Mercury Messenger, also known as MM or dMSN, is a free alternative to MSN Messenger offering almost all the same features.

The IM client allows you to connect to your live or hotmail account and chat with your contacts. You can organize them by groups, use emoticons, send files and activate your webcam during chats. The interface itself is highly similar to that of MSN Messenger albeit a much less attractive one. I found that the different elements are placed a little clumsily here and there, making Mercury Messenger slightly unintuitive. Luckily the interface is interchangeable so if you find a good skin you can use that instead.

A big difference with MSN Messenger is RSS support. Mercury allows you to add and preview RSS feeds. I was a little skeptic of the idea at first, as I much prefer previewing RSS feeds on a whole screen, however I found it very similar to feed reading on a mobile device, which works in some way. Mercury Messenger has a tabbed interface which allows you to open and work with multiple accounts. Beware that having too many open simply ends up confusing though.

Although missing the most recent features of MSN Messengers and despite a weaker interface, Mercury Messenger is a good alternative with RSS and multiple account support.

Download Mercury Messenger 1.9 in Softonic

People tend to stick to the more known messaging clients when there are so many excellent open source alternatives out there like Psi.

This client was built to connect to multiple Jabber accounts and more known IM accounts like Yahoo or MSN. It's simple to set up, thanks to startup tips and guides found in the forum and wiki.

This last point is one of the main strengths of Psi. The open source project benefits from a strong community which has really helped make it a solid messaging client over the years. One of the examples of that is all the localized version of Psi that are available.

Psi is easy to use, yet discreet and features lots of iconsets and emoticons. You can also fully customize the interface and add your own icons. You can work with hotkeys and create command lines to insert in your chats, however more technical users will probably feel more comfortable working with these.

Users worried about their security or working with Psi in a public environment will be glad to know that it features SSL encryption and lets you use OpenPGP to send encrypted messages.

Psi is a real pleasure to use and is loaded with features, from security to customization and not forgetting multiple IM and Jabber compatibility. If you're looking for a good alternative messaging client, this is the one to choose.

Download Psi 0.11 in Softonic

Coccinella is an open source jabber client with a nice set of features.

Coupled with a whiteboard, Coccinella becomes a useful tool to chat and work on projects with other people on a network. Although it won't let you use multiple accounts, the client is highly flexible, and will allow you to connect to any Jabber/XMPP server, including popular IMs like Messenger, ICQ and even Google Talk. However you won't be able to make use of the VoIP capabilities and webcam support of these IM services, as Coccinella does not handle them. We also did suffer some stalls when launching the application. However, general performances of the client were good.

The client's interface is simple and uncluttered and you can keep all your messages in an inbox, making them easy to browse by subject, sender or date. Coccinella also offers file transfers, and you can choose your own avatars. Apart from the decent collection of emoticons, you can also import new ones if you have them in jisp format.

The whiteboard is really fun to use and easy to share with as many other users as you want. Coccinella also offers up connections to chatrooms, something we've never really been convinced of, but at least, for people interested, it's there.

Coccinella is a good open source jabber client with a whiteboard and loads of emoticons that can connect to any server. A recommended IM tool.

Download Coccinella 0.96.4 in Softonic

Spark is an IM client that you can use in organizations such as schools or companies to allow people communicate with each other in a quick, efficient way. Of course, there's the possibility to use one of the big IM programs like Live or Yahoo! Messenger, but Spark is faster and far more secure. It uses the Jabber protocol which can be configured to use either private or public networks, depending on the plug-ins you install on your server.

Spark displays a nicely designed interface that makes it really pleasant to use. I especially like the emoticons sets included in the program, as well as the usage of a color code to distinguish between different statuses (online, away, busy and so on). Spark also has some extra details that are hardly found in LAN clients, such as avatar support, conference rooms, voice chat, spellcheck and even a special tool to capture anything on your screen and send it directly to any contact. What's more, the program includes some other useful tools like a basic note editor and a task list.

Of course, no software app is perfect and neither Spark is. I had some problems when trying to organize my contacts into groups, with groups completely disappearing from my screen (but easily recovered by restarting the program). Also, I feel configuration settings fall too short: I'd like to be able to change the font and color of my text or hide offline contacts, just to mention two missing options.

Spark is an attractive, secure and fast IM client for local network communication, with extra tools that make it a great companion for your daily work at office.

