Atheme IRC Services vs Glowing Bear
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 | Glowing Bear |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 59 · Fair | 62 · Good |
| Category | Chat & Communication | Chat & Communication |
| License | ISC | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | C | JavaScript |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal, source | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 429 | ★ 978 |
| First released | 2005 | 2014 |
| Replaces | Slack | IRCCloud, Slack |
What are Atheme IRC Services and Glowing Bear?
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
Glowing Bear
Glowing Bear is a web front end that connects to a WeeChat relay, giving the powerful WeeChat IRC client a modern browser interface. It supports notifications, themes, and mobile use.
- WeeChat relay front end
- Browser-based IRC
- Push notifications
- Theme support
Atheme IRC Services vs Glowing Bear: key differences
Atheme IRC Services is written in C, while Glowing Bear is built with JavaScript. Licensing differs — ISC for Atheme IRC Services versus GPL-3.0 for Glowing Bear. Atheme IRC Services is the more established project (first released 2005), while Glowing Bear arrived in 2014. Glowing Bear has the considerably larger community, at 978 GitHub stars versus 429. Glowing Bear lists first-class Docker deployment; Atheme IRC Services does not.
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 Glowing Bear if…
- Leverages WeeChat power
- Works on mobile browsers
Watch out for
- Requires WeeChat relay
- IRC focused
Frequently asked questions
Is Atheme IRC Services or Glowing Bear better?
Glowing Bear is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler medium setup. Consider Atheme IRC Services if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Atheme IRC Services and Glowing Bear free and open-source?
Yes. Atheme IRC Services is licensed under ISC and Glowing Bear under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Atheme IRC Services and Glowing Bear with Docker?
Atheme IRC Services: check the project docs for container support. Glowing Bear: yes.