Comparison of X window managers

This article compares variety of different X window managers. For an introduction to the topic, see X Window System.

General information

Name Type Language Initial release Latest release License Memory (MB)[1]
Version Date
9wm Stacking C 1994 1.4.2[2] Edit this on Wikidata 2022-01-19 MIT 0.4
aewm Stacking C 1999 1.3.12[3] Edit this on Wikidata 2007-12-27 MIT
awesome Dynamic C, Lua 2007-09-18 4.3[4] Edit this on Wikidata 2019-01-28 GPL-2.0-or-later 9
Berry Stacking C 2018-08-24 0.1.12 2022-10-24 MIT
Blackbox Stacking C++ 1997 0.77[5] Edit this on Wikidata 2021-05-12 MIT 3
bspwm Tiling C 2013-04-23 0.9.10[6] Edit this on Wikidata 2020-08-02 BSD-2-clause[7]
Compiz Compositing C (OpenGL) 2006 0.9.14.2[8] Edit this on Wikidata 2022-08-22 MIT
CTWM Stacking C 1992 4.1.0 2023-03-26 MIT
cwm Stacking C 2004-07-10 3[9] Edit this on Wikidata 2005-08-28 ISC 8
dkwm Dynamic C 2019-12-01 1.9-1 2023-06-18 MIT/X
dwm Dynamic C 2006-07-14 6.5[10] Edit this on Wikidata 2024-03-19 MIT 1
Enlightenment Compositing C 1997 0.27.1[11] Edit this on Wikidata 2025-03-14 BSD-2-clause
Enlightenment 16[12] Compositing C 2009-06-03 1.0.30 2024-08-10
evilwm[13] Stacking C 2000 1.4.3[14] 2024-03-09 aewm/9wm[15]
EXWM Tiling Emacs Lisp 2018 0.32[16] 2024-10-05 GPL-3.0-or-later
Fluxbox Stacking C++ 2001-09-12 1.3.7[17] Edit this on Wikidata 2015-02-08 MIT 16
FLWM Stacking C++ (FLTK) 1998 1.02[18] Edit this on Wikidata 2006-06-30 GPL-2.0-or-later
FVWM Stacking C 1993-06-01 GPL-2.0-or-later[19] 4
herbstluftwm Dynamic C++ 2011-10-02 0.9.5 2022-07-30 BSD-2-clause
i3 Dynamic C 2009-03-15 4.24[20] Edit this on Wikidata 2024-11-06 BSD-3-clause 3
IceWM Stacking C++ 1997 3.8.2[21] Edit this on Wikidata 2025-08-03 LGPL-2.0-only 4.5
Ion Tiling C, Lua 2000 Final 2009-01-10 LGPL-2.1-only[a]
JWM Stacking C 2003 2.4.5[22] 2024-10-05 MIT 3
KWin (KDE) Compositing C++ (Qt) 2002 6.4.3[23] Edit this on Wikidata 2025-07-15 GPL 41
LeftWM Tiling Rust 2019 0.5.3 2024-10-20 MIT
Matchbox Stacking C 2007-04-13 1.2.3[24] 2023-03-15 GPL-2.0-or-later
Metacity (GNOME 2/LiMo) Compositing C, C++ (GTK+) 2002-10 3.56.0[25] Edit this on Wikidata 2025-04-26 GPL-2.0-or-later
Moksha (E17) Compositing C 2015-08-11 0.4.1[26] 2023-07-23
Motif Window Manager (mwm) Stacking C 1989 2.3.8[27] Edit this on Wikidata 2017-12-05 LGPL-2.1-or-later
Mutter (GNOME 3+/MeeGo) Compositing C (Clutter) 2011-04 47.6[28] Edit this on Wikidata 2025-03-05 GPL-2.0-or-later 18.6
Openbox Stacking C 2002-09-18 3.6.1[29] Edit this on Wikidata 2015-07-01 GPL-2.0-or-later 7
PekWM Stacking C++ 2009 0.3.2[30] Edit this on Wikidata 2024-12-29 GPL-2.0-or-later 5.3
PlayWM Stacking C 2013-31-01 Final 2013-02-10 GPL
Qtile Dynamic Python 2008-08-31 0.33.0[31] Edit this on Wikidata 2025-07-25 MIT 2
Ragnar Tiling C 2023-05-15 1.5.0 2024-08-17 GPL
Ratpoison Tiling C 2000-12-04 1.4.9 2017-04-03 GPL-2.0-or-later 1
Sawfish Stacking Lisp, C 2000-01-01 1.13.0[32] Edit this on Wikidata 2021-12-24 GPL-2.0-or-later 3.1
SithWM Archived 2022-03-26 at the Wayback Machine Stacking C 2007 1.2.3[33] Edit this on Wikidata 2008-04-25 GPL
spectrwm Dynamic C 2012-02-07 3.6.0[34] 2024-07-10 ISC
steamcompmgr Compositing C[35] 2013 BSD-2-clause[36]
StumpWM Tiling Common Lisp 2017-01-12 23.11[37] 2024-11-29 GPL-2.0-or-later
sxwm Dynamic C 2025 1.6[38] 2025-06-26 GPL-3.0-or-later[39]
twm Stacking C 1987 1.0.13.1[40][41] Edit this on Wikidata 2025-05-06 MIT-open-group
MIT-CMU
XFree86-1.0 		1.2
Ultrix Window Manager (uwm) Stacking C 1985 Final[42] 1988-10-27 Similar to BSD licenses
Window Maker Stacking C 1997 0.96.0[43] Edit this on Wikidata 2023-08-05 GPL-2.0-or-later 7
Wingo Dynamic Go 2012 Final 2018 WTFPL
wmii Dynamic C 2005-06-01 3.9.2[44] Edit this on Wikidata 2010-06-10 MIT
Xfwm (Xfce) Compositing C, C++ (GTK+) 1996 4.19[45] 2024-11-01 GPL, LGPL 70
xmonad Dynamic Haskell 2007-03-06 0.18.0[46] Edit this on Wikidata 2024-02-03 BSD-3-clause 2
worm Dynamic Nim 2021-12-12 0.3.3 2024-03-30 MIT
Name Type Language Initial release Latest release License Memory (MB)
Version Date
  1. ^ LGPL-2.1-only with naming restrictions on modified versions.

