Comparison

Mango IRC vs Beluga Social

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Mango IRC

A modern, native IRC client for iOS and macOS, offering seamless integration with IRCv3 features, bouncer support, and customizable themes. It ensures you never miss messages and syncs settings across devices via iCloud.

Highlights
  • Full IRCv3 support
  • Bouncer-native integration (soju, ZNC)
  • iCloud sync for networks and settings
  • Push notifications for mentions and DMs
  • Customizable themes
  • Native iOS and macOS experience
Features
Read full description

Mango is a native IRC client for iPhone and iPad. Follow your communities, catch up on conversations, and make your chat feel like home. YOUR CONVERSATIONS, ORGANIZED • Connect to multiple IRC networks and keep channels and direct messages together • Find mentions in retained history and jump back to the original conversation • Follow reply threads and browse pinned messages on compatible servers • Search channels, complete nicknames, and use familiar IRC commands MORE THAN PLAIN TEXT • Rich link and image previews, inline video playback, and audio players with waveforms • Emoji reactions, custom emoji, and image-link stickers • Browse, re-share, and manage files in your Mango Uploads library • Choose themes, fonts, chat layouts, and notification sounds CONNECT YOUR WAY • Direct IRC connections, TLS, and WebSocket connections to compatible servers • soju and ZNC bouncer support, with network discovery and connection management • Local conversation caching and earlier history from servers that support CHATHISTORY • iCloud sync for your networks and settings across Mac, iPhone, and iPad Server-dependent features require support from your IRC server or bouncer. Push notifications require a compatible bouncer and setup. Mango Uploads requires a Mango Account. You can connect to other IRC networks without a Mango Account; individual networks may require their own account.

About

Beluga Social

Share your thoughts and updates with friends and followers through a "tweet-like" feed. It generates a mini-website for easy sharing, even with non-users, and supports RSS feed readers for broader reach. This decentralized app ensures you own your data.

Highlights
  • Tweet-like content publishing
  • Personalized mini-website generation
  • JSON Feed compatibility
  • Decentralized data ownership
  • RSS feed reader integration
  • Multiple S3-compatible storage support
Read full description

Publish your thoughts and keep your friends and followers informed of what you are up to. This app is ideal for publishing "tweet-like" content. All your posts are added to your Beluga feed, and a mini-website is generated and published so you can easily share with everyone, even people that don't use the app. You can think of Beluga as a feed reader/writer. All Beluga feeds are JSON Feed compatible, so your friends can follow you on many popular RSS feed reader apps like NetNewsWire and others available on iOS. Beluga is decentralized. We don't have any servers. So you are the owner of your data, and you can host it wherever you like. To publish your Beluga feed and mini-website, you must have an S3-compatible object storage provider account. We currently support Amazon Web Services S3, Wasabi, Digital Ocean Spaces, Linode Objects, Backblaze B2, and DreamHost, with more to come soon.

Screenshots

Mango IRC4 screens
Beluga Social4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Beluga Social at Free against Mango IRC's $9.99. Beluga Social also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.4) and in-app purchases (none vs 3). Mango IRC's advantage is update cadence (every 6 days vs monthly) and chart position (#34 vs unranked). On ads and device support 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Beluga Social is free to download; Mango IRC costs $9.99 up front. Mango IRC sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. Beluga Social asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Beluga Social holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Mango IRC has 5 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Mango IRC ships an update every 6 days, Beluga Social monthly. The most recent releases landed on October 26, 2026 and October 11, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard8 real differences · 3 level
Mango IRC versus Beluga Social: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMango IRCBeluga Social
Price$9.99Free — better
Rating4.4 (5 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Positive reviews26.7% of reviews—
Number of ratings5 — better1
Update frequencyEvery 6 days — betterMonthly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationPaidFree — better
Best chart rank#34 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac — betteriPhone, iPod
Requires iOS17.015.4 — better
Further details — not scored
Size106 MB2 MB
Age rating17+4+
DeveloperPavel KanzelsbergerBlimp, LLC

Customer experience

Mango IRC

All ratings4 ratings
Positive75.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative25.0%
Written reviews60 reviews
Positive26.7%
Neutral16.7%
Negative56.7%

Beluga Social

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Mango IRC

One-time3
  • Small Tip$1.99
  • Medium Tip$3.99
  • Large Tip$8.99
None

Beluga Social

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Mango IRC free?
Mango IRC costs $9.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Is Beluga Social free?
Beluga Social is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Mango IRC or Beluga Social?
Beluga Social is rated higher. Mango IRC averages 4.4 out of 5 from 5 ratings, while Beluga Social averages 5.0 from 1 ratings.
Do Mango IRC or Beluga Social have ads?
Neither Mango IRC nor Beluga Social shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Mango IRC or Beluga Social?
Mango IRC ships an update every 6 days, and Beluga Social monthly. Most recently, Mango IRC was updated on October 26, 2026 and Beluga Social on October 11, 2026.

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