Comparison of X window managers

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

## Contents

* 1 General information
* 2 Features
* 3 See also
* 4 References
* 5 External links

## General information

Name  | Type  | Language | Initial release  | Latest release  | License | Memory (MB)[1]

|
|
|
|
|
|

Version  | Date
9wm  | Stacking | C | 1994  |  |  | MIT | 0.4
aewm  | Stacking | C | 1999  |  |  | MIT |
awesome | Dynamic | C, Lua | 2007-09-18  |  |  | GPL-2.0-or-later | 9
Berry | Stacking | C | 2018-08-24  | 0.1.13[2] | 2025-06-22  | MIT |
Blackbox | Stacking | C++ | 1997  |  |  | MIT | 3
bspwm  | Tiling | C | 2013-04-23  |  |  | BSD-2-clause[3] |
Compiz | Compositing | C (OpenGL)  | 2006  |  |  | MIT |
CTWM | Stacking | C | 1992  |  |  | MIT  |
cwm | Stacking | C | 2004-07-10  |  |  | ISC | 8
dkwm | Dynamic | C | 2019-12-01  | 1.9-1  | 2023-06-18  | MIT/X  |
dwm | Dynamic | C | 2006-07-14  |  |  | MIT | 1
Enlightenment  | Compositing | C | 1997  |  |  | BSD-2-clause |
Enlightenment 16[4] | Compositing  | C  | 1999-10-10  | 1.0.31[5] | 2025-08-10  | MIT with advertising clause  |
evilwm[6] | Stacking | C | 2000  |  |  | aewm/9wm[7] |
EXWM  | Tiling | Emacs Lisp | 2018  |  |  | GPL-3.0-or-later |
Fluxbox | Stacking | C++ | 2001-09-12  |  |  | MIT | 16
FLWM | Stacking | C++ (FLTK)  | 1998  |  |  | GPL-2.0-or-later |
FVWM | Stacking | C | 1993-06-01  | 1.1.4[8] | 2025-11-09  | GPL-2.0-or-later[9] | 4
herbstluftwm | Dynamic | C++ | 2011-10-02  |  |  | BSD-2-clause |
i3 | Dynamic | C | 2009-03-15  |  |  | BSD-3-clause | 3
IceWM | Stacking | C++ | 1997  |  |  | LGPL-2.0-only | 4.5
Ion | Tiling | C, Lua | 2000  | Final  | 2009-01-10  | LGPL-2.1-only[lower-alpha 1] |
JWM | Stacking | C | 2003  |  |  | MIT | 3
KWin (KDE)  | Compositing | C++ (Qt)  | 2002  |  |  | GPL | 41
LeftWM | Tiling | Rust | 2019  | 0.5.3  | 2024-10-20  | MIT |
Matchbox | Stacking | C | 2007-04-13  | 1.2.3[10] | 2023-03-15  | GPL-2.0-or-later |
Metacity (GNOME 2/LiMo)  | Compositing | C, C++ (GTK+)  | 2002-10  |  |  | GPL-2.0-or-later |
Moksha (E17)  | Compositing | C | 2015-08-11  |  |  |  |
Motif Window Manager (mwm)  | Stacking | C | 1989  |  |  | LGPL-2.1-or-later |
Mutter (GNOME 3+/MeeGo)  | Compositing | C (Clutter)  | 2011-04  |  |  | GPL-2.0-or-later | 18.6
Openbox | Stacking | C | 2002-09-18  |  |  | GPL-2.0-or-later | 7
PekWM | Stacking | C++ | 2009  |  |  | GPL-2.0-or-later | 5.3
PlayWM | Stacking | C | 2013-31-01  | Final  | 2013-02-10  | GPL |
Qtile | Dynamic | Python | 2008-08-31  |  |  | MIT | 2
Ragnar | Tiling | C | 2023-05-15  | 1.5.0  | 2024-08-17  | GPL |
Ratpoison | Tiling | C | 2000-12-04  |  |  | GPL-2.0-or-later | 1
Sawfish | Stacking | Lisp, C | 2000-01-01  |  |  | GPL-2.0-or-later | 3.1
