Comparison of Internet Relay Chat clients

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The following tables compare general and technical information between a number of IRC client programs. Please see the individual products pages for more information. This page is does not include everything and may not be current.

General[change | change source]

Basic general information about the clients: creator/company, license/price etc. Clients listed on a light purple background are no longer in active development.

Client Primary developers Cost Software license User interface Programming language Computing platform
AmIRC Oliver Wagner, Jamie van den Berge Commercial Proprietary GUI C m68k, PowerPC
Bersirc Jamie Frater, Nicholas Copeland Free software GNU LGPL GUI C x86
BitchX Colten Edwards Free software BSD License TUI, GUI C x86
ChatZilla Free software MPL/GNU GPL/GNU LGPL tri-license GUI † JavaScript, XUL
Colloquy Timothy Hatcher, Kiji Roshi Desktop: Free software,
Mobile: Commercial		 Desktop: GNU GPL,
Mobile: BSD License		 GUI Objective-C PowerPC, x86 †, ARM (Mobile)
Conspire Free software GNU GPL TUI, GUI C x86
ERC Free software GNU GPL TUI Emacs Lisp
EPIC EPIC Software Labs Free software BSD License TUI C x86
HydraIRC Dominic Clifton Freeware Proprietary GUI C++ x86
IceChat Paul Vanderzee Freeware GNU GPL GUI C# x86
ircII Free software BSD License TUI C x86
IRCjr Michael Brutman Freeware Proprietary ? C++
Ircle Onno Tijdgat Commercial 30-day trial Proprietary GUI ? PowerPC, x86 †
Irssi Timo Sirainen Free software GNU GPL TUI C x86
Konversation Free software GNU GPL GUI C++ PowerPC, x86
KVIrc Szymon Stefanek Free software GNU GPL GUI C++ x86
LimeChat Satoshi Nakagawa Free software GNU GPL GUI RubyCocoa PowerPC, x86 †
Mibbit Jimmy Moore Textual Adbar Proprietary Web-based Javascript frontend,
Java backend		 N/A
mIRC Khaled Mardam-Bey Commercial, 30-day trial[1] Proprietary GUI C/C++ (originally Borland C++)[2] x86
Nettalk Nicolas Kruse Free software Apache License v2.0 TUI, GUI Visual Basic
Opera Freeware Proprietary GUI † C++
PIRCH Shareware Proprietary GUI ? x86
Quassel IRC Free software GNU GPL GUI † C++
ScrollZ Free software BSD License TUI C
Smuxi Mirco Bauer Free software GNU GPL TUI, † GUI † C# x86, x86-64
Snak Kent Sørensen Commercial Proprietary GUI ? PowerPC, x86 †
Visual IRC Free software GNU GPL GUI ? x86
WeeChat Sebastien Helleu Free software GNU GPL TUI, GUI † C x86
XChat UNIX/Linux: Free software, Windows: Commercial, 30-day trial GNU GPL TUI, GUI C x86
Client Primary developers Cost Software license User interface Programming language Computing platform
  • ^ Can be installed as part of a web browser
  • a b c d e Distributed as a Universal Binary
  • ^ Web browser component
  • a b c Separate client and daemon
  • ^ Not complete, proof of concept
  • ^ In development

Release history[change | change source]

A brief overview of the release history.

