Updates by Email
RSSThree Free Multi-Protocol Instant Messengers You Should Know About
Do you use still use four different IM clients to chat with your friends on various services like AIM, Yahoo!, or Google Talk? You know there’s no need for that, right? If you’re willing to give up some of the advanced features in favor of an all in one client, you can simplify your chatting life.
I went through hundreds of clients to sift out what I thought were the best multi-protocol IM clients out there. My requirements were:
- It must be free (as in beer).
- It must run on Windows.
- It cannot be a beta.
- It must be actively developed.
- It must support at least five major protocols.
- It must support encryption.
- It must support basic features like graphical smilies, message logging, themes and file transfer.
- It must not require registration to use.
Originally, the last requirement wasn’t on the list, but as I went through more and more clients, being asked to sign up for yet another online account started getting on my nerves. The goal was to consolidate my accounts, not add more. Once this requirement was added, my list was cut down to only three clients: Trillian, Miranda, and Pidgin.
Trillian
Cost: Free
License: Proprietary
Supported O/S: Windows
Basic Protocols (5): AIM, ICQ, Windows Live (MSN), Yahoo!, IRC,
Extra Protocols: None
Trillian may not support as many protocols as its open source counterparts, but it’s the only client to support voice chat. It also has the slickest interface of the group and supports spell checking natively. It was the clear winner in the group in terms of memory usage, using a scant 5.6 MB when idle, compared with Pidgin’s 22 MB and Miranda’s 7.5 MB. In use the software performed exactly as expected with no major hiccups. There were a couple of minor drawbacks, though. Because of its profit based nature, Trillian attempts to bundle toolbars from the Weather Channel and Ask.com during the installation. The options are easily unchecked to avoid the installs, provided the user is paying attention. It also left remnants behind in both the file tree and the registry when uninstalled. These are worth noting, but are relatively small drawbacks for solid performance and the lowest memory usage of the group.
Website: http://www.ceruleanstudios.com
Download: Trillian Basic or Trillian Portable
Miranda
Cost: Free
License: GPL
Supported O/S: Windows
Basic Protocols (6): AIM, ICQ, Windows Live (MSN), Yahoo!, IRC, XMPP (Google Talk, Jabber, etc.)
Extra Protocols: Tlen, LAN (NetSend, WinPopup, Novell Netware NCP, BattleNet, Vypress Chat, Quick Chat, and Walla Chat), OTR, QQ, Gadu-Gadu, Lotus Sametime, Bonjour
Miranda supports all six of the major IM clients, and is second only to Pidgin in terms of number of extra protocols supported. It’s the most stylistically challenged of the group out of the box, but with so many themes available, it’s an easily correctable issue. The strong point of Miranda is that it’s extremely quick to install and use. It is by far the fastest of the group, despite its middle of the road memory footprint. I have used the product happily for years at a time, but finally traded it in for Pidgin. The major drawback of Miranda is that the database that it uses seems to corrupt every once and a while, causing the user to have to rebuild the database. It’s such an issue that a shortcut to the Database Repair Tool is placed on the start menu with the application during installation. My database has corrupted on several occasions in the past, and even though it’s a one click fix with no data loss, it’s more of a hassle than having no issues at all.
Website: http://www.miranda-im.org
Downloads: Miranda or Miranda Portable
Pidgin
Cost: Free
License: GPL
Supported O/S: Windows, Linux, BSD, Unix
Basic Protocols (6): AIM, ICQ, Windows Live (MSN), Yahoo!, IRC, XMPP (Google Talk, Jabber, etc.)
Extra Protocols: SILC, Zephyr, XFire, OTR (with plugin), Blizzard Battle-Net Chat (with plugin), QQ, Gadu-Gadu, Novell Groupwise, Lotus Sametime (with plugin)
You may never have heard of Pidgin, but it has years of development behind it. The application formerly known as GAIM was recently renamed to Pidgin as part of a settlement with AOL, who thought that “GAIM” and “AIM” were named a little too closely to be distinguishable. New name, same code. The interface for Pidgin is not as slick as Trillian’s, but not as angular as Miranda’s, making it the least obtrusive for me as far as style. It’s installed with spell checking, and supports more protocols and operating systems than either of its competitors. It’s covered under the GPL license, which should warm the hearts of most nerds, but doesn’t support voice chat or webcams.
Website: http://pidgin.im
Downloads: Pidgin or GAIM Portable
Conclusion: So Which Is Best?
All of the clients listed have portable versions that can be run from a thumb drive, allowing you to IM from places where you can’t (or shouldn’t) install software. These versions are also a good way to get a feel for a client without running a full install on your PC. While all three have their benefits and drawbacks, any of them is a solid way to handle your multi-protocol IM needs. The one you choose is largely a matter of which one feels right to you.
