If you want to operate your own public or private IRC chats, you can in principle use external solutions such as the online servers of Libera Cat. However, an individual IRC server gives you the full control over all data, files and settings. Plus, you don’t have to deal with the daily risks and problems caused by bots and spammers on publicly available IRC networks.
If you do not wish to acquire a separate computer for hosting the IRC server, it is recommended to rent server hardware from a web host. The hardware requirements are so minimal that you are usually already sufficiently equipped for IRC chats with several hundred participants, and that at advantageous rates. The general rule is: the more people can access the IRC server simultaneously, the more RAM and CPU you should rent. In the table below, we have listed three typical usage scenarios and the corresponding IONOS server prices.