Client First public release First stable release Latest stable release
Date Version Date Version
0irc January 25, 2000 1.0 build 1 1.4.53  (April 3, 2007; 7 years ago (2007-04-03))
Aki 0.0.3  (November 4, 2009; 5 years ago (2009-11-04)[3])
AmIRC 1995 3.6.1  (July 14, 2012; 2 years ago (2012-07-14)[4])
Bersirc 1999 2.2.14  (August 12, 2005; 9 years ago (2005-08-12))
BitchX 1996 1.2-final  (January 1, 2013; 2 years ago (2013-01-01))
bnIRC 2004 1.1.2  (May 31, 2009; 5 years ago (2009-05-31))
ccorp-irc 2004 1.0  (January 27, 2004; 11 years ago (2004-01-27))
ChatZilla 2001 0.9.90.1  (July 7, 2013; 19 months ago (2013-07-07))
ClicksAndWhistles February 14, 2008 1.0 February 14, 2008 1.0 2.7.154  (January 24, 2012; 3 years ago (2012-01-24))
Colloquy 2005 2.4.2 (5815)  (May 20, 2013; 20 months ago (2013-05-20))
Conspire 2007 1.0.0  (October 8, 2009; 5 years ago (2009-10-08))
Coolsmile 2002 20120410 beta  (April 15, 2012; 2 years ago (2012-04-15))
DMDirc 2007 0.7  (January 5, 2013; 2 years ago (2013-01-05)[5])
dxirc 2008 1.00.0  (December 24, 2011; 3 years ago (2011-12-24))
EPIC 1994 5-1.1.4  (August 4, 2012; 2 years ago (2012-08-04))
HydraIRC 2002 0.3.165  (December 12, 2008; 6 years ago (2008-12-12))
IceChat 2002 9 RC7.2  (September 2, 2013; 17 months ago (2013-09-02))
ii 2006 1.6  (January 31, 2011; 4 years ago (2011-01-31)[6])
ircII 1990 20111115  (November 15, 2011; 3 years ago (2011-11-15))
IRCjr 2008 mTCP_2013-04-26  (April 26, 2013; 21 months ago (2013-04-26)[7])
Ircle 1995 3.5a6  (November 17, 2007; 7 years ago (2007-11-17))
Irssi 1999 0.8.15  (April 3, 2010; 4 years ago (2010-04-03))
jini 2002 2.2.0  (May 6, 2013; 21 months ago (2013-05-06))
Klient 1999 2.2.3  (January 3, 2009; 6 years ago (2009-01-03))
Konversation 2002 1.4  (4 December 2011; 3 years ago (2011-12-04)[8])
KoolChat 2.3  (February 24, 2009; 5 years ago (2009-02-24)[9])
KoroIRC 2004 0.3  (February 8, 2008; 7 years ago (2008-02-08))
KSirc 1997 1.3.12  (August 26, 2008; 6 years ago (2008-08-26))
KVIrc 1998 4.2.0  (July 3, 2012; 2 years ago (2012-07-03)[10])
LeetIRC 2006 1.1  (March 18, 2008; 6 years ago (2008-03-18)[11])
lightIRC 2008 0.9.9  (April 1, 2010; 4 years ago (2010-04-01))
LimeChat 2007 Mac OS X Mountain Lion / Lion

2.32  (July 30, 2012; 2 years ago (2012-07-30))

Mac OS X Snow Leopard
2.30  (January 20, 2012; 3 years ago (2012-01-20))
Linkinus 2007 2.4  (August 23, 2011; 3 years ago (2011-08-23)[12])
Mibbit 2008 web application, no version
mIRC 1995 7.32  (May 23, 2013; 20 months ago (2013-05-23)[13])
mzirc 2006 09.02  (February 7, 2009; 6 years ago (2009-02-07))
Neebly December 13, 2008 1.0.1 1.0.4  (February 28, 2009; 5 years ago (2009-02-28)[14])
Nettalk 2004 6.7.16  (October 30, 2012; 2 years ago (2012-10-30)[15])
nexIRC 2004 2.26  (February 27, 2007; 7 years ago (2007-02-27)[16])
Opera 1996 15.0.1147.141  (July 10, 2013; 19 months ago (2013-07-10))
Orion (IRC client) 1.0 1.8  (August 27, 2006; 8 years ago (2006-08-27))
OrnateIRC 2001 1.60  (May 18, 2003; 11 years ago (2003-05-18))
PhibianIRC 2005 1.7.7b2  (2009)
PIRCH 1995 1.0.1.1190  (December 31, 2000; 14 years ago (2000-12-31))
PJIRC 2002 2.2.1  (November 29, 2004; 10 years ago (2004-11-29))
Quassel IRC 2008 0.9.0  (May 13, 2013; 21 months ago (2013-05-13))
rxIRC February 14, 1991 2.1  (November 17, 1994; 20 years ago (1994-11-17)[17])
savIRC 2001 2.1.0  (March 13, 2007; 7 years ago (2007-03-13))
ScrollZ 1994 2.2.2  (April 30, 2012; 2 years ago (2012-04-30))
ShadowIRC 1996 1.1  (November 20, 2001; 13 years ago (2001-11-20))
Smuxi 2008 0.8.11  (May 22, 2013; 20 months ago (2013-05-22))
Snak 1997 5.3.4  (March 11, 2012; 2 years ago (2012-03-11)[18])
sushi IRC suite September 30, 2008 1.0-alpha1 April 26, 2009 1.0.0 1.2.1  (August 7, 2010; 4 years ago (2010-08-07))
ThrashIRC 2003 2.4  (October 16, 2010; 4 years ago (2010-10-16))
TurboIRC 1998 7.85  (April 29, 2009; 5 years ago (2009-04-29))
Visual IRC 1995 2.0pl2 (200/187)  (July 15, 2007; 7 years ago (2007-07-15))
Vortec IRC 2001 1.0.2  (September 27, 2009; 5 years ago (2009-09-27))
WeeChat 2003 0.3.8  (June 3, 2012; 2 years ago (2012-06-03)[19])
WookieChat 2004 2.11  (February 1, 2009; 6 years ago (2009-02-01))
XChat 1998 2.8.8 (source)  (May 30, 2010; 4 years ago (2010-05-30))
2.8.9 (windows)  (August 28, 2010; 4 years ago (2010-08-28))
XiRCON 1996 1.0B4  (August 10, 1997; 17 years ago (1997-08-10))
Client Date Version Date Version Latest stable release
First public release First stable release

Operating system support[change | change source]

The operating systems on which the clients can run natively (without emulation).

