Ergo IRC server
Hacker ApprovedIRC server
Free, easy-to-run IRC server with modern IRCv3 features and built-in bouncer. Caveat: single server, and some clients lack emoji reactions.
Free, easy-to-run IRC server with modern IRCv3 features and built-in bouncer. Caveat: single server, and some clients lack emoji reactions.
17 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 16
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 94%
Recommended in 7 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 16 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 16 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 7 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Easy to set up
“I was able to get Ergo IRCd and TheLounge up and running pretty quickly”
Comment from 12 Feb 2026 in “Discord Just Killed Anonymity” “It's super easy to put up an instance of ergo now.”
Comment from 12 Oct 2026 in “IRCv3” “IRC with Ergo + Soju is pretty easy and pleasant.”
Comment from 17 Dec 2025 in “Chat-tails: Throwback terminal chat, built on Tailscale” - Comment from 11 Oct 2026 in “IRCv3”
Strong IRCv3 modernization support
“It ships as a single binary (golang), can support tens of thousands of clients, is at the forefront of the ircv3 modernization initiative”
Comment from 28 Sep 2026 in “Parley: Federated, decentralised chat that speaks plain IRC” “IRCv3 and Ergo support some of what's needed already (and in a backwards-compatible way!)”
Comment from 12 Feb 2026 in “Discord Just Killed Anonymity” “when using a modern server (eg. https://ergo.chat/ )”
Comment from 11 Oct 2026 in “IRCv3” Built-in bouncer and history
“Ergo comes with a built-in bouncer, you get all the history according to whatever Ergo has set as retention”
Comment from 12 Oct 2026 in “IRCv3” “providing all the multi-device history sharing and emoji reactions you could need”
Comment from 2 Feb 2026 in “Mattermost say they will not clarify what license the project is under” Lightweight, cheap and performant
“It ships as a single binary (golang), can support tens of thousands of clients, is at the forefront of the ircv3 modernization initiative”
Comment from 28 Sep 2026 in “Parley: Federated, decentralised chat that speaks plain IRC” “Works great. Cheap, performant”
Comment from 11 Oct 2026 in “IRCv3”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Runs on a single server
“Usually it's claimed that one of the advantages of IRC is that it doesn't depend on a single server, so using a single server feels a bit like cheating.”
Comment from 13 Jun 2026 in “Leaving Mozilla” IRCv3 support only partial
“IRCv3 and Ergo support some of what's needed already (and in a backwards-compatible way!)”
Comment from 12 Feb 2026 in “Discord Just Killed Anonymity” Clients lack emoji reactions
“none of the clients you mentioned actually support emoji reactions (draft/react)”
Comment from 2 Feb 2026 in “Mattermost say they will not clarify what license the project is under”
What people said
18 of the 19 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“It's super easy to put up an instance of ergo now.”
“Ergo comes with a built-in bouncer, you get all the history according to whatever Ergo has set as retention”
“Ergo looks really cool, will have to take a look at that.”
“It Just Worked when I installed that server”
“this is... actually quite nice.”
“Oh thanks for the note about ergo.chat, need to have a play with this!”
“Works great. Cheap, performant”
“when using a modern server (eg. https://ergo.chat/ )”
“It ships as a single binary (golang), can support tens of thousands of clients, is at the forefront of the ircv3 modernization initiative”
“Everything we publish is freely available, without ads or paywalls.”
“does not have netsplits (from having a single server)”
“Usually it's claimed that one of the advantages of IRC is that it doesn't depend on a single server, so using a single server feels a bit like cheating.”
“IRCv3 and Ergo support some of what's needed already (and in a backwards-compatible way!)”
“I was able to get Ergo IRCd and TheLounge up and running pretty quickly”
“I've set up Ergo and KiwiIRC before, and it seemed pretty cool.”
“none of the clients you mentioned actually support emoji reactions (draft/react)”
“providing all the multi-device history sharing and emoji reactions you could need”
“IRC with Ergo + Soju is pretty easy and pleasant.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.