Features

Name Configurable titlebar buttons Graphical configuration Hotkeys ICCCM/EWMH compliant Panel for window switching Tabbed windows Themeable
9wm No No No Yes No No
aewm No No No Yes Yes No No
awesome Yes No Yes Yes Yes No Yes
Berry No Yes[a] Yes[b] No No No Yes
Blackbox No Depends[c] Depends[d] Yes[e] Yes No Yes
bspwm No No Yes[f] Partial No No No
Compiz Yes Yes Yes Yes Depends[c] Yes Yes
CTWM Yes Partial Yes Yes
cwm no titlebar buttons No Yes No No Yes
dkwm
dwm no titlebar buttons No Yes Yes No Yes
Enlightenment Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes
evilwm[13] no titlebar buttons No Yes Partial[13] No No Yes
EXWM No No Yes Partial No Depends Yes
Fluxbox Yes Depends[c] Yes Yes[48] Yes Yes Yes
FLWM No Yes No[g] No No
FVWM Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes[49] Depends[c][50][51]
herbstluftwm no titlebar buttons No Yes Yes No Yes Yes
i3 no titlebar buttons No Yes Yes No Yes Yes
IceWM Yes Depends[c] Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Ion no titlebar buttons No Yes No Yes Yes
JWM Yes Depends[c] Yes EWMH Yes No Yes
KWin (KDE) Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
LeftWM
Matchbox EWMH compliance No No Yes
Metacity (GNOME) Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes
Mutter (GNOME/MeeGo) Yes Yes Yes Yes Gnome Shell No Yes
Moody
Motif Window Manager (mwm) No No Yes No[h]
Openbox Yes Depends[c] Yes Yes Depends[c] No Yes
PekWM Yes No Yes Partial No Yes Yes
PlayWM Yes No Yes Yes Yes No Yes
Qtile Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes
Ragnar
Ratpoison No No Yes No No No No
Sawfish Yes Yes Yes Partial Yes primitive Yes
SithWM Archived 2022-03-26 at the Wayback Machine no titlebar buttons No Yes No No Yes
spectrwm no titlebar buttons No Yes Yes No No solid colors
steamcompmgr No No Yes No No No
StumpWM No No Yes No No No No
sxwm No No Yes Yes No Yes
twm Yes No Yes Yes No solid colors
uwm
Window Maker No Yes Yes Partial Yes Yes Yes
Wingo Yes No Yes Yes Yes No Yes
WMFS Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
wmii Yes No Yes Yes No Yes Yes
Xfwm (Xfce) Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes
xmonad Yes No Yes Yes / ? Depends[c] Yes Yes
worm
Name Configurable titlebar buttons Graphical configuration Hotkeys ICCCM/EWMH compliant Panel for window switching Tabbed windows Themeable
  1. ^ Via CLI client.
  2. ^ Via CLI client and third party (e.g. sxhkd).
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Via third party.
  4. ^ With bbkeys.
  5. ^ Through 0.65 / from 0.70.[47]
  6. ^ With sxhkd.
  7. ^ There is a window list menu.
  8. ^ Can change colours.

