Jabber has millions of fans all over the world and since it's a free and open protocol, lots of companies and individual users has already adopted it. There are numerous servers out there and a lot of applications which could let users connect to them but, at this time, only a number of small programs managed to become a real solution for communicating on Jabber servers.

That's why we'll present you the five best and Windows-based Jabber clients on the market which could provide both an attractive interface and well-developed functions. I must mention from the beginning that all of these applications are free for all users, so there's no need to pay for them. Moreover, I didn't include Pidgin among them because most of you already know and use it for communicating on certain online networks.

Psi - Instant messaging as free and open as it should be

Psi is one of the Jabber clients which let you communicate on many other networks besides Jabber, including here AIM, ICQ, MSN Messenger and Yahoo Messenger. Moreover, it comes with multi-language support which allow you to download and install separate language packs such as French, Spanish, Polish and Czech. Psi is an application compatible with multiple platforms, no matter if we're talking about Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X or Linux.




Gajim - Full featured and easy to use Jabber client

In comparison with Psi, Gajim is only compatible with Windows and several Linux distributions, so no Mac OS X for the time being. However, Gajim may be the application you've always wanted because it provides well-developed and advanced functions which could really make it a "full-featured" tool. For instance, it allows you to organize the chatting windows on tabs, initiate conferences, transfer files and even customize the chatting experience with avatars and emoticons.

Just like Psi, Gajim supports a large number of languages, including here Croatian, German, Polish, Russian and Spanish.




Spark - Open source, cross-platform IM client optimized for businesses and organizations

If you're looking for an eye-candy Jabber application, Spark is definitely the application you're searching for. Besides that, it looks really great, Spark incorporates numerous advanced features which could provide more than a simple chatting experience on the Jabber network. For instance, Spark comes with conference support, spell checking and, just like Gajim, tab support. The bad thing about Spark is that it requires Java so, in case you want to use it, you'll also have to download and install Java.




Jeti - To Jabber in Java

If Spark was described as a good-looking Jabber client, Jeti can be considered entirely different. Although it does not provide such an attractive interface, Jeti was designed to provide a simple way to communicate on the Jabber network. Just like its motto explains, Java is also required to run Jeti so you have to download it before downloading and installing the client. The interesting aspect of Jeti is actually the fact that it can be run as a Web applet. However, it also brings several popular features such as file transfer, group chat, emoticons support and message formatting which lets you change the way your messages look.



Coccinella - Chat client with whiteboard

Coccinella is basically a whiteboard chat client which allows you to collaborate and work with your contacts easier than anytime before. However, beside the whiteboard support, Coccinella provides pretty advanced functions including here file transfer, avatars and emoticons, secured connections and conference support. Moreover, it comes with plug-in support which obviously lets you bring even more functions to the application.



As you can see, we've presented only the main functions of the application because you're the one who must decide how useful it is, how well it works and how good it looks. So, have a look at the pictures placed under every program and, if you like what you seen, give it a try and let us know what you think.