Yeah, I hope the author here collaborates with Convos, http://ircanywhere.com, and the mentioned Subway (https://github.com/thedjpetersen/subway ) in some way.
Otherwise I see 4 open source web-based IRC clients with very few regular contributors each. And the only really good IRC web client will still be IRCCloud (which is proprietary).
In Shout – A web IRC clientthedjpetersen
subway
JavaScript2012–2014
thedjpetersen / subway
subway
ABANDONED - A web based IRC client
17Distinct people
20Mentions
0Explicit recommenders
1.5KGitHub stars
What to know before exploring
What it is
ABANDONED - A web based IRC client
GitHub
Where it is used
No documented product use was verified in the last source check.
What people are saying
No recommendation phrase was found in the indexed comments.
No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.
Also in these discussions
- prawnsalad/kiwiirc · linked in 2 of the same discussions
Mentioned in the same Hacker News threads. That is not proof they are substitutes.
This week on Hacker News
Nov 7–Nov 14 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/14/2026, 5:04:57 PM UTC.
No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.
Mentions over time
HN mentions by month20 dated mentions
Observed mentions: 2012-03-01 18:21:52 UTC to 2014-09-09 14:08:51 UTC.
Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.
View mention counts and date ranges
| Period | Start (UTC) | End (exclusive, UTC) | Mentions | Submissions | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 2012 | 2012-03-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2012-04-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Apr 2012 | 2012-04-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2012-05-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| May 2012 | 2012-05-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2012-06-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jun 2012 | 2012-06-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2012-07-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jul 2012 | 2012-07-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2012-08-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Aug 2012 | 2012-08-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2012-09-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Sep 2012 | 2012-09-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2012-10-01 00:00:00 UTC | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| Oct 2012 | 2012-10-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2012-11-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Nov 2012 | 2012-11-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2012-12-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Dec 2012 | 2012-12-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2013-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Jan 2013 | 2013-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2013-02-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Feb 2013 | 2013-02-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2013-03-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Mar 2013 | 2013-03-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2013-04-01 00:00:00 UTC | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| Apr 2013 | 2013-04-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2013-05-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| May 2013 | 2013-05-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2013-06-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jun 2013 | 2013-06-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2013-07-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jul 2013 | 2013-07-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2013-08-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Aug 2013 | 2013-08-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2013-09-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Sep 2013 | 2013-09-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2013-10-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Oct 2013 | 2013-10-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2013-11-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Nov 2013 | 2013-11-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2013-12-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Dec 2013 | 2013-12-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jan 2014 | 2014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2014-02-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Feb 2014 | 2014-02-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2014-03-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Mar 2014 | 2014-03-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2014-04-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Apr 2014 | 2014-04-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2014-05-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| May 2014 | 2014-05-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2014-06-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jun 2014 | 2014-06-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2014-07-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Jul 2014 | 2014-07-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2014-08-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Aug 2014 | 2014-08-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2014-09-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Sep 2014 | 2014-09-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2014-10-01 00:00:00 UTC | 3 | 0 | 3 |
From the project README
An excerpt from the repository, fetched Nov 13, 2026.
Read the project’s introduction
Subway
Subway is not currently functional and not under active development. While the plan is to finish this project some point in the future, currently the maintainer strongly suggests taking a look at The Lounge.
Subway is a web-based IRC client with a multi-user backend and a
JavaScript-heavy UI. Frontend/backend communication is done with
websockets (or best available fallback where not available).
The backend supports connection persistence and optional logging when the
browser disconnects.
Subway is built with node.js,
node-irc
and Backbone.js/ReactJS and
jQuery on the frontend.
Screenshots
Installation
Should be something like this, once implemented:
Assuming you already have node.js, and npm, run:
$ git clone https://github.com/thedjpetersen/subway.git
$ cd subway
Install the dependencies using npm:
$ npm install
Launch the web server
$ ./subway.js
Point your browser at http://localhost:3000/
Development
Discussion about the client takes place on this repository's Issues page.
