Comparison of X window managers

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

Name	Language	License	Type	Configurable titlebar buttons	Graphical configuration	Hotkeys	ICCCM/EWMH compliant	Panel for window switching	Tabbed windows	Themeable	Initial Release
9wm	C	MIT	Stacking	No	No	No		Yes	No	No	1994
aewm	C	MIT	Stacking	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No
awesome	C, Lua	GPL	Dynamic	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	2007-09-18
Blackbox	C++	MIT	Stacking	No	third-party	with bbkeys	through 0.65 / from 0.70[1]	Yes	No	Yes
Compiz	C (OpenGL)	MIT	Compositing	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	third-party	Yes	Yes	2006
cwm	C	ISC	Stacking	no titlebar buttons	No	Yes		No	No	Yes	2004-07-10
dwm	C	MIT	Tiling and stacking	no titlebar buttons	No	Yes		Yes	No	Yes	2006-07-14
Enlightenment	C	BSD	Tiling and stacking	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	1997
evilwm	C	Artistic[2]	Stacking	no titlebar buttons	No	Yes	Partial[3]	No	No	Yes
Fluxbox	C++	MIT	Stacking	Yes	third-party	Yes	Yes[4]	Yes	Yes	Yes
FLWM	C++ (FLTK)	GPL	Stacking		No	Yes		There is a window list menu	No	No	1998
FVWM	C	GPL	Dynamic	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes[5]	third-party[6][7]
i3	C	BSD	Dynamic	no titlebar buttons	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	2009-03-15
IceWM	C++	LGPL	Stacking	Yes	third-party	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	1997
Ion	C, Lua	LGPL with naming restrictions on modified versions	Tiling and stacking	no titlebar buttons	No	Yes		No	Yes	Yes	2000
JWM	C	MIT (Formerly GPL)	Stacking	Yes	No	Yes	EWMH	Yes	No	Yes
KWin (KDE)	C++ (Qt)	GPL	Compositing	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Matchbox	C	GPL	Stacking				EWMH compliance	No	No	Yes	2007-04-13
Metacity (GNOME)	C, C++ (GTK+)	GPL	Compositing or stacking	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	2002-10
Mutter (GNOME/MeeGo)	C (Clutter)	GPL	Compositing	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Gnome Shell	No	Yes	2001-04
mwm (Motif Window Manager)	C	The Open Group Public License	Stacking	No	No	Yes				can change colours	1980
Openbox	C	GPL	Stacking	Yes	third-party	Yes	Yes	third-party	No	Yes	2002-09-18
PekWM	C++	GPL	Stacking	Yes	No	Yes	Partial	No	Yes	Yes
PlayWM	C	GPL	Stacking	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Ratpoison	C	GPL	Tiling	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	2000-12-04
Sawfish	Lisp, C	GPL	Stacking	Yes	Yes	Yes	Partial	Yes	primitive	Yes	2000-01-01
sithWM	C	GPL	Stacking	no titlebar buttons	No	Yes		No	No	Yes
spectrwm	C	ISC	Tiling and stacking	no titlebar buttons	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	solid colors
steamcompmgr	unknown	BSD-2-clause	Compositing	No	No	Yes		No	No	No	2013
StumpWM	Common Lisp	GPL	Tiling	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No
twm	C	MIT	re-parenting	Yes	No	Yes		Yes	No	solid colors	1987
WMFS	C	BSD	Tiling	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Window Maker	C	GPL	Stacking	No	Yes	Yes	Partial	Yes	Yes	Yes	1997
Wingo	Go	WTFPL	Dynamic	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
wmii	C	MIT	Dynamic	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	2005-06-01
Xfwm (Xfce)	C, C++ (GTK+)	GPL, LGPL	Compositing	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
xmonad	Haskell	BSD	Dynamic	Yes	No	Yes	Yes / ?	third-party	Yes	Yes	2007-03-06
uwm	C	Similar to BSD license									1985
Name	Language	License	Type	Configurable titlebar buttons	Graphical configuration	Hotkeys	ICCCM/EWMH compliant	Panel for window switching	Tabbed windows	Themeable	Initial release

See also

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

References

1. "NetWM - Blackbox". Blackbox releases up to and including version 0.65.0 follow the ICCCM standard, while 0.70 and later follow EWMH.
2. "EvilWM on Freecode".
3. "evilwm - standards support". evilwm releases following and including version 1.1.0 follow the EWMH standard.
4. http://fluxbox.sourceforge.net/docs/ewmh-support.html
5. FvwmTabs
6. Fvwm Themes
7. 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