Client Windows 7, Vista XP, 2000 NT 4.0 NT 3.x Me, 98 95 3.1x ReactOS Mac OS X (Intel/PPC) OS 9 OS 8 System 7 (PPC/68k) BeOS, Haiku OS/2, eCS AmigaOS (68k) AmigaOS 4, MorphOS (PPC) DOS Other
0irc Yes Yes ? No ? ? No ? No No No No No No No No No
Aki Yes Yes No No No No No ? Partial No No No No No No No No
AmIRC No No No No No No No No No No No No No No Yes No No
Bersirc Yes Yes ? No ? ? No ? ? No No No No No No No No
BitchX Yes † Yes † Yes † No Yes † Yes † No ? Yes No No No ? Yes † No Yes No
bnIRC Yes † Yes † Yes † No Yes † Yes † No ? Yes No No No ? No No No No Palm OS
ccorp-irc ? ? ? ? ? ? No ? Yes ? ? No ? No No No No
ChatZilla Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes ? ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes No
ClicksAndWhistles Yes Yes ? No Yes No No ? No No No No No No No No No
Colloquy No No No No No No No No Yes † No No No No No No No No
Conspire Partial † Partial † ? No ? ? No ? Yes No No No No No No No No
Coolsmile Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No
DMDirc Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No
dxirc Yes Yes ? No ? ? No Yes Yes No No No ? Yes ? Yes No
EPIC Yes † Yes † Yes † No Yes † Yes † No ? Yes No No No ? ? ? ? No
HydraIRC Yes Yes Yes No Yes ? No ? No No No No No No No No No
IceChat Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes No ? No No No No No No No No No
ii ? ? ? No ? ? No ? Yes No No No ? No No No No
ircII Yes † Yes † Yes † No Yes † Yes † No ? Yes No No No No No No ? No
IRCjr No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No Yes
Ircle No No No No No No No No Yes † Yes Yes Yes No No No No No
Irssi Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes No ? Yes No No No Yes Yes ? Yes No
jini Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No
Klient Yes Yes † Yes † No Yes † Yes † No ? No No No No No No No No No
Konversation Partial Partial Partial No Partial Partial No ? Partial No No No No No No No No
KoolChat Yes Yes ? No ? ? No ? No No No No No No No No No
KoroIRC Yes Yes Yes † † No Yes † No No ? No No No No No No No No No
KSirc No No No No No No No No ? No No No No No No No No
KVIrc Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes No ? Yes No No No No No No No No
LeetIRC No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No Yes
lightIRC Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes No Yes Yes No No No No No No No No
LimeChat No No No No No No No No Yes † † No No No No No No No No
Linkinus No No No No No No No No Yes † No No No No No No No No
Mibbit Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
mIRC Yes Yes Yes Partial Yes Yes Partial ? No No No No No No No No No
mzirc Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes ? No No No No No No No No No
Neebly Yes Yes † No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No
Nettalk Yes Yes ? No Partial † No † No ? No No No No No No No No No
nexIRC Yes Yes No No No No No ? No No No No No No No No No
Opera Yes Yes ? No Yes Yes Dropped No[20] Yes Dropped Dropped No Dropped Dropped No No No
Orion (IRC client) Yes Yes No No No No No ? No No No No No No No No No
OrnateIRC ? Yes ? No ? ? No ? No No No No No No No No No
PhibianIRC Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes No ? No No No No No No No No No
PIRCH Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes ? No No No No No No No No No
PJIRC Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No
Quassel IRC Yes Yes ? No ? ? No ? Yes No No No No No No No No
rxIRC Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes VM/CMS
savIRC Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes ? ? Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? ? ? No
ScrollZ Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes No ? Yes No No No ? ? ? ? No
ShadowIRC No No No No No No No No ? Yes Yes ? No No No No No
Smuxi Yes Yes ? No ? ? No ? Yes No No No No No No No No
Snak No No No No No No No No Yes Yes Yes ? No No No No No
sushi IRC suite No No No No No No No No Yes No No No No No No No No
ThrashIRC Yes Yes ? No ? ? No ? No No No No No No No No No
TurboIRC Yes Yes ? No ? ? No ? No No No No No No No No No
Visual IRC Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes No ? No No No No No No No No No
Vortec IRC Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes No ? No No No No No No No No No
WeeChat Partial † † Partial † † Partial † † No Partial † † Partial † † No ? Yes No No No Partial No No No No
WookieChat No No No No No No No No No No No No No No Yes Yes No
x3irc Yes Yes ? No ? ? No ? No No No No No No No No No
XChat Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes No ? Yes No No No ? ? No No No
XiRCON ? ? Yes No Yes Yes No ? No No No No No No No No No
Client Windows 7, Vista XP, 2000 NT 4.0 NT 3.x Me, 98 95 3.1x ReactOS Mac OS X (Intel/PPC) OS 9 OS 8 System 7 (PPC/68k) BeOS, Haiku OS/2, eCS AmigaOS (68k) AmigaOS 4, MorphOS (PPC) DOS Other

