Tiling Window Manager reviews from Reddit
Summary
We analyzed 239 Reddit reviews across 21 subreddits and 41 posts to rank the best Tiling Window Manager brands recommended by redditors, including communities like r/archlinux, r/Fedora, r/debian, r/linuxmasterrace, r/linux4noobs. Top-rated brands include i3 (4.4/5), Hyprland (4.1/5), Sway (4.3/5).
Stats
Reviews239
Subreddits21
Posts41
Brands68
Products11
239 reviews from
and
By Brand
/By Product
#1
i3
4.4
(34)
"Yeah for me sway/i3 struck a nice middle ground between configurability, simplicity and just be a WM and not my hobby."
"I3wm is the classic, with Sway being i3 ported to the new Wayland graphical system. Hyrpland is quite neat also, and aswesomewm is, well, awesome."
"I’ve been daily driving i3 for quite some time and can’t recommend it enough."
"I've used i3 longer than I can remember, first thing to go on any new install for me."
"I3 has commonly been seen as the best beginner tiling window manager."
"I3 is my happy space as the defaults suit me."
"I3 offers a really good sweet spot of features with the least amount of compatibility/placement issues across apps that I've found."
"I3 no doubs"
"It's simple to set up, configurable with a text file, and works everywhere."
"I like i3 very much. Just a script to configure the wm itself plus i3bar plus rofi. And off you Go! No unnecessary bloat imho."
#2
Hyprland
4.1
(33)
"Hyprland, hands down."
"Hyprland is best at this but you can achieve the same in sway using autotiling or autotiling-rs plugin"
"Hyprland is just perfect"
"Hyprland"
"Hyprland!!"
"River, Hyprland or sway."
"I really like Hyprland. it's well polished and has good documentation."
"Hyprland"
"Alternative option is hyprland which you can either install and configure manually on top of an existing release such as the standard gnome release."
"If you are looking specifically for wayland tiling wms, then sway and hyprland are the only options on Debian."
#3
Sway
4.3
(28)
"Yeah for me sway/i3 struck a nice middle ground between configurability, simplicity and just be a WM and not my hobby."
"Sway"
"I3wm is the classic, with Sway being i3 ported to the new Wayland graphical system."
"There's two chairs: Sway and Hyprland"
"Sway is rock solid"
"River, Hyprland or sway."
"Sway is super solid, at least from my experience."
"Sway is second to none, it has the best multi-monitor support on Linux."
"Sway is a great place to start. It's very stable and one of the easier to configure."
"Sway seems the only option (or qtile which I have never personally tried)."
#4
Qtile
4.2
(12)
"Take a look at qtile. I have been on i3 for 10 years. Been rolling qtile for the last couple of months and have it tuned exactly how I like."
"My vote is qtile. it's configured in python, but the documentation is really good."
"Go for Qtile, it has all the functionality and documentation of xmonad but everything in python."
"I love QTile, too, but couldn't get it to run with Wayland for the live of me."
"I think qtile will suite you the best because you said that you know python very well."
"Easiest one I found was qtile, since it's configured with python."
"Qtile is pretty good and it is easy enough to be able to use."
"You should really try Qtyle since you are learning python."
"Qtile - config is done in python, fast, easy."
"Qtile is my favorite choice for beginners."
#5
dwm
4.2
(10)
"The only answer is dwm"
"DWM with fake fullscreen and centered patch, been using it for about a year now and it's incredibly comfy."
"Dwm is the best tilingwm.. for me."
"DWM but from my experience it's not really beginner friendly, but so far so good been using 1 year no problem"
"I like dwm but that is not for everybody"
"Dwm or i3"
"Pre-patched dwm, i.e Luke Smith's dwm."
"Dwm"
"I use dwm myself but one of the biggest issues is that it is hard/annoying to configure."
"Dwm"
#6
bspwm
3.9
(9)
"I like bspwm"
"Bspwm. Nothing like it tbh."
"I've been for years on bspwm on my Debian desktop PC."
"Bspwm or i3wm is good."
"Bspwm has a very easy config file and sxhkd is very intuitive."
"I started with bspwm and found that to be perfect."
"I have recently switched from i3 to bspwm, after using i3 exclusively for a few years."
"Bspwm - it's light - very configurable."
"I personally use xfce with bspwm."
#7
River
4.3
(7)
"River is like bswpm or dwm for Wayland"
"River, Hyprland or sway."
