X-Chat

X-Chat, commonly written XChat or xchat, is one of the most popular IRC client for Unix-like systems. It is also available for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X (via an offshoot of the project, called , which keeps in sync with the main development branch and is much more popular than the official version maintained by the Fink project). It has a tabbed interface, support for multiple servers, and a high level of configurability. Both command line and graphical versions are available, although use of the graphical version far outweighs use of the command line version. It is licensed under the GNU General Public License and uses the GTK+ toolkit for its interface.

X-Chat can be scripted with a number of programming languages: Perl, Python, Tcl, and Ruby, which are available as external plugins and contain a binary module interface, usually for the C programming language.

As of August 23, 2004, the has become shareware, and must be purchased for US$20 or AU$25 after a 30-day trial period. are made available (at no cost) by contributor SilvereX, who maintains a binary of the latest release, and also compiles frequently from CVS. These unofficial builds require an installation of a Windows port of GTK+ runtime libraries to operate (they are not statically linked like the official build), and are provided for download.