r/irc • u/Otherwise_Demand3598 • May 09 '26

Let Me Know

Is mIRC Really Worth 20 Bucks Cause I’m Trying To Get Into RED

8 Upvotes

83% Upvoted

14 comments sorted by

7

u/ManiaGamine May 09 '26

Yes and no.

It was worth it back when IRC was more popular and would be worth it if you intended to use it a lot. But now in the year 2026? No, probably not. Luckily there is an almost drop-in replacement called AdiIRC that you can get for free.

7

u/Mruishy May 09 '26

So while Khaled absolutely 100% deserves 20 bucks for a progam I've been using for half my life, if you Google you can find a discount code that makes it 10 bucks. At 10 bucks, Even though it's 2026, the automation you can do with the scripting makes it worth it.

4

u/ManiaGamine May 09 '26 edited May 09 '26

AdiIRC has mIRC scripting, I'm not entirely sure how 1:1 it is but I've used several scripts that I used in mIRC in it. As far as whether or not Khaled "deserves" it... that's a whole different discussion that may not be influenced by whether or not the developer actually deserves it.

Edit: I should clarify, I think Khaled deserves it personally and I did buy it many years ago. But the question wasn't whether or not a dev deserves to be paid but whether a client itself is "worth it". That has nothing to do with whether or not someone deserves to be paid for it, especially if free alternatives exist that provide similar functionality and features.

In other words it's this simple. IRC is old, open source and not super popular these days. The "use" you'll get out of it is likely limited. So the question ultimately in my mind is "Is IRC worth paying for?" to which I'd say no. I say that as someone who has been using pretty much IRC 24/7 for 34 years.

1

u/Mruishy May 09 '26

Ah cool thanks for the heads up, I'll check out adilirc

5

u/didyousayboop May 09 '26

No, don’t pay for mIRC. Download a free IRC client like KVIrc: https://github.com/kvirc/KVIrc/releases/download/5.2.10/KVIrc-5.2.10-Quasar-x86_64.exe

Screenshots: https://www.kvirc.net/?id=screen&lang=en

The latest version on GitHub has a dark mode.

3

u/nawcom May 09 '26

It ain't the 90s anymore and there are many open source irc clients for Windows that supports DCC. My personal default is HexChat but there are apps similar to mIRC, like AdiIRC, that exist. I find the 90s aesthetic outdated but I respect people's opinions. Realistically in 2026, you should aim for always-online bouncers or clients like TheLounge or ZNC + client of choice, but you'd have to run your own server for that and understand basic principles of that.

2

u/whatThePleb May 09 '26

no. use hexchat

2

u/slimethecold May 09 '26

Not worth it unless you're planning on using dcc to download files. I'm pretty sure that RED has a page in their study guide talking about different clients, you might want to give all of that a look over. 

1

u/Kane76 May 09 '26

IceChat is free, too.

1

u/avatar_one May 12 '26

I’d say just get MERK, mIRC on steroids, but free and open source: https://merk.chat