SithWM | Stacking | C | 2007  |  |  | GPL |
spectrwm  | Dynamic | C | 2012-02-07  |  |  | ISC |
steamcompmgr | Compositing | C[11] | 2013  |  |  | BSD-2-clause[12] |
StumpWM | Tiling | Common Lisp | 2017-01-12  |  |  | GPL-2.0-or-later |
sxwm | Dynamic | C | 2025  | 1.6[13] | 2025-06-26  | GPL-3.0-or-later[14] |
twm | Stacking | C | 1987  |  |  | MIT-open-group
MIT-CMU
XFree86-1.0  | 1.2
Ultrix Window Manager (uwm)  | Stacking | C | 1985  | Final[15] | 1988-10-27  | Similar to BSD licenses |
Window Maker | Stacking | C | 1997  |  |  | GPL-2.0-or-later | 7
Wingo  | Dynamic | Go | 2012  | Final  | 2018  | WTFPL |
wmii | Dynamic | C | 2005-06-01  |  |  | MIT |
Xfwm (Xfce) | Compositing | C (GTK+)  | 1996  |  |  | GPL, LGPL | 70
xmonad | Dynamic | Haskell | 2007-03-06  |  |  | 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
No  | No  | No  | Yes  | Yes  | No  | No
awesome | Yes  | No  | Yes  | Yes  | Yes  | No  | Yes
No  | Yes[lower-alpha 1] | Yes[lower-alpha 2] | No  | No  | No  | Yes
Blackbox | No  | Depends[lower-alpha 3] | Depends[lower-alpha 4] | Yes[lower-alpha 5] | Yes  | No  | Yes
No  | No  | Yes[lower-alpha 6] | Partial  | No  | No  | No
Compiz | Yes  | Yes  | Yes  | Yes  | Depends[lower-alpha 3] | 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[6] | no titlebar buttons  | No  | Yes  | Partial[6] | No  | No  | Yes
EXWM[citation needed] | No  | No  | Yes  | Partial  | No  | Depends  | Yes
Fluxbox | Yes  | Depends[lower-alpha 3] | Yes  | Yes[17] | Yes  | Yes  | Yes
FLWM |  | No  | Yes  |  | No[lower-alpha 7] | No  | No
FVWM | Yes  | No  | Yes  | Yes  | Yes  | Yes[18] | Depends[lower-alpha 3][19][20]
herbstluftwm  | no titlebar buttons  | No  | Yes  | Yes  | No  | Yes  | Yes
i3 | no titlebar buttons  | No  | Yes  | Yes  | No  | Yes  | Yes
IceWM | Yes  | Depends[lower-alpha 3] | Yes  | Yes  | Yes  | Yes  | Yes
Ion | no titlebar buttons  | No  | Yes  |  | No  | Yes  | Yes
JWM  | Yes  | Depends[lower-alpha 3] | 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[lower-alpha 8]
Openbox | Yes  | Depends[lower-alpha 3] | Yes  | Yes  | Depends[lower-alpha 3] | No  | Yes
PekWM | Yes  | No  | Yes  | Partial  | No  | Yes  | Yes
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 | no titlebar buttons  | No  | Yes  |  | No  | No  | Yes
no titlebar buttons  | No  | Yes  | Yes  | No  | No  | solid colors
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
Yes  | No  | Yes  | Yes  | Yes  | No  | Yes
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[lower-alpha 3] | 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. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 Via third party.
4. ↑ With bbkeys.
5. ↑ Through 0.65 / from 0.70.[16]
6. ↑ With sxhkd.
7. ↑ There is a window list menu.
8. ↑ Can change colours.

