The best IRC clients, according to hackers
4 IRC clients were recommended on Hacker News between November 2025 and November 2026. We rank them by how many separate people recommend each one, and 1 earns the Hacker Approved badge.
Top pick
The most recommended IRC client with the badge. Each figure is one person. RecommendsCriticizes One comment
Fast, reliable, and still works
People recommend it as a fast, reliable, fully featured IRC chat client with its own scripting language that has kept working for decades. The most common caveat is that it runs only on Windows.
All 4 IRC clients, ranked
Select a column heading to sort. Approval share is recommenders out of everyone who gave an opinion; the tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs. Months counts the months, out of 13, in which someone recommended it.
| Rank | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Microsoft Comic Chat | 22 | 9 | 71% | 2 | — | — |
| 2 | mIRC | 12 | 1 | 92% | 5 | 30 yrs3 owners | Approved |
| Tied 3 | Irssi | 5 | 2 | 71% | 5 | — | — |
| Tied 3 | Goguma IRC client | 5 | 0 | 100% | 2 | — | — |
How we rank
Rank is the number of separate people who recommend a product in a Hacker News comment over the past year. Someone who praises the same IRC client in five threads counts once.
The badge goes to IRC clients that at least 10 people recommend, with recommenders outnumbering critics at least 2 to 1, recommended in at least 4 of the 13 months.
Rankings are never for sale. We may earn a commission when you buy through our links. It never changes the order.