Sopel

The Python IRC Bot

Comparison to other bots (outdated)

This is an incomplete (and probably outdated) comparison of sopel, jenni, phenny, Supybot, Limnoria, and eggdrop. With Eggdrop, only limited research was done, so some information may be incorrect or missing.

Core features

Feature sopel jenni phenny Supybot Limnoria Eggdrop
Language Python 2.7
Python 3
Python 2.4-2.7 Python 2.4-2.7 Python 2.3-2.7 Python 2.6-2.7
Python 3
C, Tcl
OS Support Cross-platform Linux ? Cross-platform Cross-platform Cross-platform
License EFLv2 EFLv2 EFLv2 BSD 3-clause BSD 3-clause GPL
Last stable release 4.4.1; May 2014 N/A N/A 0.83.4.1; September 2012 N/A 1.8.1; March 2017
Download sources Fedora repos, AUR, PyPI, Git, tarball Git, tarball Git, tarball Multiple Linux distro repos, Git, tarball Multiple Linux distro repos, PyPI, Git, tarball Multiple Linux distro repos, Git, tarball
Unicode support Yes Limited Limited ? Yes Limited
Dynamic plugin reloading Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Documented plugin API Online and in package No No In package Online and in package No
API usability Very simple, IDE friendly Very simple Very simple Complex, IDE friendly ? Complex
SSL support Yes No No Yes Yes Yes
Quickstart wizard Yes No No Yes Yes No
Configuration INI-like, dynamic Python, static Python, static Flat text Flat text Flat text
Daemonizable Yes No No Yes Yes ?
Daemonizable with systemd Yes No No No Yes Yes
Persistent user/channel settings database Yes No No Yes Yes No
Safe inter-plugin communication Yes No No ? ? No
RFC-compliant nick comparison Yes No No Yes Yes ?
Command rate-limiting Yes Yes No Yes Yes ?
Commands can override their rate limit (e.g. on failure) Yes No N/A No No ?
Bot administration authentication nick, hostmask nick, hostmask nick nick, hostmask nick, hostmask, GPG, network services nick, hostmask, telnet
Channel administration authentication IRC modes Freenode services N/A nick, hostmask nick, hostmask, GPG, network services ?
Unit testing system for core functionality Yes No No Yes Yes ?
Unit testing system for user plugins Yes No No Yes Yes ?
Block Disruptive Users Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes
IRCv3 support (including SASL authentication) Yes No No No Yes With third-party scripts
IPv6 Yes No No Yes Yes Yes
  1. phenny, jenni, and limnoria do not have discrete versioned releases. They are available as git repos or snapshot tarballs only.

Plugin features

This section currently only compares between sopel, jenni, and phenny.

Feature sopel jenni phenny
Dynamic topic masks Yes No No
Clock with per-user time zones Yes, dynamic zones Yes, static zones Yes, static zones
Clock with per-channel time zones Yes, dynamic zones No No
Weather information Yahoo!, configurable default location NOAA NOAA
Meeting bot Yes No No

Information provided for URLs

Feature sopel jenni phenny
Bugzilla bug data Yes No No
Reddit post/user data Yes No No
YouTube video data Yes No No
Redmine ticket data Third-party No No
Title Yes Yes Yes