Unix and Unix-like operating systems:

Unix (BSD): 386BSD, BSD/OS, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, SunOS, ULTRIX
Unix (System V): AIX, A/UX, HP-UX, IRIX, SCO UNIX, Solaris, UnixWare
Unix-like: Linux, NeXTSTEP, OpenVMS, OSF/1, QNX, Tru64 UNIX
Client 386BSD BSD/OS (BSD/386, BSDI) FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD SunOS ULTRIX AIX A/UX HP-UX IRIX SCO UNIX Solaris UnixWare Linux NeXTSTEP OpenVMS OSF/1 QNX Tru64 UNIX
0irc No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No
Aki ? ? Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Yes ? Yes ? ? ? ? ?
AmIRC No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No
Bersirc ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Yes ? No ? ? ?
BitchX ? Yes † Yes † Yes † Yes † Yes † ? Yes † Yes † ? Yes † ? Yes † ? ? Yes † Yes † ?
bnIRC ? ? Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Yes ? ? ? ? ?
ccorp-irc Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
ChatZilla ? ? Yes Yes ? Yes ? Yes Yes ? Yes ? Yes ? Yes ? Yes Yes
ClicksAndWhistles No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No
Colloquy No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No
Conspire ? ? Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Yes ? ? ? ? ?
Coolsmile ? ? Yes Yes ? Yes ? Yes Yes ? Yes ? Yes ? ? ? Yes Yes
DMDirc ? ? Yes Yes ? Yes ? Yes Yes ? Yes ? Yes ? ? ? Yes Yes
dxirc ? ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes ? ? Yes ? Yes
EPIC ? ? Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes ? ? Yes Yes Yes
HydraIRC No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No
IceChat No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No
ii ? ? Yes ? ? ? ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? Yes Yes
ircII Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes
IRCjr No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No
Ircle No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No
Irssi Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes
jini ? ? Yes Yes ? Yes ? Yes Yes ? Yes ? Yes ? ? ? Yes Yes
Klient No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No
Konversation ? ? Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Yes ? Yes ? ? ? ? Yes
KoolChat No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No
KoroIRC No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No
KSirc ? ? Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Yes ? Yes ? No ? ? ?
KVIrc ? ? Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Yes ? Yes ? ? ? ? ?
LeetIRC No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No
lightIRC ? ? Yes Yes ? Yes ? Yes Yes ? Yes ? Yes ? ? ? Yes Yes
LimeChat No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No
Linkinus No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No
Mibbit ? ? Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes ? ? Yes
mIRC No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No
mzirc No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No
Neebly No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No
Nettalk No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No
nexIRC No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No
Opera No No Yes No No No No No No No Yes No Yes No No No Dropped No
Orion (IRC client) No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No
OrnateIRC No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No
PhibianIRC No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No
PIRCH No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No
PJIRC ? ? Yes Yes ? Yes ? Yes Yes ? Yes ? Yes ? ? ? Yes Yes
Quassel IRC ? ? Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Yes ? Yes ? ? ? ? ?
rxIRC Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
savIRC ? ? Yes ? ? Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes ? ? ? Yes Yes
ScrollZ Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes
ShadowIRC No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No
Smuxi ? ? Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Yes ? Yes ? ? ? ? ?
Snak No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No
sushi IRC suite ? ? Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Yes ? Yes ? ? ? ? ?
ThrashIRC No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No
TurboIRC No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No
Visual IRC No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No
Vortec IRC No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No
WeeChat ? ? Yes † ? ? ? ? Yes Partial † ? Yes † ? Yes ? ? ? Yes † ?
WookieChat No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No
x3irc No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No
XChat ? ? Yes Yes ? Yes ? Yes † Yes ? Yes ? Yes ? ? ? ? Yes
XiRCON No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No
Client 386BSD BSD/OS (BSD/386, BSDI) FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD SunOS ULTRIX AIX A/UX HP-UX IRIX SCO UNIX Solaris UnixWare Linux NeXTSTEP OpenVMS OSF/1 QNX Tru64 UNIX
  • ^ BitchX is known to work on BSDI 2.0, 2.1, 3.1, 4.0; FreeBSD 2.x, 3.x, 4.0; NetBSD 3.x, 4.x; SunOS 4.1.4; Ultrix; AIX; HP-UX 9.x, 10.x; IRIX 5.x, 6.x; Solaris 5.x and later; Linux; OSF/1 (DEC Alpha); QNX[21]
  • ^ WeeChat tested on FreeBSD 4.11, 5.4, 6.0; NetBSD 2.0, 2.1; OpenBSD 3.6, 3.7, 3.8; Solaris 5.10; QNX 6.3[25]
  • ^ In development[25]
  • ^ XChat tested on HP-UX 10.20 and 11[29]

mIRC will run on *NIX systems under WINE - Confirmed

Protocol support[change | change source]

What IRC related protocols and standards are supported by each client.

