Comparison of Internet Relay Chat daemons

The following tables compare general and technical data. This article does not have current or all the data available.

Servers

IRC daemon	URL	Creator/network	Basis	Programming language	First public release	Latest stable version (numeric 351)	Software license
Bahamut	[1]	DALnet	DreamForge, IRCD-Hybrid	C	1999	bahamut-1.8(04)	GPL
bIRCd	[2]	DAMnet Archived 2008-12-27 at the Wayback Machine	DreamForge	C	1999	bIRCd-2.1.0rc4	GPL
Charybdis	[3] Archived 2009-01-18 at the Wayback Machine	nenolod, jilles, dwr, gxti	ircd-ratbox, IRCD-Hybrid, ircu, ShadowIRCd	C	2005	charybdis-3.0.3	GPL/BSD
ConferenceRoom	[4]	WebMaster Incorporated	(from scratch)	C++	1996	ConferenceRoom/3.5	Proprietary
csircd	[5]	Comstud	(from scratch)	C	1998	csircd-1.14	GPL
InspIRCd	[6]	InspIRCd Development Team Archived 2008-10-17 at the Wayback Machine	(from scratch)	C++	2002	1.1.22	GPL
IRCd	[7]^{[permanent dead link]}	Jarkko Oikarinen, IRCnet	(from scratch)	C	1988	2.11.2p1	GPL
ircd-hybrid	[8]	Hybrid Development Team, EFnet	irc2.8	C	1997	8.2.35	GPL
ircd-ratbox	[9] Archived 2020-12-01 at the Wayback Machine	Aaron Sethman, Lee Hardy, EFnet	Hybrid 7-rc1	C	2002	ircd-ratbox-3.0.0	GPL
ircu	[10]	Undernet Coder Committee	irc2.7	C	1991	u2.10.12.12	GPL
ithildin	[11] Archived 2007-03-14 at the Wayback Machine	Chip Norkus	(from scratch)	C	2006	1.1.2 / 1.0r0	BSD
Nefarious IRCu	[12] Archived 2007-03-11 at the Wayback Machine	Evilnet Development, AfterNET	ircu2	C	2004	u2.10.11.07+Nefarious(1.2.0)+[2212 2008-08-03]	GPL
ngIRCd	[13]	Alex Barton	(from scratch)	C	2001	ngircd-0.12.1	GPL
OfficeIRC Server	[14] Archived 2008-12-19 at the Wayback Machine	Office IRC Inc, Paul Heinlein	(from scratch)	VB.net	2006	2.1	Proprietary
PleXusIRCd	[15]	Rizon, thaprince, static	Hybrid 7.2.3	C	2005	hybrid-7.2.3+plexus-3.0.1(20081028_0-520)	GPL
pureIRCd	[16]	Dennis Fisch aka Diligent	(from scratch)	C	2002	?	GPL
ShadowIRCd	[17] Archived 2008-12-12 at the Wayback Machine	dwr, Eko, jdhore, jilles, nenolod	Charybdis	C	2008	shadowircd-6.0.0pre4	GPL
solid-ircd	[18] Archived 2008-07-09 at the Wayback Machine	Gabriel Baez	Bahamut	C	?	solid-ircd 3.4.8	GPL
Synchronet IRCd	[19]	Randy E. Sommerfeld	(from scratch)	JavaScript	2003	SynchronetIRCd-1.3a(1.151)	GPL
UnrealIRCd	[20]	EliteIRCd (potvin)	DreamForge	C	1999	Unreal6.1.4	GPL
WeIRCd	[21] Archived 2009-01-06 at the Wayback Machine	Eloxoph IRC Network	(from scratch)	C	2007	WeIRCd 0.4.5a	GPL

Obsolete Servers

The following servers are no longer maintained, but basic details are maintained for posterity. They will not be listed in feature comparison tables.

IRC daemon	URL	Creator/network	Basis	Programming language	First public release	Outcome	Software license
PTlink IRC Server	[22]	PTlink IRC Software	Hybrid 6	C	2001 (v.6)	(now unmaintained)	GPL
Asuka	[23] Archived 2006-04-10 at the Wayback Machine	QuakeNet Dev Team	ircu	C	?	(replaced by snircd)	GPL
Austhex	[24]	AustNet Development	ircu2.9	C, Scheme	?	(replaced by inspircd)	GPL
dancer-ircd	none	freenode	Hybrid 6	C	1999	(replaced by hyperion)	GPL
DreamForge	[25] Archived 2008-12-01 at the Wayback Machine	DALnet	irc2.8.mu3	C	1994 (dal), 1997? (df)	(replaced by bahamut)	GPL
hyperion	[26] Archived 2006-05-27 at the Wayback Machine	freenode	dancer-ircd 1.0.35+pre2	C	2005	(to be replaced by ircd-seven)	GPL
IRCXpro Server	[27]	IRCXpro, Paul Heinlein	IRCPlus	Visual Basic	?	(replaced by OfficeIRC)	Proprietary
pircd	[28]	Jay F Kominek	(from scratch)	Perl	1999	(now unmaintained)	Open Source (custom)
QuakeIRCd	[29]	QuakeIRCd Team, Tiburon	UnrealIRCd	C	2003 (v1.1)	(now unmaintained)	GPL
SorIrcd	[30]	SorceryNet	dal4.4.10 and irc2.8.mu3	C	1996	(replaced by Charybdis)	GPL
UltimateIRCd	[31] Archived 2008-10-17 at the Wayback Machine	ShadowRealm Creations	DreamForge 2.8	C	2001	(now unmaintained)	GPL
Viagra IRCd	[32]	Chris Schiffner	Titan	C	2003	(now unmaintained)	GPL

