Colloquy vs Element X
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Colloquy
This app brings the functionality of a popular desktop IRC client to your mobile device. It offers a full-featured experience optimized for on-the-go use with iOS multitasking and push notifications. Enjoy customizable settings, message highlighting, and robust IRC command support.
- Retina display support
- iOS multitasking and split-screen
- Push notifications with bouncer
- Nickname and emoticon completion
- Message highlighting and vibration
- Customizable interface and behavior
- WHOIS user information display
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Colloquy for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch puts the power of the most popular IRC client for the Mac in the palm of your hand. Built atop the Chat Core framework, Colloquy Mobile is a full featured client optimized for the on-the-go experience with iOS multitasking support. Unique Features: • Support for retina devices, including iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus and iPad Pro. • Support for iOS multitasking with local notifications and split-screen support. • Push notifications when using a compatible push bouncer. • Convenient nickname and emoticon completion popups. • Support for all the common IRC commands with completion. • Organized Colloquies view that shows all your conversations and rooms at a glance. • Highlights messages (and optionally vibrates) when your specific words or nickname is mentioned. • Highly customizable interface and behavior settings within the Settings application. • Visual display of user information (WHOIS) for any user. • Full support for landscape mode in the entire application. • Stays connected while iPhone is locked and when SMS alerts appear. • Searchable room member list. • Support for SASL authentication (required when connecting to Freenode over the cell network.) • A console for every connection. • Support for ignoring annoying users. Standard Features: • Multiple message styles to choose from. • Fully compatible with mIRC colors and formatting. • Large selection of graphical emoticons. • Allows you to join multiple chat rooms across many different servers. • Automatic identification with network services (NickServ). • Notification of common server errors as easy to understand alerts. • Automatically join rooms and send commands upon connect. • Solid support for secure connections over SSL and TLS. • Full support for room and connection text encodings. • Full IRCv3 compatibility, including the IRCv3.2 standard. • Open minded and Open Source, like it should be. ATTENTION: We can't provide support here to people leaving reviews, as much as we want to. We also can't discuss feature requests, since there is no way to reply to you here. If you have a problem or suggestion, please visit us in #colloquy-mobile on irc.freenode.net, click the support link below, or email us at support@colloquy.mobi.
Element X
Communicate securely and privately with instant messaging and video calls. This app offers robust features for individuals and communities, allowing you to own your data and choose where it's hosted. Enjoy real-time communication with synchronized history across all your devices.
- Real-time messaging
- Video calls
- Public and private rooms
- Rich messaging features
- Cross-device synchronization
- Data ownership and server choice
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Freedom to communicate on your own terms For individuals and communities - private communication between family, friends, hobby groups, clubs, etc. Element X gives you fast, secure and private instant messaging and video calls built on Matrix, the open standard for real-time communication. This is a free and open-source app maintained at https://github.com/element-hq/element-x-ios Stay in touch with friends, family and communities with: • Real time messaging & video calls • Public rooms for open group communication • Private rooms for closed group communication • Rich messaging features: emoji reactions, replies, polls, pinned messages and more. • Video calling while browsing messages. • Interoperability with other Matrix-based apps such as FluffyChat, Cinny and many more. Privacy-first Unlike some other messengers from Big Tech companies, we don’t mine your data or monitor your communications. Own your conversations Choose where to host your data - from any public server (the largest free server is matrix.org, but there are plenty of others to choose from) to creating your own personal server and hosting it on your own domain. This ability to choose a server is a large part of what differentiates us from other real time communication apps. However you host, you have ownership; it’s your data. You’re not the product. You’re in control. Communicate in real time, all the time Use Element everywhere. Stay in touch wherever you are with fully synchronised message history across all your devices, including on the web at https://app.element.io Element X is our next-generation app If you’re using the previous-generation Element Classic app, it’s time to try Element X! It’s faster, easier to use, and more powerful than the classic app. It’s better in every way and we’re adding new features all the time.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Element X at Free against Colloquy's $1.99. Element X also leads on rating (3.4 vs 1.8) and ratings volume (156 vs 32). Colloquy's advantage is chart position (#55 vs unranked) and iOS requirement (10.0 vs 18.5). On review sentiment, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Element X is free to download; Colloquy costs $1.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Element X holds the better App Store score, 3.4 against 1.8. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 32 and 156 respectively. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 39% and 39% positive.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on October 15, 2026 and October 14, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Colloquy | Element X |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $1.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 1.8 (32 ratings) | 3.4 (156 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 39.3% of reviews — better | 39.1% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 32 | 156 — better |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly | Fortnightly |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Best chart rank | #55 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 10.0 — better | 18.5 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 10 MB | 313 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 17+ |
| Developer | Colloquy Project | Vector Creations Limited |
Customer experience
Colloquy
Element X
Bugs and requests
Colloquy
Reported bugs
4 issues- Crashes on startup
- Text entry box issues
- Inconsistent user list display
- Broken features after updates
Requested features
4 requests- Dark mode option
- Longer background timeout
- Improved search and user list
- Better file transfer support
Element X
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Colloquy
No in-app purchases
Element X
No in-app purchases