Client CTCP DCC IPv6 SSL TLS OCSP CRL
0irc Yes Yes No No No No No
Aki Yes ? Yes Yes ? ? ?
AmIRC ? Yes No No ? ? ?
Bersirc ? Partial No No ? ? ?
BitchX Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? ?
bnIRC Yes Yes Yes No ? ? ?
ccorp-irc Partial No No No ? ? ?
ChatZilla Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? ?
ClicksAndWhistles Yes Yes No Yes Yes ? ?
Colloquy Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? ?
Conspire Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? ?
Coolsmile ? No Yes No † ? ? ?
DMDirc Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? ?
dxirc Yes No No Yes ? ? ?
EPIC Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? ?
HydraIRC ? Yes Partial † No † ? ? ?
IceChat Yes Yes Yes † Yes † No No No
ii ? No No No ? ? ?
ircII Yes Yes Yes No ? ? ?
IRCjr ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Ircle Yes Yes ? Yes ? ? ?
Irssi Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? ?
jini Partial ? No No ? ? ?
Klient Yes Yes No Yes † ? ? ?
Konversation Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? ?
KoolChat Yes Yes ? ? ? ? ?
KoroIRC ? Yes Yes No ? ? ?
KSirc ? Yes Yes Yes ? ? ?
KVIrc Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? ?
LeetIRC ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
lightIRC Yes No ? No No No No
LimeChat ? Yes Yes No ? ? ?
Linkinus Yes Yes No Yes ? ? ?
Mibbit ? Partial † † No Yes ? ? ?
mIRC Yes Yes Partial † Partial † † ? ? ?
mzirc Yes Yes No No No No No
Neebly Yes Yes No No ? ? ?
Nettalk Yes Yes No No ? ? ?
nexIRC ? Yes No No ? ? ?
Opera Yes[30] Yes Yes Yes ? ? ?
Orion (IRC client) Yes Yes Yes No No No No
OrnateIRC ? Yes No Partial † ? ? ?
PhibianIRC Yes Yes No Yes ? ? ?
PIRCH Yes Yes No No ? ? ?
PJIRC ? Partial † ? Yes † ? ? ?
Quassel IRC ? No Yes Yes ? ? ?
rxIRC Yes No No No No No No
savIRC ? Yes Yes Yes ? ? ?
ScrollZ ? Yes Yes Yes ? ? ?
ShadowIRC ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Smuxi Yes No No No ? ? ?
Snak ? Yes Yes Yes ? ? ?
sushi IRC suite Yes Partial Yes No ? ? ?
ThrashIRC ? Yes Yes No ? ? ?
TurboIRC ? Yes Yes Yes ? ? ?
Visual IRC Yes Yes No No ? ? ?
Vortec IRC Yes Yes No Yes † ? ? ?
WeeChat Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? ?
WookieChat Yes Yes No No ? ? ?
x3irc Yes Yes No Yes No No No
XChat Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? ?
XiRCON ? Yes No No ? ? ?
Client CTCP DCC IPv6 SSL TLS OCSP CRL
  • a b Planned for a later version
  • ^ Marked as completed, but not included yet
  • a b c d Supported via a plugin
  • a Supported via a external tunnel program
  • ^ Can not send files, can only receive files up to 2MB
  • a b DCC is not always successful at this stage
  • a b Wrapper library available[31]
  • ^ Requires the OpenSSL library[32][33]
  • ^ Partial OpenSSL support

Direct Client-to-Client (DCC) support[change | change source]

