Software: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.

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 0.1.12 2022-10-24 MIT
Blackbox Stacking C++ 1997 MIT 3
bspwm Tiling C 2013-04-23 BSD-2-clause[2]
Compiz Compositing C (OpenGL) 2006 MIT
CTWM Stacking C 1992 4.1.0 2023-03-26 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[3] Compositing C 2009-06-03 1.0.30 2024-08-10
evilwm[4] Stacking C 2000 1.4.3[5] 2024-03-09 aewm/9wm[6]
EXWM Tiling Emacs Lisp 2018 0.32[7] 2024-10-05 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 GPL-2.0-or-later[8] 4
herbstluftwm Dynamic C++ 2011-10-02 0.9.5 2022-07-30 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 2.4.5[9] 2024-10-05 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 0.4.1[11] 2023-07-23
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 1.4.9 2017-04-03 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 3.6.0[12] ISC
steamcompmgr Compositing C[13] 2013 BSD-2-clause[14]
StumpWM Tiling Common Lisp 2017-01-12 23.11[15] GPL-2.0-or-later
sxwm Dynamic C 2025 1.6[16] 2025-06-26 GPL-3.0-or-later[17]
twm Stacking C 1987 MIT-open-group
MIT-CMU
XFree86-1.0 		1.2
Ultrix Window Manager (uwm) Stacking C 1985 Final[18] 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, C++ (GTK+) 1996 4.19[19] 2024-11-01 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[4] no titlebar buttons No Yes Partial[4] No No Yes
EXWM[citation needed] No No Yes Partial No Depends Yes
Fluxbox Yes Depends[lower-alpha 3] Yes Yes[21] Yes Yes Yes
FLWM No Yes No[lower-alpha 7] No No
FVWM Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes[22] Depends[lower-alpha 3][23][24]
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.[20]
  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" (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. ↑ "bspwm License". 2 November 2021. https://github.com/baskerville/bspwm/blob/master/LICENSE. 
  3. ↑ "Enlightenment E16". https://www.enlightenment.org/e16. 
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 "evilwm - standards support". http://www.6809.org.uk/evilwm/standards.shtml. "evilwm releases following and including version 1.1.0 follow the EWMH standard." 
  5. ↑ "Index of /evilwm/dl". https://www.6809.org.uk/evilwm/dl/. 
  6. ↑ "evilwm.txt". https://www.6809.org.uk/evilwm/doc/evilwm.txt. 
  7. ↑ "Releases · emacs-exwm/exwm" (in en). https://github.com/emacs-exwm/exwm/releases. 
  8. ↑ "fvwm3/COPYING at main". 3 March 2018. https://github.com/fvwmorg/fvwm3/blob/6000175467fada5d5329f2ecf9e1c0b99937b3ce/COPYING. 
  9. ↑ "Releases · joewing/jwm" (in en). https://github.com/joewing/jwm/releases. 
  10. ↑ "matchbox-window-manager - Matchbox Window Manager v1". https://git.yoctoproject.org/matchbox-window-manager/. 
  11. ↑ "Releases · JeffHoogland/moksha" (in en). https://github.com/JeffHoogland/moksha/releases. 
  12. ↑ "Releases · conformal/spectrwm" (in en). https://github.com/conformal/spectrwm/releases. 
  13. ↑ "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. 
  14. ↑ "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" 
  15. ↑ "Releases · stumpwm/stumpwm" (in en). https://github.com/stumpwm/stumpwm/releases. 
  16. ↑ "Release sxwm v1.6". 26 June 2025. https://github.com/uint23/sxwm/releases/tag/v1.6. 
  17. ↑ "sxwm Commit 8701f8d". 6 June 2025. https://github.com/uint23/sxwm/commit/8701f8dc9bfd2c4faa697a3f55f5c90ca90bcf38. 
  18. ↑ "wm/uwm - The NetBSD Packages Collection". https://cdn.netbsd.org/pub/pkgsrc/current/pkgsrc/wm/uwm/index.html. 
  19. ↑ "xfce:xfwm4:start [Xfce Docs"]. https://docs.xfce.org/xfce/xfwm4/start#latest_release. 
  20. ↑ "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." 
  21. ↑ "Tables". https://fluxbox.sourceforge.net/docs/ewmh-support.html. 
  22. ↑ FvwmTabs
  23. ↑ Fvwm Themes
  24. ↑ FVWM-Crystal



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