Sway Alternatives

Sway is described as 'Tiling Wayland Compositor and a drop-in replacement for the i3 window manager for X11. It works with your existing i3 configuration and supports most of i3's features, plus a few extras' and is a Window Manager in the os & utilities category. There are more than 50 alternatives to Sway for a variety of platforms, including Linux, Wayland, Mac, BSD and Windows apps. The best Sway alternative is Hyprland, which is both free and Open Source. Other great apps like Sway are i3, SwayFX, GlazeWM and Wayfire.

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Alternatives
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Alternatives list

  1. C

    Cardboard (Wayland compositor)

     Like

    Cardboard is a unique, scrollable tiling Wayland compositor designed with laptops in mind. Based on wlroots.

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • Wayland
    Good alternative?
     
  2. Whim icon

    Whim

     Like

    Whim is a hackable, pluggable and scriptable dynamic window manager for Windows 10 and 11, built using WinUI 3, .NET, and C# scripting.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source (MIT)

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • SE flagSweden
    • European Union flagEU
    Whim screenshot 1
    Good alternative?
     
  4. spectrwm icon

    spectrwm

     11 likes

    spectrwm is a small dynamic tiling window manager for X11. It tries to stay out of the way so that valuable screen real estate can be used for much more important stuff. It has sane defaults and does not require one to learn a language to do any configuration.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Linux
    • BSD
    spectrwm screenshot 1
    Good alternative?
     
  5. PaperWM icon

    PaperWM

     Like

    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
    Window switching and tiling.
    Good alternative?
     
  6. wmii icon

    wmii

     9 likes

    wmii is a small, dynamic window manager for X11. It is scriptable, has a 9p filesystem interface and supports classic and tiling (acme-like) window management. It aims to maintain a small and clean (read hackable and beautiful) codebase.

    75 wmii alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
    wmii screenshot 1
    Good alternative?
     
  8. R

    Rift

     3 likes

    Rift is a tiling window manager for macOS that focuses on performance and usability.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    Rift screenshot 1
    Good alternative?
     
  9. river icon

    river

     4 likes

    Wayland compositor featuring dynamic tiling and Master&Stack layout, offering configuration through riverctl tool with tag system for window management, customizable with rivertile and user layout generators, allowing flexible workspace setup without traditional workspaces.

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
    river screenshot 1
    Good alternative?
     
  10. MouseTiler icon

    MouseTiler

     2 likes

    The fastest, simplest tiler for KDE Plasma 6+ that gives you full freedom at your fingertip. No need to remember dozens of keyboard shortcuts or be limited by a fixed tile layout.

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • KDE Plasma
    MouseTiler screenshot 1
    Good alternative?
     
  12. xfwm4 icon

    xfwm4

     1 like

    Xfwm4 is the window manager for Xfce. Xfwm4 can be run stand-alone, but if used this way, the Xfce Settings Manager will be required as a GUI to make configuration changes.

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • BSD
    Good alternative?
     
  13. Xlambda icon

    Xlambda

     Like

    Xlambda is an X window manager that is extensible in Guile.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
    Good alternative?
     
  14. W

    Wmderland

     Like

    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
    Wmderland screenshot 1
    Good alternative?
     
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