When comparing Communi vs ii, the Slant community recommends ii for most people. In the question“What are the best IRC clients for UNIX-like systems?” ii is ranked 9th while Communi is ranked 14th. The most important reason people chose ii is:
ii is a minimalist FIFO and filesystem-based IRC client. It creates an irc directory tree with server, channel and nick name directories. In every directory a FIFO in file and a normal out file is created. The in file is used to communicate with the servers and the out files contain the server messages. For every channel and every nick name there are related in and out files created. This allows IRC communication from command line and adheres to the Unix philosophy.
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Pros
Pro Elegant and minimalist interface
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.
Pro Good ZNC integration
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.
Pro UI runs on multiple platforms
While Communi itself is a IRC framework, the project offers several UI implementations such as desktop, SailfishOS, Meego and Symbian.
Pro Quassel protocol implementation
Communi is integrated with Quassel.
Pro Event merging
Consequent events (joins, parts, quits etc.) are merged to reduce noise and to keep focus on the discussion.
Pro Everything is a file
ii is a minimalist FIFO and filesystem-based IRC client. It creates an irc directory tree with server, channel and nick name directories. In every directory a FIFO in file and a normal out file is created.
The in file is used to communicate with the servers and the out files contain the server messages. For every channel and every nick name there are related in and out files created. This allows IRC communication from command line and adheres to the Unix philosophy.
Cons
Con No DCC
Communi does not support DCC (for a reason)
Con No scripting
Communi has no support for scripts