## See also

* Comparison of X Window System desktop environments
* Window manager
* List of Wayland compositors

## References

1. ↑ "A Memory Comparison of Light Linux Desktops" (in en-US). l3net - a layer 3 networking blog. 2013-03-17. https://l3net.wordpress.com/2013/03/17/a-memory-comparison-of-light-linux-desktops/.
2. ↑ JLErvin. "Release 0.1.13 · JLErvin/berry" (in en). https://github.com/JLErvin/berry/releases/tag/0.1.13.
3. ↑ "bspwm License". 2 November 2021. https://github.com/baskerville/bspwm/blob/master/LICENSE.
4. ↑ "Enlightenment E16". https://www.enlightenment.org/e16.
5. ↑ "Enlightenment E16 Downloads". https://sourceforge.net/projects/enlightenment/files/e16/.
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 "evilwm - standards support". http://www.6809.org.uk/evilwm/standards.shtml. "evilwm releases following and including version 1.1.0 follow the EWMH standard."
7. ↑ "evilwm.txt". https://www.6809.org.uk/evilwm/doc/evilwm.txt.
8. ↑ fvwmorg. "Releases · fvwmorg/fvwm3" (in en). https://github.com/fvwmorg/fvwm3/releases.
9. ↑ "fvwm3/COPYING at main". 3 March 2018. https://github.com/fvwmorg/fvwm3/blob/6000175467fada5d5329f2ecf9e1c0b99937b3ce/COPYING.
10. ↑ "matchbox-window-manager - Matchbox Window Manager v1". https://git.yoctoproject.org/matchbox-window-manager/.
11. ↑ "steamos-compositor debian source package". /steamos-compositor-1.35/src/steamcompmgr.c. https://repo.steampowered.com/steamos/pool/main/s/steamos-compositor/steamos-compositor_1.35.tar.xz.
12. ↑ "steamos-compositor amd64 debian package". /usr/share/doc/steamos-compositor/copyright. https://repo.steampowered.com/steamos/pool/main/s/steamos-compositor/steamos-compositor_1.35+bsos1_amd64.deb. "License: BSD-2-clause"
13. ↑ "Release sxwm v1.6". 26 June 2025. https://github.com/uint23/sxwm/releases/tag/v1.6.
14. ↑ "sxwm Commit 8701f8d". 6 June 2025. https://github.com/uint23/sxwm/commit/8701f8dc9bfd2c4faa697a3f55f5c90ca90bcf38.
15. ↑ "wm/uwm - The NetBSD Packages Collection". https://cdn.netbsd.org/pub/pkgsrc/current/pkgsrc/wm/uwm/index.html.
16. ↑ "NetWM - Blackbox". https://blackboxwm.sourceforge.net/NetWM. "Blackbox releases up to and including version 0.65.0 follow the ICCCM standard, while 0.70 and later follow EWMH."
17. ↑ "Tables". https://fluxbox.sourceforge.net/docs/ewmh-support.html.
18. ↑ FvwmTabs
19. ↑ Fvwm Themes
20. ↑ FVWM-Crystal

## External links

* Comparison of extensible window managers compares window managers "extensible" by user scripts, like Sawfish, xmonad, etc.
* The Comprehensive List of Window Managers for Unix

* v
* t
* e

Desktop environments and window managers based on X11 or Wayland

Desktop
environments
(comparison)|

| GTK-based|

* Budgie
* Cinnamon
* GNOME
* GPE
* LXDE
* MATE
* ROX Desktop
* Sugar
* Xfce

|

Qt-based|

* KDE Plasma
* Lumina
* LXQt (Razor-qt perpetuated)
* OPIE
* Trinity

Motif-based|

* CDE
* DECwindows
* IRIX Interactive Desktop
* VUE

Other|

* EDE (FLTK-based)
* Étoilé (GNUstep-based)
* Mezzo
* OpenWindows (OLIT-based)
* UDE (Xlib/XCB-based)
* Enlightenment (EFL-based)

Graphical
shells|

* GNOME Shell
* KDE Plasma 4
* KDE Plasma 5
* Maynard
* Unity

X window
managers
(comparison)|

| Compositing|

* Compiz
* KWin
* Metacity
* Muffin
* Mutter
* Xfwm
* Enlightenment

|

Stacking|

* 4Dwm
* 9wm
* AfterStep
* amiwm
* Blackbox
* CTWM
* cwm
* Fluxbox
* FLWM
* FVWM
* IceWM
* JWM
* Matchbox
* Motif Window Manager
* olwm
* Openbox
* Qvwm
* Sawfish
* swm
* twm
* tvtwm
* vtwm
* Window Maker
* WindowLab
* wm2

Tiling|

* awesome
* dwm
* i3
* Ion
* larswm
* ratpoison
* StumpWM
* wmii
* xmonad

Wayland
compositors|

* Enlightenment
* Gala
* KWin
* Mir
* Mutter
* Muffin
* Budgie-wm
* sway
* Weston

Related|

* Display server
* GUI
* GUI widget
* Painter's algorithm
* Resolution independence
* Shell
* Virtual desktop
* Widget toolkit
* WIMP
* Windowing system

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