See also

References

  1. ^ "A Memory Comparison of Light Linux Desktops". l3net - a layer 3 networking blog. 2013-03-17. Retrieved 2017-12-28.
  2. ^ "Release 1.4.2 · 9wm/9wm · GitHub".
  3. ^ "aewm". Archived from the original on 11 October 2019. Retrieved 19 January 2018.
  4. ^ "Release 4.3". 28 January 2019. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
  5. ^ "Release 0.77". 12 May 2021. Retrieved 21 May 2021.
  6. ^ "Release 0.9.10". 2 August 2020. Retrieved 4 August 2020.
  7. ^ "bspwm License". GitHub. 2 November 2021.
  8. ^ "Compiz 0.9.14.2 released". 22 August 2022. Retrieved 26 August 2022.
  9. ^ "cwm". Archived from the original on 8 June 2015.
  10. ^ "bump version to 6.5". 19 March 2024.
  11. ^ "Enlightenment 0.27.1 Release". 14 March 2025. Retrieved 17 March 2025.
  12. ^ "Enlightenment E16". www.enlightenment.org. Retrieved 2024-11-05.
  13. ^ a b c "evilwm - standards support". Archived from the original on 2020-10-27. Retrieved 2009-10-26. evilwm releases following and including version 1.1.0 follow the EWMH standard.
  14. ^ "Index of /evilwm/dl". www.6809.org.uk. Retrieved 2024-11-04.
  15. ^ "evilwm.txt".
  16. ^ "Releases · emacs-exwm/exwm". GitHub. Retrieved 2024-11-05.
  17. ^ "Fluxbox 1.3.7 - Bam! Zero Bugs!!11!". 8 February 2015. Archived from the original on 24 January 2022. Retrieved 24 January 2022.
  18. ^ "flwm".
  19. ^ "fvwm3/COPYING at main". GitHub. 3 March 2018. Retrieved 1 July 2025.
  20. ^ . 6 November 2024 https://github.com/i3/i3/releases/tag/4.24. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  21. ^ "Release icewm-3.8.2". 3 August 2025. Retrieved 4 August 2025.
  22. ^ "Releases · joewing/jwm". GitHub. Retrieved 2024-11-04.
  23. ^ "Tagging 6.4.3". 15 July 2025. Retrieved 18 July 2025.
  24. ^ "matchbox-window-manager - Matchbox Window Manager v1". git.yoctoproject.org. Retrieved 2024-11-04.
  25. ^ "3.56.0". 26 April 2025. Retrieved 31 July 2025.
  26. ^ "Releases · JeffHoogland/moksha". GitHub. Retrieved 2024-11-10.
  27. ^ "Motif 2.3.8 Source Code". 5 December 2017.
  28. ^ "47.6 · GNOME / mutter · GitLab". 5 March 2025. Retrieved 16 March 2025.
  29. ^ "Openbox:Changelog".
  30. ^ "Release 0.3.2". 29 December 2024. Retrieved 26 January 2025.
  31. ^ "Release 0.33.0". 25 July 2025. Retrieved 14 August 2025.
  32. ^ https://github.com/SawfishWM/sawfish/releases/tag/sawfish-1.13.0. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  33. ^ https://sithwm.darkside.no/sn/?M=D. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  34. ^ "Releases · conformal/spectrwm". GitHub. Retrieved 2024-11-05.
  35. ^ "steamos-compositor debian source package". /steamos-compositor-1.35/src/steamcompmgr.c.
  36. ^ "steamos-compositor amd64 debian package". /usr/share/doc/steamos-compositor/copyright. License: BSD-2-clause
  37. ^ "Releases · stumpwm/stumpwm". GitHub. Retrieved 2024-11-05.
  38. ^ "Release sxwm v1.6". GitHub. 26 June 2025. Retrieved 1 July 2025.
  39. ^ "sxwm Commit 8701f8d". GitHub. 6 June 2025. Retrieved 1 July 2025.
  40. ^ "[ANNOUNCE] twm 1.0.13.1". 6 May 2025. Retrieved 9 May 2025.
  41. ^ "twm-1.0.13.1 · タグ · xorg / app / twm ·". 6 May 2025. Retrieved 9 May 2025.
  42. ^ "wm/uwm - The NetBSD Packages Collection". cdn.netbsd.org. Retrieved 2024-11-05.
  43. ^ "Version 0.96.0 released". 5 August 2023. Retrieved 7 August 2023.
  44. ^ https://code.google.com/archive/p/wmii/downloads. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  45. ^ "xfce:xfwm4:start [Xfce Docs]". docs.xfce.org. Retrieved 2024-11-04.
  46. ^ "Release 0.18.0". 3 February 2024. Retrieved 20 February 2024.
  47. ^ "NetWM - Blackbox". Archived from the original on 2007-10-01. Retrieved 2008-03-29. Blackbox releases up to and including version 0.65.0 follow the ICCCM standard, while 0.70 and later follow EWMH.
  48. ^ "Tables". Archived from the original on 2009-08-19. Retrieved 2011-05-07.
  49. ^ FvwmTabs Archived 2009-08-02 at the Wayback Machine
  50. ^ Fvwm Themes
  51. ^ FVWM-Crystal
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