Contributors are welcome and greatly appreciated.
Goals
Its goals are twofold:
Become the best web-based IRC client available
Provide a really easy method of persistent IRC connections, available
from any web browser
The inspiration for Subway was trying to watch a fellow programmer try
to explain how to set up screen/irssi to a non-technical person.
License
Excepting third-party assets (licensed as specified in their respective files
or directories), this project is covered by the MIT License:
The MIT License (MIT)
Copyright (c) 2015 David Petersen
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of
this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in
the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to
use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies
of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do
so, subject to the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Software.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
SOFTWARE.
Read the full README on GitHubWhat Hacker News says
20 sourcesApparently there's a protocol that addresses this issue (WEBIRC): https://github.com/thedjpetersen/subway/issues/117
In Shout – A web IRC clientAnother one built on node.js, just like shout, is "subway": https://github.com/thedjpetersen/subway
In Shout – A web IRC clientNice! We need to have better UX around getting connected to underlying IRC networks. How doe this compare to Subway [1]?
[1]: https://github.com/thedjpetersen/subway
In Show HN: A browser-based IRC client built on Node.js – first Node projectOther browser-based irc clients written in nodejs:
KiwiIRC - Probably the most used of them. https://github.com/prawnsalad/KiwiIRC
Subway - I've been following this one for a bit because it look promising. It's nice. https://github.com/thedjpetersen/subway
nirc - This one is pretty simple and I'd say a little less polished than yours, but still does a lot of things right. https://github.com/cjstewart88/nirc
If anyone knows of others, I'm interested.
I'd also like to plug glowing-bear (https://glowing-bear.github.io/glowing-bear/) since it's a rather cool project. It's an entirely static html5 frontend to weechat.
In Show HN: A browser-based IRC client built on Node.js – first Node projectHave you seen Subway ( https://github.com/thedjpetersen/subway )? If so do you have different goals with your project?
In Propose HN: Screenshot SaturdayThere are tons of free apps, with contenders like Kandan (https://github.com/kandanapp/kandan) if you're looking for a self-hosted or free alternative to HipChat/Campfire, you can even find sexy-ish Web clients for IRC (https://github.com/thedjpetersen/subway).
The problem I see with message apps is that it's like email; you really wished you could host it yourself and fine tune things (as well as make sure nobody is eavesdropping). But you can't have it down or (worse) performing at half capacity. It needs to be up all the time with almost perfect quality.
Sure you can set something up yourself, but you'll probably struggle with maintaining a decent QoS, and if your team is any good, they probably won't allow that to go on very long.
In Show HN: Mogo Chat – open-source team chat app written in Elixir and Ember.jsA web based IRC client built with Node.js, node-irc and Backbone.js
3 points · Open discussionHere's an open source competitor: https://github.com/thedjpetersen/subway
In IRCCloudhttps://github.com/thedjpetersen/subway adds persistence and a web based client to IRC.
In Ask HN: Are there any good open-sourced IRC tools for teamsI have plans for something like that in the future, but first I'd like to perfect the client itself (a persistent connection would require a server).
For now you can always try out https://www.irccloud.com or https://github.com/thedjpetersen/subway
In HipChat is now free for teams of 5 users or fewerYou could also try subway[1] and kiwiirc[2].
[1]: https://github.com/thedjpetersen/subway
[2]: https://github.com/prawnsalad/KiwiIRC
In HipChat is now free for teams of 5 users or fewerI recently installed Subway IRC on my server and loving it! https://github.com/thedjpetersen/subway If you look web-based IRC client. Its build on Node and Backbone.
In Kandan, an Open Source Alternative to HipChatHow does this compare to subway?
https://github.com/thedjpetersen/subway
In Show HN: An open source IRC client for your web browserSpeaking of IRC persistence. Subway IRC https://github.com/thedjpetersen/subway
In Show HN: IRCRelay - Hosted IRC Bouncer ServiceShowing the 15 most recent of 20 sources. Enable JavaScript to search and browse every indexed mention.