Share, Bookmark, or E-Mail This Article
July 10th, 2007 at 7:40 pm
As often as I DON’T use any type of IM service - GAIM/Pidgin has been my favorite.
I tried Trillian for a while, but it was LONG time ago, and before I was introduced to GAIM.
Never used Miranda, but with a client like Pidgin, why would I want to?
The only thing I don’t like about Pidgin (and probably the others as well) is the IRC client portion of it. I’d rather have a standalone IRC client like BitchX or IRSSI than use the one integrated in with one of these. I’d probably even go as far to say that I’d use mIRC over these. Scary. Khaled Mardam-Bey has my soul.
July 11th, 2007 at 2:02 pm
They’re all interchangeable, really. I think the choice is just a matter of personal preference.
As nerdy as I claim to be, I’ve never logged in to IRC, and almost eliminated it as a requirement for this roundup.
July 13th, 2007 at 12:48 pm
I use trillian at work, it’s excellent. I think my favorite part is that it does NOT recognize all the silly MSN messenger icons and sounds my coworkers are always trying to send me.
Too bad you’re not opening your list to OSX clients… Adium is one of the 10 killer apps I advise every Mac user to try.
July 18th, 2007 at 7:24 am
You have forgot Kopete, which is a free/opensource multiprotocole client for KDE, the free/opensource desktop environment running under Linux, Unix and *BSD.
http://kopete.kde.org/
July 18th, 2007 at 7:39 am
Oops, I also forgot to mention Adium, the free/opensource multiprotocol IM client for Mac OS X. It is very pretty, and technically based on libpurple (ex-libgaim), the library used in Pidgin (ex-Gaim).
July 18th, 2007 at 11:12 am
The problem with Pidgin and Miranda is they are more prone to crashing than Trillian. Pidgin actually crashes a TON, they fix a bug every couple months, but it still can be very problematic. Miranda crashes less often, but it still crashes. On the other hand, Trillian has been up and stable for ages.
July 18th, 2007 at 1:31 pm
Nÿco, thanks for the heads up on the Linux and OSX clients, but they were omitted because I was focusing on strictly Windows clients. If I ever get the patience for Linux or the money for Apple, I’ll check them out.
Dan, I use all three of these daily depending on which I’m in the mood for, and I’ve had Miranda crash more than Pidgin, which has never crashed on me. I’d actually say that Pidgin is probably my favorite out of the bunch. Trillian isn’t bad, either, but it has too many distractions built in for my taste.
September 10th, 2007 at 1:55 pm
While I love Miranda and its flexibility and speed, I’m not so excited about its stability (true, I’m running the latest bleeding edge version, hehe). It crashes on me at least once a day. I’ll have to check the latest Pidgin, I haven’t used it since it was Gaim.
September 12th, 2007 at 8:08 am
Nice article, I have been using Miranda(0.6.8) for over a month now with no crash. I had used Trillian in the past but slowly moved away from it. Never tried GAIM/Pidgin, although have several friends that swear by it.
Would be nice to see Miranda and Gaim team up to make the encryped chat compatible. Maybe they do, never checked.
Would be great if they work together and take the best of both worlds.
MiranGin? Pidanda?
February 5th, 2008 at 12:08 am
I have only tried Pidgin and i love it, It has yet to crash on me and it supports more Protocols. It is quite fast for me and i suggest it to anyone looking for Multi-Protocol Instant Messenger. Adium is the best for MAC in my opinion, my friend has it and its great. Thanks for writing this Jon.
March 25th, 2008 at 9:56 am
I tried all three of these and ended up with Pidgin because Miranda is just plain ugly and the free version of Trillian does not support Gmail chat/Google Talk, only in the paid Pro version. Pidgin was very easy to set up, receives formatting and custom animated smilies from Windows Live buddies, file transfer works like a charm. You can install custom smiley themes in Pidgin, but my buddies don’t seem to receive them, they only see the codes. That’s fine with me, I’m not a big fan of smilies, but some of my buddies use them so much that it’s hard to understand what they’re trying to say without them, so I’m glad their smilies show up correctly in Pidgin. I must say, I’ve had Pidgin crash twice so far, but no data was lost. As far as styling, I really like the clean and simple look of Pidgin.
May 17th, 2008 at 10:37 pm
I have tried Pidgin and Trillion, and i loved pidgin the most, but it had one critical item missing: voice conversation. Since i am away from home for school, i like to keep in touch with them, and calling on a cell costs too much; and since i am in a boarding house this year, i don’t want to jack up their phone bill So the voice conversation was the critical choice between Trillion and Pidgin.
The second crucial factor was that Trillion uses less of the system resources (6mb compared to 20mb for pidgin).
Overall, once you get used to it, Trillion is a nice application it works the way i want it to and it works for what i want it for: IRC and MSN.