# Pidgin

30 Hacker News commenters recommended Pidgin and 12 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 10 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Lets you chat across many networks from one app, with plugins for many protocols; critics say its XMPP and encryption support lag behind.

## Why people recommend it

- Many chat networks in one app (8 comments): "I can chat with my SO over Jabber/Telegram with Biltbee+IRC or Pidgin thanks to Libpurple plugins." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48747970)) "Linux user could just install Gaim (later renamed Pidgin) and connect to most any of those" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49508998)) "you can still use Pidgin and libpurple plugins to connect to a huge array of protocols" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48744797))
- Praised as well-built, polished software (6 comments): "The UI and brand was so good, too, for Linux back in the day" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46748265)) "And that's good. We still had UI/UX standards in 1999." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50306151)) "Pidgin was such a great piece of software" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47037587))
- Plugins for many protocols (6 comments): "I can chat with my SO over Jabber/Telegram with Biltbee+IRC or Pidgin thanks to Libpurple plugins." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48747970)) "you can still use Pidgin and libpurple plugins to connect to a huge array of protocols" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48744797)) "Interesting, there are apparently working plugins for both Signal and Whatsapp!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47071518))
- Still maintained and in use (2 comments): "Pidgin is still being maintained/developed, one of the devs actively streams on twitch too IIRC." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47053495)) "I am still a heavy user of pidgin" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48391162))

## What people warn about

- Dated codebase and look (4 comments): "Pidgin 2.x (latest stable branch) is unfortunately over a decade behind at this point." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49703412)) "Pidgin's XMPP support today remains stuck in the 90s." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50071772)) "relies on gtk2 which is pretty dead" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49700550))
- Lags behind on XMPP features (4 comments): "Pidgin's XMPP support today remains stuck in the 90s." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50071772)) "Pidgin can't connect to any of them AFAIK." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47054200)) "Pidgin being very far behind in XMPP" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47040276))
- Weak encryption support (2 comments): "you don't have proper cross-platform E2EE chats, especially for groups" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46747773)) "Pidgin doesn't even show "I sent you an OMEMO encrypted message"" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49428578))
- Unresolved crashes and bugs (2 comments): "the few tickets I raised, including crash-related ones, are still in submitted status" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49457426)) "Pidgin crashed on me today" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49431321))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Facebook Messenger](https://hackerapproved.com/p/facebook-messenger.md): 36 recommend
- [Beeper](https://hackerapproved.com/p/beeper.md): 29 recommend
- [Dino XMPP client](https://hackerapproved.com/p/dino.md): 21 recommend
- [Element X](https://hackerapproved.com/p/element-x.md): 18 recommend
- [Teams for Linux](https://hackerapproved.com/p/unofficial-microsoft-teams-client-for-linux.md): 16 recommend

## Cite as

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