Atheme IRC Services vs Charybdis IRCd
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted chat & communication options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Atheme IRC Services | Charybdis IRCd |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 59 · Fair | 7 · At risk |
| Status | Actively maintained | Archived |
| Category | Chat & Communication | Chat & Communication |
| License | ISC | GPL-2.0 |
| Language | C | C |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal, source | bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 429 | ★ 230 |
| First released | 2005 | 2008 |
| Replaces | Slack | Discord, Slack |
What are Atheme IRC Services and Charybdis IRCd?
Atheme IRC Services
Atheme is a set of IRC services designed for large and highly scalable IRC networks. It provides account registration, channel management, and a flexible modular architecture.
- Scales to large networks
- Modular service design
- Account and channel management
- Used by historic IRC networks
Charybdis IRCd
Charybdis is an IRCv3-capable IRC server daemon descended from ratbox, designed to power large IRC networks. It has been used as the basis for several other IRC server projects and is fully self-hostable.
- IRCv3-capable IRC server
- Designed for large networks
- Basis for other IRC daemons
Atheme IRC Services vs Charybdis IRCd: key differences
The biggest difference is maintenance: Charybdis IRCd's repository is archived and no longer developed, while Atheme IRC Services is actively maintained. Both projects are written in C. Licensing differs — ISC for Atheme IRC Services versus GPL-2.0 for Charybdis IRCd. Atheme IRC Services is the more established project (first released 2005), while Charybdis IRCd arrived in 2008.
Why pick each one
Choose Atheme IRC Services if…
- Released under the ISC license
- Written in C
- Tiny footprint — runs in 64 MB RAM
Choose Charybdis IRCd if…
- Released under the GPL-2.0 license
- Written in C
- Tiny footprint — runs in 64 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Atheme IRC Services or Charybdis IRCd better?
Neither is universally better. Atheme IRC Services has the larger community, while Charybdis IRCd is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Atheme IRC Services and Charybdis IRCd free and open-source?
Yes. Atheme IRC Services is licensed under ISC and Charybdis IRCd under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Atheme IRC Services and Charybdis IRCd with Docker?
Atheme IRC Services: check the project docs for container support. Charybdis IRCd: check the project docs for container support.