Client CHAT Whiteboard SEND RESUME TSEND SEND T XMIT Passive DCC Server RDCC REVERSE RSEND Reverse / Firewall DCC File servers (FSERVs) XDCC
0irc No No Yes No Yes No No No No No No No No No No
Aki ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
AmIRC ? ? ? ? ? ? ? No No ? ? ? ? ? ?
Bersirc ? ? ? ? ? ? ? No No ? ? ? ? ? ?
BitchX Yes No Yes ? ? ? ? No No ? ? ? ? ? Yes
bnIRC Yes No Yes No ? ? No No No No No No No No No
ccorp-irc No No No No ? ? No No No No No No No No No
ChatZilla Yes No Yes No[34] ? ? No No † No No No No No No ?
ClicksAndWhistles Yes No Yes Yes ? ? No No No No No No No No No
Colloquy Yes ? Yes Yes ? ? ? Yes No ? ? ? ? ? Yes
Conspire Yes ? Yes Yes ? ? ? Yes Yes ? Yes ? ? ? Yes
Coolsmile ? ? ? ? ? ? ? No No ? ? ? ? ? ?
DMDirc Yes No Yes Yes ? ? No Yes No No No No Yes No No
dxirc ? ? ? ? ? ? ? No No ? ? ? ? ? No
EPIC ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Yes
HydraIRC Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
IceChat Yes No Yes ? ? ? ? No No ? ? ? ? ? ?
ii ? ? ? ? ? ? ? No No ? ? ? ? ? ?
ircII ? ? ? ? ? ? ? No No ? ? ? ? ? ?
IRCjr ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Ircle ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Irssi Yes ? Yes Yes ? ? ? Yes Yes ? ? ? ? ? ?
jini ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? No
Klient Yes No Yes Yes ? ? No Yes Yes No No No Yes Yes No
Konversation Yes ? Yes Yes ? ? ? Yes No ? ? ? Yes ? ?
KoolChat Yes ? Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
KoroIRC ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Yes No ? ? ? ? ? ?
KSirc ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
KVIrc ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Yes No ? ? Yes Yes ? ?
LeetIRC ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
lightIRC ? ? ? ? ? ? ? No No ? ? ? ? ? ?
LimeChat ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Yes Yes ? ? ? ? ? ?
Linkinus ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Yes No ? ? ? ? ? ?
Mibbit ? ? ? ? ? ? ? No No ? ? ? ? ? ?
mIRC Yes ? Yes Yes † ? ? ? Yes Yes Yes † ? ? Yes Yes Yes †
mzirc Yes No Yes Yes No No No Yes Yes No No No No No No
Neebly ? ? ? ? ? ? ? No No ? ? ? ? ? ?
Nettalk ? ? ? ? ? ? ? No No ? ? ? ? ? ?
nexIRC ? ? ? ? ? ? ? No No ? ? ? ? ? ?
Opera No ? ? ? ? ? ? Yes No ? ? ? ? ? ?
Orion (IRC client) Yes No Yes Yes No No No No No No No No No No No
OrnateIRC ? ? ? ? ? ? ? No No ? ? ? ? ? ?
PhibianIRC Yes No Yes Yes ? ? No Yes Yes No No No Yes Partial Yes
PIRCH Yes No Yes Yes † ? ? No No No No No No No No No
PJIRC Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? No No ? ? ? ? ? ?
Quassel IRC No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No
rxIRC No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No
savIRC ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Yes No ? ? ? ? ? ?
ScrollZ ? ? ? ? ? ? ? No No ? ? ? ? ? ?
ShadowIRC ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Smuxi ? ? ? ? ? ? ? No No ? ? ? ? ? ?
Snak ? ? ? ? ? ? ? No No ? ? ? ? ? ?
sushi IRC suite No No Yes Yes No No No No No No No No No No No
ThrashIRC ? ? ? ? ? ? ? No No ? ? ? ? ? ?
TurboIRC ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Yes Yes ? ? ? ? ? ?
Visual IRC ? Yes ? Yes † ? ? ? Yes No ? ? ? Yes ? ?
Vortec IRC Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? Partial † Partial † ? ? ? ? Yes ?
WeeChat Yes ? Yes ? ? ? ? Yes No ? ? ? ? ? Yes
WookieChat Yes No Yes Yes ? ? No No No No No No No No No
x3irc ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
XChat Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? Yes Yes ? ? ? Yes ? Yes †
XiRCON ? ? ? ? ? ? ? No No ? ? ? ? ? ?
Client CHAT Whiteboard SEND RESUME TSEND SEND T XMIT Passive DCC Server RDCC REVERSE RSEND Reverse / Firewall DCC File servers (FSERVs) XDCC
  • a Planned for a later version
  • a b c Supports the DCC Resume protocol[35]
  • a b Supported via a script[36]
  • a b Marked as completed, but not included yet
  • ^ Supported via scripts and plugins[37]

Features[change | change source]

Information on what features each of the clients support.

