Best IRC clients for macOS in 2026
Updated July 22, 2026
For years the Mac answer was "buy Textual and move on". That era ended in July 2026, when Textual's developer archived the repository and sunset the project — following LimeChat (last release 2020, Intel-only) and Colloquy (effectively frozen since 2014) into the museum. The good news: what remains is genuinely good, and all of it is current.
At a glance
| Client | Price | Open source | Status | Install |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Halloy | Free | Yes (GPL) | Very active | brew install --cask halloy · halloy.chat |
| WeeChat | Free | Yes (GPL) | Very active | brew install weechat |
| Irssi | Free | Yes (GPL) | Dormant, solid | brew install irssi |
| IRCCloud | Free / $6 per month | Apps only | Active | App Store (Apple Silicon) |
| Mango 3.0 | Free (beta) | No | Unreleased, TestFlight | mangoirc.chat |
| Textual | ~$7.99 | Partially | Sunset July 2026 | Not recommended for new users |
Halloy — the one to install
In mid-2026, Halloy is the only actively maintained graphical IRC client with a serious macOS build — and happily it is also just good: Rust-fast, clean, and pane-based.
It has IRCv3 support that makes history and read state work properly against a bouncer.
It is not a Cocoa app and does not pretend to be one; what it lacks in native chrome it repays in actually existing.
Download (free):
brew install --cask halloysudo port install halloy(MacPorts)- DMG from GitHub
The terminal is a native client
macOS ships an excellent terminal, and the two best terminal IRC clients run perfectly in it.
WeeChat
The scriptable powerhouse. Run 4.9.4 or newer — the July 2026 release fixed two real vulnerabilities.
Download: brew install weechat — free.
Irssi
The lean classic: configure once, never think about it again.
Download: brew install irssi — free.
The full comparison, including the modern minimalists, is in best terminal IRC clients.
IRCCloud — the hosted route
Their Electron desktop app was retired in 2023, but IRCCloud's practical Mac story is fine. The iOS app runs natively on Apple Silicon Macs, and the web app installs as a PWA from any browser.
Connection and history live on their servers: free until you idle for two hours, $6 per month for always-on. The full trade-offs.
Download (app free; always-on tier $6/month):
- App Store — Apple Silicon Macs
- irccloud.com — any browser, installable as a PWA
Mango 3.0 — the one to watch
A from-scratch Swift rewrite of a long-dormant Apple-platform client, Mango promises SwiftUI, IRCv3, SASL, chathistory and iCloud sync, aimed at macOS 15 and iOS 17.
As of July 2026, it is not released — the public beta has slipped past its promised Q2, and access is TestFlight-only.
If it lands well it becomes the native option this platform has been missing. A paid "Mango+" tier (push notifications, hosted sessions) is planned to follow.
Watch it, do not wait for it — and do not buy the $12.99 "Mango IRC" still sitting in the Mac App Store; that is the 2012 version.
The departed
Textual
The sunset came in July 2026. The repository is archived; the final build (7.2.7) will keep working until some macOS update breaks it. If you own it, no rush. Nobody should start here in 2026 — Halloy is where most Textual users have gone.
LimeChat and Colloquy
Further down the same road: LimeChat (last release 2020, Intel-only, runs under Rosetta) and Colloquy (2014) — and both still charge for the privilege on the App Store. Check "last updated" dates before paying for any Mac IRC app.
Recommendations
- Most Mac users: Halloy.
- Terminal people: WeeChat via Homebrew — you were never going to use a GUI anyway.
- Never want to think about connections: IRCCloud, paid tier.
- Apple-native purists: wait and watch Mango 3.0 — from the sidelines.
Day one, whatever you choose: TLS on 6697, SASL, registered nick — the guide.