# The Lounge

13 Hacker News commenters recommended The Lounge and 1 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 6 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** A self-hosted, browser-based IRC client with modern features like media previews and session persistence, that is easy to set up and open to use.

## Why people recommend it

- Modern features in a web IRC client (3 comments): "web-based IRC clients with media previews, session persistence, and all the modern bells and whistles" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47028015)) "web front-ends to IRC that make it more approachable from the modern crowd" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48516920)) "Good v3 clients like The Lounge also offer it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50045684))
- Easy to set up and use (2 comments): "I was able to get Ergo IRCd and TheLounge up and running pretty quickly" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46996683)) "The Lounge is open website, type name, you're in." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46962842))
- Works as front end for IRC (2 comments): "For the happy-clicky-emoji types one can put TheLounge or Convos in front of IRC" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46953841)) "ergo ircd with The Lounge as a front end" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50042916))

## What people warn about

- Lacks emoji reactions support (1 comments): "none of the clients you mentioned actually support emoji reactions (draft/react)" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46862674))

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "The Lounge", https://hackerapproved.com/p/lounge/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).