Client Multi-server UTF-8 Proxy server irc:// URI scheme Automatic updates Scripting language
0irc Yes Yes No No No N/A
Aki Yes Yes ? ? ? N/A
AmIRC No No ? ? ? ARexx
Bersirc Yes No ? ? ? N/A
BitchX Yes No ? ? ? Enhanced IrcII script
bnIRC No Yes † ? No No Python
ccorp-irc No No ? No No N/A
ChatZilla Yes Yes ? Yes Yes JavaScript
ClicksAndWhistles Yes Yes ? Yes Yes N/A
Colloquy Yes Yes ? Yes Yes † AppleScript, Cocoa, F-Script, JavaScript, Python
Conspire Yes Yes ? ? ? C
Coolsmile No No † ? ? ? N/A
DMDirc Yes Partial ? Yes Yes Custom "Actions" system, Java plugins
dxirc Yes Yes ? ? No N/A
EPIC Yes No ? ? ? Enhanced IrcII script, Perl, Ruby, Tcl
HydraIRC Yes No † ? ? ? C++
IceChat Yes No ? Yes No VBScript (version 5), mIRC script clone (version 7)
ii Yes Yes ? ? ? language agnostic (anything that can handle IO operations)
ircII Yes Yes † ? ? ? IrcII script
IRCjr ? ? ? N/A ? ?
Ircle Yes No ? ? ? AppleScript
Irssi Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Perl
jini No No ? No No N/A
Klient Yes No ? ? ? VBScript, JScript, Perl, Python, Ruby, PHP †
Konversation Yes Yes ? Yes ? Shell script, Ruby, Python, Perl, Java, C++, C#, JavaScript †
KoolChat ? ? ? ? ? ?
KoroIRC Yes Yes ? ? ? N/A †
KSirc Yes Yes ? ? ? Perl
KVIrc Yes Yes ? Yes ? KVIrc script, Perl
LeetIRC ? ? ? N/A ? ?
lightIRC No No Yes No No N/A
LimeChat Yes Yes ? ? ? N/A
Linkinus Yes Yes ? Yes Yes AppleScript, Cocoa API
Mibbit Yes Yes ? Yes N/A N/A
mIRC Yes Yes ? Yes Yes mIRC script
mzirc Yes Yes SOCKS No No Pascal Script
Neebly No No ? ? ? N/A
Nettalk Yes Yes ? ? ? VBScript, Custom
nexIRC Yes No ? ? ? VBScript, Custom
Opera Yes Yes ? Yes Yes N/A
Orion (IRC client) Yes No No No No Partial
OrnateIRC Yes No ? ? ? Pascal Script, Own Language (OSL)
PhibianIRC Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Pascal Script, PSI
PIRCH Yes No ? ? No Yes
PJIRC Yes Yes ? ? ? JavaScript
Quassel IRC Yes Yes ? Yes ? N/A
rxIRC No No No No No REXX
savIRC Yes Yes ? ? ? Tcl/Tk
ScrollZ Yes Yes ? ? ? Enhanced IrcII script
ShadowIRC ? ? ? ? ? ?
Smuxi Yes Yes ? ? ? N/A
Snak Yes Yes ? ? ? AppleScript, IrcII script
sushi IRC suite Yes Yes No Partial † No Python
ThrashIRC Yes No ? ? ? N/A
TurboIRC Yes Yes ? ? ? Own language, VBScript, JScript †
Visual IRC Yes No ? ? ? Versus
Vortec IRC Yes No No Yes Yes Pascal Script, Custom
WeeChat Yes Yes ? ? ? C, Perl, Python, Ruby, Lua, Tcl
WookieChat No Yes ? No No Yes
x3irc Yes Yes Yes No Yes Own language
XChat Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Perl, Python, Tcl, Ruby, C++, ECMAScript, Scheme (Guile) †
XiRCON Yes No ? ? ? Tcl
Client Multi-server UTF-8 Proxy server irc:// URI scheme Automatic updates Scripting language
  • ^ When compiled with ncursesw (ncurses with wide-character support)
  • ^ Automatically updates via the Sparkle framework
  • a b c Planned for a later version
  • ^ Supported as of version 20050921
  • a b Uses the Windows Active Scripting technology and supports any scripting language with the appropriate interface
  • ^ Any language which supports DCOP may be used for Konversation scripting. Virtually any language can be made to support Konversation scripting by executing the command line "dcop" program.
  • ^ Not complete, proof of concept
  • ^ Supported via a plugin

References[change | change source]