"River now is way lighter on that front."
"I ran RiverWM + Yambar for quite some time and really liked it."
"River is a pretty solid window manager."
"Coming from awesome, river is almost certainly the best choice."
"I've been enjoying river quite a bit."
#8
AwesomeWM
4.0
(7)
"I use awesomewm"
"Aswesomewm is, well, awesome."
"Awesomewm"
"The awesomewm have a lot of plugins and built-in widgets out of the box."
"Default config is quite good."
"Awesomewm or i3 are the most popular among beginners."
"Awesomewm is nice."
#9
i3wm
4.6
(5)
"Go for i3wm and you will bless me."
"I3wm"
"But, I'd recommend i3wm beyond that."
"Bspwm or i3wm is good."
"I would strongly recommend a distro with it already pre-configured."
#10
COSMIC
3.8
(5)
"Cosmic. Because it's the best of the bunch..."
"Cosmic"
"Cosmic has tiling window management capabilities, last I saw."
"Tiling works out of the box and very intuitive."
"Cosmic does support tiling out of the box."
#11
XMonad
4.0
(4)
"I've been using arch with XMonad for quite a while and I really like it"
"XMonad and XMobar"
"I've tested nearly all the available desktops, including tiling windows manager like qtile or Xmonad."
"The easiest tiling setup I've found is use a traditional desktop and replace the window manager (I use xmonad)."
#12
Swish
4.7
(3)
"Personally, I tried them both and then tried swish. I think swish is more intuitive, faster and is way better."
"I’m late to this thread but I’ll never pass on an opportunity to shill for Swish."
"Swish is great for touchpad users."
#13
PaperWM
4.3
(3)
"Me too. It works really well. Highly recommended."
"PaperWM"
"Paperwm is a great chose."
#14
Openbox
4.3
(3)
"Openbox"
"Openbox. The rc.xml is easy to hack."
"Openbox is also nice, very stable and easy to configure."
#15
Microsoft PowerToys
4.3
(3)
"Perhaps https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/powertoys/fancyzones"
"Check out the fancy zones feature of Microsoft power tools."
"Try the FancyZones feature in Microsoft PowerToys."
#16
Awesome
4.0
(3)
"IMO 'Awesome' has the best out of box experience for dynamic tilers."
"If you're running X, I recommend Awesome. Very configurable."
"Awesome wm!"
#17
Rectangle
4.0
(3)
"Rectangle and magnet are good if you want it to work the same way as windows."
"Rectangle app is good (free version)"
"Rectangle is a good solution."
#18
KDE
4.0
(3)
"Use KDE with the revived Krohnkite kwin script. Works really good and snappy."
"Personally, I'm using KDE with the Krohnkite extension, and while it's not perfect, it's good enough for me."
"KDE has a tiling window feature you can enable."
#19
Bismuth
4.0
(3)
"There is an unofficial successor to Bismuth called 'Polonium'"
"KDE with Bismuth, which is an add-in that will give you great tiling capability."
"[Bismuth](https://github.com/Bismuth-Forge/bismuth). Still works fine here on Arch / Gentoo."
#20
Krohnkite
4.5
(2)
"I have just installed Krohnkite and its perfect! no messy commands just simple, i love it thanks!"
"If you're not wanting to go the whole hog and replace kwin with i3, then krohnkite."
#21
Moom
4.5
(2)
"I use and absolutely LOVE “Moom” you can assign keyboard commands and it’ll also remember windows placements, resolution etc."
"If you find you need more power but still want a window management utility take a look at Moom."
#22
Komorebi
4.5
(2)
"Https://lgug2z.github.io/komorebi/"
"I use this: [GitHub - LGUG2Z/komorebi: A tiling window manager for Windows]"
#23
Niri
4.5
(2)
"My vote goes for Niri. Reasons are: it is very fast, and memory safe (written in Rust)."
"You might also be interested in niri."
#24
IceWM
4.5
(2)
"Icewm"
"I think IceWM and Enlightenment are beginner friendly."
#25
Magnet
4.0
(2)
"I recommend Magnet. It is great."
"I use Magnet and it works well for me."
#26
herbstluftwm
4.0
(2)
"Herbstluftwm."
"Herbstluftwm - frames are pretty neat."
#27
yabai
4.0
(2)
"Yabai. You don’t need to disable SIP for most features."
