IRC
Fewer than 5 people recommend it so far, so there's no written verdict. Here is what commenters said.
4recommend
5warn against
Nov 15, 2025first mention
Oct 12, 2026latest mention
Why people recommend it
“I use a mix of IRC, XMPP, and Matrix, mostly IRC”
“XMPP and IRC are the better alternatives.”
Caveats and dissent
“The lack of stored history for every user is a huge blocker for new users.”
“IRC didn't provide chat history for the common folk”
Show 2 more
“When I used IRC, not much was accomplished apart from chatting on IRC.”
Often compared with
Threads where it came up
- IRCv3 2 mentions
- Discord Alternatives, Ranked 2 mentions
- Parley: Federated, decentralised chat that speaks plain IRC 1 mention
- Why I'm betting on ATProto (and why you should, too) 1 mention
- Welcoming Discord users amidst the challenge of Age Verification 1 mention
- Matrix messaging gaining ground in government IT 1 mention
Data: irc.json. Quotes are verbatim; the verdict and theme labels are written by a model from these comments, and every clause links to its sources.
All comments 14
> will slowly fizzle out if we like it or not Good luck with that: https://xkcd.com/1782/
“The lack of stored history for every user is a huge blocker for new users.”
Or ANproto https://anproto.com/ without the nostr baggage, what little there is.
“I use hubs my peers and friends use. IRC, email and for the boomers - Facebook.”
Even if you self-host matrix there are still multiple ways you could be liable for content you don't even know exists. Especially the last 4 points here: https://telegra.ph/why-not-matrix-08-07 There are even custom message/media types that people use to upload hidden content you can't see even if you're joined to the same channel using a typical client.
“I use a mix of IRC, XMPP, and Matrix, mostly IRC”
Except the reason for Discords initial success, and the literal only reason I have it installed, is for voice chat when playing certain online games. I love IRC, I even wrote my own IRC client in the 90s, but it’s clearly not going to be suitable for gaming in this context.
“XMPP and IRC are the better alternatives.”
“IRC didn't provide chat history for the common folk”
“never got into it”
“When I used IRC, not much was accomplished apart from chatting on IRC.”
“I used IRC a lot to get tech help”
“IRC wasn't encrypted and Discord isn't either”
“good old IRC for some open source things”