Top 12 Open-Source Alternatives to HexChat

Product categories

Communication Group Chat & Notifications Instant Messaging Messaging Productivity

Summary

The top open-source alternatives to HexChat are irssi, Kiwi IRC, and WeeChat. One of the criteria for ordering this list is the number of mentions that products have on reliable external sources. You can suggest additional sources through the form here.

irssi Landing Page
1

irssi

Irssi is a terminal based IRC client for UNIX systems.
Pricing:
- Open Source
#Group Chat & Notifications #Messaging #Communication 6 social mentions
Kiwi IRC Landing Page
2

Kiwi IRC

A hand-crafted IRC client that you can enjoy. Designed to be used easily and freely.
Pricing:
- Open Source
#Group Chat & Notifications #Messaging #Communication 6 social mentions
WeeChat Landing Page
3

WeeChat

WeeChat is a fast, light and extensible chat client.
Pricing:
- Open Source
#Group Chat & Notifications #Messaging #Communication 17 social mentions
KVIrc Landing Page
4

KVIrc

KVIrc is a free portable IRC client based on the excellent Qt GUI toolkit.
Pricing:
- Open Source
#Group Chat & Notifications #Messaging #Communication
The Lounge Landing Page
5

The Lounge

The Lounge is a web IRC client that you host on your own server.
Pricing:
- Open Source
#Group Chat & Notifications #Messaging #Communication 38 social mentions
Quassel IRC Landing Page
6

Quassel IRC

Quassel IRC is a modern, cross-platform, distributed IRC client based on the Qt4 framework.
Pricing:
- Open Source
#Group Chat & Notifications #Messaging #Communication 4 social mentions
Textual Landing Page
7

Textual

Textual is the world's most popular application for interacting with Internet Relay Chat (IRC)...
Pricing:
- Open Source
#Group Chat & Notifications #Messaging #Communication
Colloquy Landing Page
8

Colloquy

Traditionally, chat clients on the Mac have been anything but glamorous.
Pricing:
- Open Source
#Group Chat & Notifications #Messaging #Communication
Franz Landing Page
9

Franz

Franz is your messaging app for WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Slack, Gmail, Telegram and many many more.
Pricing:
- Open Source
- Freemium
- €4.0 / Monthly
#Group Chat & Notifications #Messaging #Communication 28 social mentions
InspIRCd Landing Page
10

InspIRCd

InspIRCd Internet Relay Chat Daemon is a modular, high performance IRC daemon combining stability and a rich and extensive C++ API with optional features such as SSL and permanent channels.
Pricing:
- Open Source
#Group Chat & Notifications #Messaging #Communication
ngIRCd Landing Page
11

ngIRCd

ngIRCd is a free, portable and lightweight Internet Relay Chat server for small or private...
Pricing:
- Open Source
#Group Chat & Notifications #Messaging #Communication 2 social mentions
Convos Landing Page
12

Convos

Convos is the simplest way to use IRC.
Pricing:
- Open Source
#Group Chat & Notifications #Messaging #Communication 10 social mentions