"Yabai"
#28
Pop Shell
4.0
(2)
"Pop Shell is what I use, and it works really well."
"My setup is gnome DE with pop autotiling and automove extension."
#29
Microsoft
4.0
(2)
"I use powertoys for my window management."
"Isn't FancyZones a good candidate for this?"
#30
Pop!_OS
4.0
(2)
"You can install the popos tiling manager if you're using gnome, works great, I use it on my fedora installation"
"The tiling feature of Pop_os is the easiest to use/learn."
#31
Amethyst
3.5
(2)
"Or take a look at Amethyst."
"The only ones I know about is Amethyst and Chunkwm."
#32
AlomWare
5.0
(1)
"I use it myself and can vouch for how good it is."
#33
TidalWM
5.0
(1)
"I'll plug TidalWM I focus on multi monitor and Wayland support because those are critical to my everyday workflow."
#34
SwayFX
5.0
(1)
"SwayFX"
#35
Fluxbox
5.0
(1)
"Fluxbox"
#36
LabWC
5.0
(1)
"[labwc](https://github.com/labwc/labwc)"
#37
Microsoft PowerToys FancyZones
4.0
(1)
"Maybe: [PowerToys FancyZones utility for Windows | Microsoft Learn]"
#38
Groupy
4.0
(1)
"Groupy2"
#39
GlazeWM
4.0
(1)
"GlazeWM"
#40
Fedora
4.0
(1)
"Stick the Fedora 40 sway spin on an ssd and boot from there. You'll like it."
#41
dwl
4.0
(1)
"Dwl?"
#42
nwg-shell
4.0
(1)
"I use nwg-shell. It's a desktop environment built on top of sway and I really like it."
#43
Wayfire
4.0
(1)
"Wayfire allows for eyecandy ala Compiz, but it is entirely optional."
#44
Pop!_Shell
4.0
(1)
"Pop!_Shell/COSMIC."
#45
Cortile
4.0
(1)
"I use cortile in XFCE, fast and configurable."
#46
i3-gaps
4.0
(1)
"I like i3-gaps. But honestly all of them are pretty good"
#47
xfce4-terminal
4.0
(1)
"Xfce4-terminal has a dropdown mode and it work in sway so it should work in hyprland."
#48
Forge
4.0
(1)
"Forge is another great option."
#49
BetterSnapTool
4.0
(1)
"Bettersnaptool. It really should just come baked into MacOS."
#50
BetterTouchTool
4.0
(1)
"BetterTouchTool is a great AIO tool that you may already have that has some window tiling functionality."
#51
FancyWM
4.0
(1)
"I just started using FancyWM. It is paid, but you can use it forever with just a nag screen when you start up."
#52
dwm-flexipatch
4.0
(1)
"I would definitely recommend if you're starting out using it to try flexipatch which allows you to change your configuration much easier."
#53
kwin-tiling
4.0
(1)
"This seems to work quite good. I just had to reboot after I installed and enabled it."
#54
Workspacer
4.0
(1)
"Workspacer, an open source one that is fantastic."
#55
WindowGrid
4.0
(1)
"I like WindowGrid, personally."
#56
PowerToys
4.0
(1)
"Windows has its own tiling manager and it's really good, but if it's not enough for you, you can use Powertoys."
#57
SwayWM
4.0
(1)
"I use swayWM and I like it."
#58
Gnome
4.0
(1)
"Works nice"
#59
Enlightenment
4.0
(1)
"I think IceWM and Enlightenment are beginner friendly."
#60
Material Shell
3.0
(1)
"This got a tiling engine and you will have Gnome features"
#61
Tiling Shell
3.0
(1)
"You can also try the tiling shell gnome extension."
#62
Owl
3.0
(1)
"Its a tiling wayland compositor i have been writing for a while, and on the road to a 1.0 release."
#63
Gnome 3 Tiling Extensions
3.0
(1)
"I like Gnome 3 with tiling extensions, e.g. tiling-shell extension."
#64
XFCE
3.0
(1)
"XFCE has some (minimalistic) tiling functionality."
#65
Mosaic
3.0
(1)
"Mosaic"
#66
Bartender
3.0
(1)
"Bartender is another one I believe but Moom had features several other didn’t that I really use."
#67
bug.n
3.0
(1)
"Some people like bug.n - I could personally never get into it because it's modeled after i3 but I prefer bspwm."
#68
Divvy
3.0
(1)
"Divvy. Not free though."
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