Best IRC clients in 2026: desktop, terminal, mobile and web

Half the "best IRC client" lists on the internet still recommend software that was abandoned a decade ago. This is a current, opinionated guide: every client below is maintained as of 2026, and each recommendation says who it is actually for.

Quick picks #

You are…	Use
New to IRC, want a GUI	HexChat
A terminal person	WeeChat
A terminal person, minimalist	Irssi
On Windows, nostalgic, like scripts	mIRC
On macOS, want native polish	Halloy/Textual
On a phone	goguma
Want always-on without self-hosting	IRCCloud
Want always-on, self-hosted, web UI	The Lounge

Graphical desktop clients #

HexChat (Windows, Linux) remains the default recommendation for beginners: a clean tabbed interface, TLS and SASL support, sensible defaults, and a plugin system in Python and Perl. It is free and open source. Its development pace has slowed over the years, so check that your distribution ships a recent build — but as a daily driver it simply works.

mIRC (Windows) has been around since 1995 and is still updated. Its scripting language (mSL) powered a whole subculture of bots and games. It is shareware with a registration fee after the trial; whether that is nostalgia tax or fair payment for 30 years of maintenance is up to you.

Halloy (Windows, macOS, Linux) is the most interesting newcomer: an open source client written in Rust with the Iced GUI toolkit, fast, modern-looking, with IRCv3 support and a refreshing lack of 2003-era UI baggage. If you want to show someone that IRC clients are not all stuck in the past, show them Halloy.

Konversation (Linux/KDE) is a comfortable, well-integrated choice for KDE users.

Terminal clients #

WeeChat is the power user's client: scriptable in Python, Perl, Lua and more, with a relay protocol that lets graphical and mobile frontends connect to your always-running instance — many people use WeeChat itself as their bouncer. Steeper learning curve, enormous payoff.

Irssi is the classic: lightweight, rock-solid, Perl-scriptable. If your workflow is "tmux on a server, attach from anywhere", Irssi running in a tmux session is a time-honored poor man's bouncer that needs nothing else.

catgirl and tiny deserve a mention for minimalists who think even Irssi does too much.

Mobile #

goguma (Android, iOS) is the modern choice — built by the soju developer, designed around IRCv3 and bouncer integration so that history and notifications actually work the way phone users expect.

IRCCloud (Android, iOS) is the zero-effort option, because the connection lives on their servers (see below).

Quasseldroid (Android) is excellent if you run a Quassel core.

Cloud and web #

IRCCloud keeps you connected from their cloud: persistent history synced across devices, push notifications, a polished web UI. The trade-off is that a company sits between you and the network, and the always-connected tier is a paid subscription. It is also the proof that IRC users will pay for exactly one thing: not missing messages.

The Lounge is the self-hosted equivalent — a Node.js web client that stays connected and serves a modern web UI to all your devices. If you have a VPS or a Raspberry Pi, this is a delightful weekend setup.

gamja is a lightweight web client often paired with the soju bouncer.

What about staying online 24/7? #

Any local client disconnects when your laptop sleeps. If you want permanent presence and scrollback, the classic answer is a bouncer — ZNC or soju — sitting between your clients and the network. That topic gets its own article: what is an IRC bouncer?

Whatever you pick #

Three settings to get right on day one, in any client: connect with TLS (port 6697), authenticate with SASL (guide), and set your preferred nickname plus a fallback. After that it is all commands — and those are the same everywhere.