  1. ↑ "mIRC: Register mIRC". http://www.mirc.com/register.html. Retrieved 2009-07-14.
  2. ↑ "Khaled's Nutshell: Frequently Asked Questions". Archived from the original on 2008-02-13. http://web.archive.org/web/20080213020808/http://www.mirc.com/khaled/faq.html. Retrieved 2009-07-14.
  3. ↑ "Aki SVN". http://websvn.kde.org/trunk/playground/network/aki/. Retrieved 2009-12-16.
  4. ↑ "About AmIRC". Harry Sintonen. http://www.amirc.org/. Retrieved 2011-09-05.
  5. ↑ Mc Cormack, Shane (January 25, 2013). "DMDirc 0.7". http://blog.dmdirc.com/2013/01/25/dmdirc-0-7/. Retrieved 2013-05-08.
  6. ↑ "ii IRC client". http://tools.suckless.org/ii/. Retrieved 2011-03-20.
  7. ↑ jhall1. "FreeDOS Software List: Networking". http://www.freedos.org/software/?cat=net. Retrieved 2012-04-26.
  8. ↑ "Konversation Homepage". http://konversation.kde.org. Retrieved 4 December 2011.
  9. ↑ "Open Pages Tech Docs: KoolChat". http://sourceforge.net/projects/openpages/files/. Retrieved 2009-09-25.
  10. ↑ "KVIrc 4.2.0 released". http://kvirc.net/?id=news&story=2012.07.03.03.15.1.story&dir=latest&lang=en. Retrieved 2012-07-04.
  11. ↑ jhall1 (2008-03-18). "SourceForge.net: News: leetIRC v1.1". SourceForge. http://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.php?forum_id=799836. Retrieved 2009-04-24.
  12. ↑ "Release Notes – Linkinus". Conceited Software. http://conceitedsoftware.com/releasenotes/linkinus. Retrieved 2011-03-02.
  13. ↑ "mIRC: Latest News". mirc.com. http://www.mirc.com/news.html. Retrieved 2012-10-20.
  14. ↑ "Neebly ChangeLog". http://www.neebly.com/changelog.txt. Retrieved 2009-10-08.
  15. ↑ "Nettalk - www.ntalk.de - IRC-Client". http://www.ntalk.de/Nettalk/en/. Retrieved 2013-03-23.
  16. ↑ "nexIRC 2.26". Planet Source Code. http://www.planet-source-code.com/vb/scripts/ShowCode.asp?txtCodeId=67391&lngWId=1. Retrieved 2011-05-08.
  17. ↑ "rxIRC: Internet Relay Chat client program for VM/CMS systems". ftp://nic.funet.fi/pub/unix/irc/rxirc/RXIRC.EXEC. Retrieved 2009-09-28.
  18. ↑ "Snak - IRC for Mac". http://www.snak.com/. Retrieved 2012-03-11.
  19. ↑ "Version 0.3.8 - WeeChat dev news". weechat.org. http://dev.weechat.org/post/2012/06/03/Version-0.3.8. Retrieved 2012-06-11.
  20. ↑ "ReactOS compatibility database: Opera". http://www.reactos.org/compat/?show=entry&id=285. Retrieved 2010-01-05.
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 21.2 See "INSTALL" included with BitchX "SourceForge: BitchX files". http://sourceforge.net/projects/bitchx/files/. Retrieved 2009-09-18.
  22. ↑ "WeeChat cygwin". http://wiki.flashtux.org/wiki/WeeChat_cygwin. Retrieved 2009-09-18.
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 "LimeChat". http://limechat.net/mac/. Retrieved 2009-09-18.
  24. ↑ "Conspire IRC Client: CompileWin32". http://confluence.atheme.org/display/CON/CompileWin32. Retrieved 2009-09-18.
  25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 25.2 "WeeChat: Supported OS". http://www.weechat.org/download/. Retrieved 2009-09-18.
  26. ↑ "Klient: System Requirements". http://www.klient.com/system_requirments.php. Retrieved 2009-09-18.
  27. ↑ 27.0 27.1 "KoroIRC: Requirements". http://www.koroirc.com/requirements.php. Retrieved 2009-09-18.
  28. ↑ "Nettalk: Download". http://en.ntalk.de/Nettalk/en/index.php?page=Download. Retrieved 2009-10-09.
  29. ↑ "X-Chat README". http://xchat.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/xchat/README?view=markup. Retrieved 2009-09-18.
  30. ↑ "Changelog for Opera 9.0 for Windows". http://www.opera.com/docs/changelogs/windows/900/. Retrieved 2009-07-14.
  31. ↑ "mircv6: IPv6 support for mIRC". http://users.skynet.be/jaguar/mircv6.html. Retrieved 2009-07-14.
  32. ↑ "Using SSL with mIRC". http://www.mirc.co.uk/ssl.html. Retrieved 2009-07-14.
  33. ↑ "mIRC SSL How-to". http://remus.oru.se/tsub/mirc-ssl/. Retrieved 2009-07-14.
  34. ↑ "Mozilla ChatZilla: Bugzilla Bug 285630: chatzilla does not support resume for dcc downloads". 2009-02-20. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=285630. Retrieved 2009-07-14.
  35. ↑ "DCC Resume protocol". http://www.mirc.com/help/dccresum.txt. Retrieved 2009-07-14.
  36. ↑ "SysReset mIRC FileServer". http://www.sysreset.com/. Retrieved 2009-07-14.
  37. ↑ "XChat: Scripts + Plugins". http://xchat.org/cgi-bin/search.pl?str=xdcc. Retrieved 2009-07-14.
 
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