Comparison of X window managers explained

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				MIT
awesome	Dynamic	C, Lua	2007-09-18			GPL-2.0-or-later	9
Berry	Stacking	C	2018-08-24		2019-09-21	MIT
Blackbox	Stacking	C++				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
evilwm	Stacking	C	2000			aewm/9wm^[3]
EXWM	-->	Tiling	Emacs Lisp				GPL-3.0-or-later
Fluxbox	Stacking	C++	2001-09-12			MIT	16
FLWM	Stacking	C++ (FLTK)	1998			GPL-2.0-or-later
FVWM	Dynamic	C	1993-06-01			GPL	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			LGPL-2.1-only
JWM	Stacking	C	2003			MIT	3
KWin (KDE)	Compositing	C++ (Qt)				GPL	41
LeftWM	Tiling	Rust	2019	0.5.1	2023-11-16	MIT
Matchbox	Stacking	C	2007-04-13			GPL-2.0-or-later
Metacity (GNOME 2)	Compositing	C, C++ (GTK+)	2002-10			GPL-2.0-or-later
Mutter (GNOME 3+/MeeGo)	Compositing	C (Clutter)	2011-04			GPL-2.0-or-later	18.6
Moody	Tiling	C			2024-07-21	GPL-2.0-or-later
Motif Window Manager (mwm)	Stacking	C	1989			LGPL-2.1-or-later
Openbox	Stacking	C	2002-09-18			GPL-2.0-or-later	7
PekWM	Stacking	C++				GPL-2.0-or-later	5.3
PlayWM	Stacking	C				GPL
Qtile	Dynamic	Python	2008-08-31			MIT	2
Ragnar	Tiling	C	2023-05-15	1.3.0	2023-06-12	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				GPL
spectrwm	Dynamic	C				ISC
steamcompmgr	Compositing	C^[4]	2013			BSD-2-clause^[5]
StumpWM	Tiling	Common Lisp				GPL-2.0-or-later
twm	Stacking	C	1987			MIT-open-group MIT-CMU XFree86-1.0	1.2
Ultrix Window Manager (uwm)	Stacking	C	1985			Similar to BSD licenses
Window Maker	Stacking	C	1997			GPL-2.0-or-later	7
Wingo	Dynamic	Go				WTFPL
WMFS	Tiling	C				BSD-3-clause
wmii	Dynamic	C	2005-06-01			MIT
Xfwm (Xfce)	Compositing	C, C++ (GTK+)	1996			GPL, LGPL	70
xmonad	Dynamic	Haskell	2007-03-06			BSD-3-clause	2
worm	Dynamic	Nim	2021-12-12	0.32	2023-2-3	MIT
Name	Type	Language	Initial release	Latest release		License	Memory (MB)
				Version	Date

Features

Name	Configurable titlebar buttons	Graphical configuration	Hotkeys	ICCCM/EWMH compliant	Panel for window switching	Tabbed windows	Themeable
9wm
aewm
awesome
Berry
Blackbox
bspwm
Compiz
CTWM
cwm	no titlebar buttons
dkwm
dwm	no titlebar buttons
Enlightenment
evilwm	no titlebar buttons			^[6]
EXWM
Fluxbox				^[7]
FLWM
FVWM						^[8]	^[9] ^[10]
herbstluftwm	no titlebar buttons
i3	no titlebar buttons
IceWM
Ion	no titlebar buttons
JWM
KWin (KDE)
LeftWM
Matchbox
Metacity (GNOME)
Mutter (GNOME/MeeGo)
Moody
Motif Window Manager (mwm)
Openbox
PekWM
PlayWM
Qtile
Ragnar
Ratpoison
Sawfish						primitive
SithWM	no titlebar buttons
spectrwm	no titlebar buttons
steamcompmgr
StumpWM
twm
uwm
Window Maker
Wingo
WMFS
wmii
Xfwm (Xfce)
xmonad
worm
Name	Configurable titlebar buttons	Graphical configuration	Hotkeys	ICCCM/EWMH compliant	Panel for window switching	Tabbed windows	Themeable

See also

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

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

Notes and References

1. News: A Memory Comparison of Light Linux Desktops . 2013-03-17 . l3net - a layer 3 networking blog . 2017-12-28 . en-US.
2. Web site: bspwm License . . 2 November 2021 .
3. Web site: evilwm.txt.
4. Web site: steamos-compositor debian source package. /steamos-compositor-1.35/src/steamcompmgr.c.
5. Web site: steamos-compositor amd64 debian package. /usr/share/doc/steamos-compositor/copyright . License: BSD-2-clause.
6. Web site: evilwm - standards support . evilwm releases following and including version 1.1.0 follow the EWMH standard. . 2009-10-26 . 2020-10-27 . https://web.archive.org/web/20201027065835/http://www.6809.org.uk/evilwm/standards.shtml . dead .
7. Web site: Tables. 2011-05-07. 2009-08-19. https://web.archive.org/web/20090819040039/http://fluxbox.sourceforge.net/docs/ewmh-support.html. dead.
8. http://www.fvwm.org/documentation/manpages/unstable/FvwmTabs.php FvwmTabs
9. http://fvwm-themes.sourceforge.net/ Fvwm Themes
10. FVWM-Crystal