CGI:IRC Alternatives

    CGI:IRC is described as 'Perl/CGI program that lets you access IRC from a web browser, it is designed to be flexible and has many uses such as an IRC gateway for an IRC network, a chat-room for a website or to access IRC when stuck behind a restrictive firewall' and is an app in the Social & Communications category. There are more than 50 alternatives to CGI:IRC for a variety of platforms, including Windows, Linux, Mac, Online / Web-based and Self-Hosted solutions. The best alternative is Pidgin, which is both free and Open Source. Other great apps like CGI:IRC are HexChat (Free, Open Source), mIRC (Paid), Quassel IRC (Free, Open Source) and irssi (Free, Open Source).

    This page was last updated Sep 13, 2021
    1. Pidgin is an easy to use, multi-protocol chat client client used by millions. Connect to AIM, MSN, Yahoo, XMPP, and more chat networks all at once. It has built-in support for NSS, offering client-to-server message encryption for protocols that support it.
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    2. HexChat

      • Free • Open Source
      • Mac
      • Windows
      • Linux
      • BSD
      • PortableApps.com
      • Xfce
      • MacPorts
      • XQuartz
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      HexChat is an IRC client based on XChat for Linux , but unlike XChat it’s completely free for both Windows and Unix-like systems. HexChat was originally called XChat-WDK which in turn was a successor of freakschat.
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    4. mIRC

      • Windows
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      mIRC is a popular Internet Relay Chat client used by millions of people, and thousands of organizations, to communicate, share, play and work with each other on IRC networks around the world.
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    5. Quassel IRC

      • Free • Open Source
      • Mac
      • Windows
      • Linux
      • Self-Hosted
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      Quassel IRC is a modern, cross-platform, distributed IRC client based on the Qt4 framework.
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    6. irssi

      • Free • Open Source
      • Mac
      • Windows
      • Linux
      • BSD
      • Cygwin
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      Irssi is a terminal based IRC client for UNIX systems. It also supports SILC and ICB protocols via plugins.
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    8. XChat for Linux

      • Free • Open Source
      • Windows
      • Linux
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      XChat is an IRC chat program for both Linux and Windows. It allows you to join multiple IRC channels (chat rooms) at the same time, talk publicly, private one-on-one conversations etc. Even file transfers are possible.

      Discontinued

      The program is no longer updated. Last version, 2.8.8, released in May 2010, can be still downloaded from the official website.

    9. KVIrc

      • Free • Open Source
      • Mac
      • Windows
      • Linux
      • BSD
      • PortableApps.com
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      KVIrc is a free portable IRC client based on the excellent Qt GUI toolkit. KVirc is being written by Szymon Stefanek and the KVIrc Development Team with the contribution of many IRC addicted developers around the world.
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    10. WeeChat is a fast, light and extensible chat client. It runs on many platforms (including Linux, BSD and Mac OS).
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    11. Textual is the world's most popular application for interacting with Internet Relay Chat (IRC) chatrooms on macOS.

    12. ZeroChat

      • Free • Open Source
      • Mac
      • Windows
      • Linux
      • Online
      • Self-Hosted
      • Python
      • JavaScript
      • ZeroNet
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      An IRC-like internet chatroom hosted on ZeroNet, a distributed network. 0rc is a fully distributed website, and messages are shared through peers using the ZeroNet stack. In addition, making a new chatroom website is a simple as downloading the files and cloning the site.

      Discontinued

      Last update on github made over 5 years (March 13, 2016).

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