dwm Alternatives

dwm is described as 'Dynamic window manager for X. It manages windows in tiled, monocle and floating layouts. All of the layouts can be applied dynamically, optimising the environment for the application in use and the task performed' and is a Window Manager in the os & utilities category. There are more than 50 alternatives to dwm for a variety of platforms, including Linux, Wayland, BSD, Mac and X11 apps. The best dwm alternative is Hyprland, which is both free and Open Source. Other great apps like dwm are niri, Sway, i3 and Openbox.

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Alternatives
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Alternatives list

  1. Heavily Inspired by i3wm. Wmderland aims to simplify the core functionalities of i3wm, and bundle in the essential features required for a modern but minimal Tiling Window Manager.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source (MIT)

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
    Good alternative?
     
  2. strataWM icon
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    Strata is a cutting-edge, robust and sleek Wayland compositor written in Rust using the Smithay library. It is designed to be minimal and flexible yet customizable. Strata is configured in Lua, a lightweight, high-level, multi-paradigm programming language.

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Wayland
    • Linux
    Good alternative?
     
  3. PaperWM icon
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    PaperWM is an experimental Gnome Shell extension providing scrollable tiling of windows and per monitor workspaces. It's inspired by paper notebooks and tiling window managers. Supports Gnome Shell 3.28 and 3.30 on X11 and wayland.

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • GNOME
    Good alternative?
     
  4. subtle is a manual tiling window manager with a rather uncommon approach of tiling: Instead of relying on predefined layouts, subtle divides the screen into a grid with customizeable slots (called gravities).

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
    Good alternative?
     
  5. yashiki icon
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    macOS tiling window manager.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source (MIT)

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    Good alternative?
     
  6.  Like

    Wio is a Wayland compositor for Linux & FreeBSD which has a similar look & feel to plan9's rio.

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • FreeBSD
    Good alternative?
     
  7.  Like

    Weston is a Wayland compositor designed for correctness, reliability, predictability, and performance.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source (MIT)

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
    Good alternative?
     
  8. CLFSWM icon
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    CLFSWM is a highly dynamic. 100% Common Lisp X11 window manager. By default there is only one frame (the root frame). Other frames are created/deleted on the fly. A window can be in more than one frame, so it can have multiple views of the same windows.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • X11
    Good alternative?
     
  9. sxwm icon
     Like

    tiling window managers dont have to be difficult.

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • X11
    • GB flagUnited Kingdom
    sxwm screenshot 1
    Good alternative?
     
  10. MagmaWM icon
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    A versatile and customizable window manager / Wayland compositor, currently in development and actively seeking contributions from the community.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source (MIT)

    Application type

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • Wayland
    Good alternative?
     
  11. A Wayland Tiling Compositor Inspired by Ratpoison.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source (MIT)

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • Wayland
    Good alternative?
     
  12.  Like

    Mahogany is a tiling window manager for Wayland modeled after StumpWM. While it is not a drop-in replacement for StumpWM, StumpWM users should be very comfortable with Mahogany. Its planned features are:

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • Wayland
    Good alternative?
     
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