quits etc.) are merged to reduce noise and to keep focus on the discussion.