Download Spark 2.5.8 in Softonic

For those of you that use the iChat client, iModz will power up the features of Apple's chat client. This little program lets you manage your status in iChat adding all sorts of information. Very simple to use it allows you to change your status with any sort of static or animated image. I personally quite like the feature to display iTunes songs in iChat, similar to what is already available in Skype. If you feel creative you can also use iModz to display all sorts of info like links from Safari or an email from Apple Mail.

It's a shame that iModz is only limited to iChat. This nifty client really brings more to iChat's functionalities, allowing you to share extra information with all your contacts. Effectively, if you use iChat with iModz you're getting a great chat client with loads of features.

Download iModz 1.5 in Softonic

Adium is already a popular instant messaging application for Mac offering as it does access to multiple protocols and accounts. You can use it to connect to AIM, MSN, Yahoo!, Google Talk, Jabber and other chat services all at the same time, meaning you only need one chat program open for all your different accounts.

In this special mobile bundle, the application is designed to be placed on your portable device (e.g. USB key, iPod, portable hard disk etc) so that you can run it on any Mac you like. Simply connect your portable device and run the program directly from it: all your profile and account info are stored on your device, meaning there's no need to set-up your client on each new machine you use.

The design, implementation and performance of this version of Adium are just as great as on the normal version. The only thing I'd question is just how useful the portable version would be: between work and home it could serve as handy but with very few internet cafés opting for Macs, it might prove less useful for travellers and students.

Download Portable Adium 1.2.2 r4.0 in Softonic

The older version of Messenger, 4.0.1, still remains a top download on Softonic, even though it's been superseded by the newer Microsoft Messenger 6.0.3. This version will be useful for those of you that still have any Mac OS under 10.3.9. Fitted with all the basic functions you'd expect of Messenger, the application lets you organize your contacts in different groups, set your status and use emoticons. New conversations open up in a new window, which you can move around anywhere on the screen.

While it's fairly easy to check your Hotmail account thanks to the mail button at the top of the interface, we found that sending files and images to other users can be a bit slow. MSN Messenger can fairly be used as basic IM client, we still recommend updating to the latest version, for those of you that can. Not only is it more secure, but it will also offer more features and a sleeker interface.

A good and basic IM client for anyone with a Mac OS under 10.3.9.

Download MSN Messenger 4.0.1 in Softonic

BitWise Personal is an instant messaging application for personal/home use and is free. It is encrypted using proven, industry-standard methods. It offers direct connect, sending messages, etc. without a server. Bitwise IM has its own network that does not rely on another system. It is committed to privacy with no ads or spyware.

Here is a list of its features:

• Text Messaging
• File Sharing
• Whiteboards
• Voice
• Mobility
• Encryption
• Security
• Privacy
• Conferencing
• Presence
• Logging
• Offline IMs
• Direct Connect
• Encryption Keys

Download Bitwise IM Personal 1.7 in Softonic

Fire is a multi-protocol internet Instant Messaging client based on freely available libraries for each service. It is released under the GNU GPL. All services are built off of GPL’d libraries, including firetalk, libicq2000, libmsn, jabber, and libyahoo2 (Linux libraries). Fire can handle similtaneous connections to AIM®, ICQ®, Yahoo!®, IRC, MSN® and Jabber. Fire is not affiliated with AOL-Time Warner, Microsoft or Yahoo!®.

Download Fire 1.5.6 in Softonic

ICQ for Mac is a user-friendly Internet program that searches for your friends and associates on the Net, alerting you in real time when they sign on. You can exchange messages and files, engage in real-time chat, play games, and more. Newer features include improved client-server communication, expanded preferences, speech support, drag-and-drop capabilities for text and files, bug fixes, and an enhanced interface. In addition, messages can be sorted and exported to a text file or copied to the clipboard; preferences for using ICQ from behind a firewall have been added; and there is now more search criteria to choose from, including the ability to search for online users only. Also, ICQ now stores your contact list on the server; a new ICQ global hot key can be set in the preferences; there is better AppleScript support; and much more.

Download ICQ for Mac 3.4 in Softonic

Mac Messenger is an open-source MSN Messenger client for Mac which features Emoticons, Auto-messages, many customizable options, emoticon bar and much, much more! It is being developed with REALbasic 5.5

Download Mac Messenger 3.5.4 in Softonic

You don't have to be an America Online member to use AOL Instant Messenger, a program that allows Internet users to communicate via private text messages. AOL Instant Messenger indicates when your friends, family members, or business colleagues are online. It has the ability to combine AOL's Buddy List and Instant Message features, enabling users to send and respond to messages.

Download AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) 4.7 in Softonic