Cross-platform IRC clients

There are a large and growing number of cross-platform clients that run equally well on many different operating systems.

ChatZilla

ChatZilla runs as an addon for Firefox and Seamonkey, or standalone with the help of XULRunner, and as such is portable to all platforms on which Firefox can run.

LeafChat

LeafChat is a graphical, standalone client written in Java, and runs anywhere there’s a suitable Java runtime.

jIRCii

jIRCii is a barely graphical standalone Java client, with a look and feel inspired by ircII but taking advantage of modern GUI functionality.

HexChat

The popular XChat fork, HexChat, originated as an unofficial Windows port, and now runs on Linux/Unix systems as well. A OSX port is available through Homebrew.

Web Based Clients

Webchat interfaces are listed elsewhere, and are available anywhere there’s a working web browser.

Linux/Unix Clients on Windows

Many of the terminal-based Unix/Linux IRC clients have been ported to run on Windows with the aid of Cygwin or MSYS. These ported clients may be awkward to use if not comfortable with console-mode applications, and primarily cater to advanced users.

The popular X11 client, xchat, also has a Windows version, which is a common alternative to mIRC on Windows systems.

Windows Clients on Linux/Unix/OSX

mIRC is known to work well with Wine.