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Comparison of LAN messengers

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The following tables compare general and technical information for a number of notable LAN messengers.

General information

Basic general information about the LAN messengers: creator/company, license/price, among others.

class="wikitable sortable" style="font-size: smaller; width: auto; text-align: center;"

! style="width:12em" |

! Protocol

! Author, creator

! First public release date

! Latest stable version

! Cost (USD)

! Software license

! Programming language

BeeBEEP{{cite web | url=https://www.beebeep.net/ | title=BeeBEEP (Free Office Messenger) | publisher=SourceForge.net | accessdate=2 November 2017}}{{cite web |url=https://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tr-dojo/get-lan-based-interoffice-secure-chat-with-beebeep/ |title=Get LAN-based interoffice secure chat with BeeBEEP |last=Wallen |first=Jack |date=2012-08-22 |website=techrepublic.com |publisher=TechRepublic |access-date=2019-10-02}}

| BeeBEEP Protocol

| Marco Mastroddi

| 2010

| 5.8.6 ({{start date and age|2023|02|13}})

| {{free|No cost}}

| {{open source|GPL-3.0-or-later}}

| C++ and Qt

BORGChat

| {{dunno}}

| Ionut Cioflan

| 2002

| {{Latest stable release/BORGChat}}

| {{free|No cost}}{{cite web | url=http://www.softpedia.com/get/Internet/Chat/LAN-Messaging-Clients/BORGChat.shtml | title=BORGChat | publisher=Softpedia | accessdate=9 December 2016}}

| {{proprietary}}

| {{dunno}}

Briar

|Bramble Protocol

|Briarproject.org

|2018

|1.4.19 ({{start date and age|2023|01|04}})

| {{free|No cost}}

| {{open source|GPL-3.0-or-later}}

|Java

iChat

| Bonjour IM Protocol

| Apple Inc.

| 2002

| 6.0.1 (1002) ({{start date and age|2012|02|01}})

| {{nonfree|bundled with OS}}

| {{proprietary}}

| Likely Objective-C

iptux{{cite web |url=https://www.ghacks.net/2010/09/17/instant-message-on-your-lan-with-iptux/ |title=Instant message on your LAN with iptux |last=Wallen |first=Jack |date=2010-09-17 |website=ghacks.net |publisher=Ghacks |access-date=2019-10-02}}

| Windows Messenger service

| Jally, ManPT, others

| 2008

| 0.51 ({{start date and age|2009|11|20}})

| {{free|No cost}}{{cite web | url=http://freecode.com/projects/iptux | title=iptux | publisher=freecode.com | accessdate=9 December 2016}}

| {{open source|GPL-2.0-or-later}}

| {{dunno}}

Miranda NG

| Windows Messenger service

| Roland Rabien

| 2000

| 0.96.1 ({{start date and age|2022|06|02}})

| {{free|No cost}}

| {{open source|GPL-2.0-or-later}}

| C/C++

Pidgin{{cite web | url=http://www.ubuntubuzz.com/2011/11/use-pidgin-for-chatting-and.html | title=Use Pidgin for Chatting And Transferring Files on Local Network Without Internet Connection | publisher=ubuntubuzz.com | accessdate=9 December 2016}}

| Bonjour IM Protocol

| Mark Spencer, others

| 1998

| 2.14.12 ({{start date and age|2022|12|31}})

| {{free|No cost}}

| {{open source|GPL-2.0-or-later}}

| C

qTox

| Tox Protocol

| Tux3

| ?

| 1.17.6 ({{start date and age|2022|3|7}})

| {{free|No cost}}

| {{open source|GPL-3.0-or-later}}

| C++ and Qt

Operating system support

The operating systems the messengers can run on without emulators or compatibility layers.

class="wikitable"

|+

!Client

!Windows

!Mac OS

!Linux

!Android

!iOS

!BSD

!Other

BeeBEEP{{yes}}{{yes}}{{yes}}{{no}}{{no}}{{yes}}Raspberry OS
BORGChat{{yes}}{{no}}{{no}}{{no}}{{no}}{{no}}
Briar{{no}}{{no}}{{no}}{{yes}}{{no}}{{no}}
iChat{{no}}{{yes}}{{no}}{{no}}{{no}}{{no}}
iptux
Miranda NG{{yes}}{{no}}{{no}}{{no}}{{no}}{{no}}
Pidgin{{yes}}{{yes}}{{yes}}FreeBSD
NetBSD
OpenBSD		Solaris

Illumos
qTox{{yes}}{{yes}}{{yes}}{{no}}{{no}}FreeBSD

Features

{{sort-under}}

class="wikitable sortable sort-under" style="font-size: smaller; width: auto; text-align: center;"

|+ Information on what features each of the clients support

!

!Toolkits or SDKs

!Private messages

!Private chat

!Public chat

!Message board

!Encryption

!File transfer

!Unicode (UTF-8)

!Message filtration

!Graphical smileys

!Message logging

!Whiteboard

!Terminal Service Compatibility

!User base in Active Directory

!Serverless (No server required)

BeeBEEP

| {{No}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{No}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{Yes}}

BORGChat

| {{No}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{No}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{No}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{No}}

| {{No}}

| {{No}}

| {{Yes}}

Briar

| {{No}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{No}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{No}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{No}}

| {{No}}

| {{No}}

| {{Yes}}

iChat 1

| {{No}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{No}}

| {{No}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{No}}

| {{No}}

| {{No}}

| {{No}}

| {{No}}

| {{No}}

| {{No}}

| {{No}}

iptux

| {{No}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{No}}

| {{No}}

| {{No}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{No}}

| {{No}}

| {{No}}

| {{No}}

| {{No}}

| {{No}}

| {{Yes}}

Miranda NG

| {{dunno}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{dunno}}

| {{dunno}}

| {{dunno}}

| {{dunno}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{dunno}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{dunno}}

| {{dunno}}

| {{dunno}}

| {{Yes}}

qTox

| {{No}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{No}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{No}}

| {{No}}

| {{No}}

| {{Yes}}

Note 1: Using Apple's Bonjour protocol

See also

References

{{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Comparison Of Lan Messengers}}

WLAN messengers