HexChat is an IRC client based on XChat, but unlike XChat it’s completely free for both Windows and Unix-like systems. Since XChat is open source, it’s perfectly legal. For more info, please read the Shareware background. HexChat was originally called XChat-WDK which in turn was a successor of freakschat.
WeeChat is a fast, light and extensible chat client, with a text-based user interface. WeeChat is: modular: a lightweight core with optional plugins multi-protocols architecture (mainly IRC) multi-platforms: Linux, Unix, BSD, GNU Hurd, Haiku, macOS and Windows (WSL and Cygwin). extensible with C, Python, Perl, Ruby, Lua, Tcl, Scheme, Javascript and PHP fully documented and translated into several languages a free program released under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 3 an active project with a large community for scripts.
mIRC is a popular Internet Relay Chat client used by individuals and organizations to communicate, share, play and work with each other on IRC networks around the world. Serving the Internet community for over two decades, mIRC has evolved into a powerful, reliable and fun piece of technology. Free for 30 days, after which you need a user license that costs $20.
