Add to Chrome
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Add to SafariWhen comparing Jitsi vs Pidgin, the Slant community recommends Jitsi for most people. In the question“What are the best Skype alternatives?” Jitsi is ranked 2nd while Pidgin is ranked 12th. The most important reason people chose Jitsi is:
Project available on github for anyone to contribute to or use.
Specs
Question Ranking
Pros
Pro Open-source
Project available on github for anyone to contribute to or use.
Pro Cross platform
Mac, Windows & Linux availability.
Pro Video calls
Pro OMEMO encryption without plugin
Secure Jabber Texting, better than legacy sms texting.
Pro Supports SIP accounts
well implemented SIP SIMPLE (texting), SIP presence, XCAP.
Pro Supports XEP-0016 and privacy Lists
Jabber Texting apps without Privacy Lists are WOEFULLY deficient.
Pro Encryption out of the box
Encryption for chat, desktop sharing, and web confrencing available.
Pro Support for a wide range of additional chat services
Pidgin not only supports IRC, it also supports plenty of other services such as AIM, Google Talk, MSN, ICQ and plenty of others. This way, you can have all of your conversations in the same app and won't have to deal with multiple chat windows being open.
Pro Free and open source
Pidgin and its code is completely free and open source. Pidgin has no ads and no features behind a paywall.
Pro Cross platform
The Pidgin instant messaging client is cross platform, working on Linux, Windows and OSX.
Pro Convenient notification features
Like other quality IRC clients, Pidgin features notifications that the user can set in order to have a variety of things happen when the users is mentioned, such as an audio cue or changing the system tray icon.
Pro Highly customisable with plugins
Pidgin not only has a large plugin library built-in, but also an array of third party plugins for a variety of functions.
Cons
Con Crashes on MacOS Monterey
Con Abandoned Android development
They switched focus to Jitsi Meet client for Android.
Con Uses Java
Not a native app, takes awhile to load.
Con Gui not as slick or streamlined as competitors
Con Miserable IRC font controls (as of 2.13.0.17)
Does its best to avoid putting sensible default font controls in any place where you can get to it. And when it does grudgingly change it, based on system preferences (not local preferences), it does so in an inconsistent and unpredictable fashion.
Con No native VoIP support
While there are plugins there is no built in support for VoIP in Pidgin which is time consuming to implement instead of being baked in from the jump.
