Based on my infrequent use of IRC, I am not interested in investing in learning the tools - which by the way change quite a bit over a few decades.

On the other hand, the same usage pattern with other chat apps such as Zulip/Slack/Mattermost and others requires no specialized knowledge.

irccloud.com looks great, except for the fact that you have to pay if you don't want to be kicked off after 2 hours of inactivity.