Operating system support

The operating systems that the daemon is compatible with.

IRC daemon	Windows	Mac OS X	Linux	BSD	Solaris	HP-UX	AIX	select()	poll()	epoll^[1]	kqueue^[2]	RT signals^[3]	/dev/poll Archived 2007-02-02 at the Wayback Machine	Windows IOCP	Solaris IOCP
Bahamut	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	?	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No
bIRCd	Yes	?	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No
Charybdis	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes
ConferenceRoom	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No
InspIRCd	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes^[source?]	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes
IRCD	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No
ircd-ratbox	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
ircu	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No
ithildin	No	No	Yes	Yes	?	?	?	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	No
Nefarious IRCu	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No
ngIRCd	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No
OfficeIRC Server	Yes	No	Emulated	No	No	No	No	?	?	No	No	No	No	Yes	No
PleXusIRCd	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No
pureIRCd	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
ShadowIRCd	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
solid-ircd	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	?	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No
Synchronet IRCd	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	?	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No
UnrealIRCd	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	?	Yes	Planned^[4]	No	No	No	No	No	No
WeIRCd	Planned	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	?	?	Planned	No	No	No	No	No	No	No

Technology

Various networking and IRC technology used to date.

IRC daemon	Modularity	Remote Includes	IPv6	Client SSL	SSL Linking	Zip Linking	Hostmasking / Cloaking	Services Integration (built-in services)	LDAP Authentication	IRCX Support	SASL Support	WebSockets Support	Server Protocol
Bahamut	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	TS5 with extensions
bIRCd	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	RFC 1459 and TSpre8
Charybdis	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	TS6 with extensions
ConferenceRoom	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	?	Proprietary, binary
InspIRCd	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes (1.2)	Yes	TS6 based Spanning Tree Archived 2008-08-21 at the Wayback Machine
IRCD	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	?	RFC 1459 and RFC 2813 with SID/UID
ircd-ratbox	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	TS6
ircu	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	P10
ithildin	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	?	Module-dependent
Nefarious IRCu	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	P10 with extensions
ngIRCd	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	RFC 1459 and RFC 2813
OfficeIRC Server	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	DreamForge/UnrealIRCd compatible
PleXusIRCd	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	?	No	No	No	TS5/TS6
pureIRCd	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
ShadowIRCd	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No	TS6 with extensions
solid-ircd	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	TS5 with extensions
Synchronet IRCd	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	?	TS5 with extensions
UnrealIRCd	Partial	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes	DreamForge/TS5 with extensions
WeIRCd	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	?	No

Features

IRC server features, mostly extensions to RFC 1459. Probably also implementations of RFC 2810, RFC 2811, RFC 2812, RFC 2813, and possibly IRCX.

+channels (In early IRCds, these were simply named channels. At least one modern IRCd (IRCD) uses the + prefix for modeless channels, i.e. no chanops and channel mode forced to +nt. This is described in RFC 2811.)
#channels ("+channels" were later replaced with "#channels" in version 2.7, numeric channels were removed entirely and channel bans (mode +b) were implemented.)
&channels (irc2.8, those that exist only on the current server, rather than the entire network)
!channels (irc2.10, those that are theoretically safe from suffering from the many ways that a user could exploit a channel by "riding a netsplit"; IRCds using timestamping provide (most of) this functionality on #channels)
%#channels (#channels whose name are in UTF-8 for IRCX)
%&channels (&channels whose name are in UTF-8 for IRCX)
%!channels (!channels whose name are in UTF-8 for IRCX)

IRC daemon	Channel Types	Halfop Support (+h %)	Admin/Protect Support (+a/+u &/!/*)	Founder/Owner Support (+q ~/.)	Operator Prefixing^[5]	Advanced Operator ACL	Operator "Levels"^[6]	vHost via i:line (or equivalent)	i18n Nicknames Archived 2008-12-25 at the Wayback Machine	RDBMS Integration (SQL)
Bahamut	#	No	No	No	No	No	No	Partial	No	No
bIRCd	# &	No	No	No	No	No	No	Partial	No	No
Charybdis	# &	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	No
ConferenceRoom	# &	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Partial	Partial
InspIRCd	#	Yes	Yes	Yes	Module	Yes	Module	Yes	Module (1.2)	MySQL, SQLite & PostgreSQL: Authorization, Services Integration, Logging, Operaccess
IRCD	# & ! +	No	No	No	No	?	No	No	No	No
ircd-ratbox	# &	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No
ircu	# &	No	?	?	?	Yes	?	Yes	?	?
ithildin	#	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	via privilege system	Yes	No	No
Nefarious IRCu	# &	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No
ngIRCd	#	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
OfficeIRC Server	# %# & %&	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Partial	Yes	Yes	Yes	Partial
PleXusIRCd	# &	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	?	Yes	?	No
pureIRCd	#	No	No	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
ShadowIRCd	# &	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	No
solid-ircd	#	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	Partial	No	No
Synchronet IRCd	# &	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
UnrealIRCd	#	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	iso8859-1/2/7/8-I/9/16, windows-1250/1251, Multibyte	No
WeIRCd	#	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No

IRC daemon	Connect-flood detection	Channel flood controls Basic / Advanced	Join throttling	Spamfilter Regexp / Glob	Channel Censor IRCd Config / Chanop-Controlled	Variable per-channel banlist size	Timed bans	DNSBL
Bahamut	Yes	Yes / No	Yes	No / No	No / No	No	No	No
bIRCd	No	No / No	No	No / No	No / No	No	No	No
Charybdis	Yes	No / No	Yes	No / No	No / No	Yes	Yes	Yes
ConferenceRoom	Yes	Yes / Yes	Yes	No / Yes	Partial / No	No	Partial	Yes
InspIRCd	Yes	Yes / Yes	Yes	Yes / Yes	Yes / Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
IRCD	?	? / ?	?	? / ?	? / ?	?	?	?
ircd-ratbox	Yes	No / No	No	No / No	No / No	No	No	No
ircu	?	? / ?	?	? / ?	? / ?	?	?	No
ithildin	Module	No / No	No	No / No	No / No	No	No	?
Nefarious IRCu	No	No / No	No	No / No	No / No	No	No	Yes
ngIRCd	No	No / No	No	No / No	No / No	No	No	No
OfficeIRC Server	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
PleXusIRCd	Yes	No / No	No	No / No	No / No	No	No	?
pureIRCd	?	? / ?	?	? / ?	? / ?	?	?	?
ShadowIRCd	Yes	No / No	Yes	No / No	No / No	Yes	Yes	Yes
solid-ircd	Yes	Yes / No	Yes	No / No	No / No	No	No	No
Synchronet IRCd	Yes	Yes / No	Yes	No / No	No / No	No / No	No	No
UnrealIRCd	No	Yes	Yes	Yes / No	Yes / No	No	No	Third party module
WeIRCd	Partial	No / No	No	No / No	No / No	No	No	No

Related pages

Notes

↑ epoll (Linux since 2.6) - I/O event notification facility. Has a much better performance than select() and poll() system calls.
↑ kqueue (FreeBSD since 4.1) - asynchronous event dispatch mechanism.
↑ "POSIX.4 Real Time Signals" (Linux since 2.4) - special class of Linux system signals used for notification of events on file descriptors. Deprecated in favour of epoll.
↑ UnrealIRCd bugtracker entry for poll() - Next release (3.2.10) should have poll() implemented.
↑ The ability for network staff (not channel ops, but ircd opers) to be denoted in a channel with a special prefix
↑ Protect "higher" opers from being killed and/or z, k, or g-lined by "lower" opers

Other websites

IRCd features compared to InspIRCd Archived 2008-10-17 at the Wayback Machine
History of IRC Archived 2020-11-12 at the Wayback Machine
IRCD distribution Archived 2010-02-09 at the Wayback Machine
IRC numerics and modes from major IRCds

[epoll-1] (Linux since 2.6) - I/O event notification facility. Has a much better performance than select() and poll() system calls.

[kqueue-2] queue (FreeBSD since 4.1) - asynchronous event dispatch mechanism.

[rtsigio-3] "POSIX.4 Real Time Signals" (Linux since 2.4) - special class of Linux system signals used for notification of events on file descriptors. Deprecated in favour of epoll.

[unrealircd_poll-4] UnrealIRCd bugtracker entry for poll() - Next release (3.2.10) should have poll() implemented.

[prefix-5] The ability for network staff (not channel ops, but ircd opers) to be denoted in a channel with a special prefix

[levels-6] Protect "higher" opers from being killed and/or z, k, or g-lined by "lower" opers

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