i3 AlternativesOnly apps categorised as Wayland Compositors

The best Wayland Compositor alternative to i3 is Hyprland, which is both free and Open Source. If that doesn't suit you, our users have ranked more than 50 alternatives to i3 and many of them are Wayland Compositors so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. Other interesting Wayland Compositor alternatives to i3 are Sway, niri, Wayfire and SwayFX.

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i3 alternatives are mainly Wayland Compositors, but if you're looking for Window Managers you can filter on that. Other popular filters include Linux and Mac. These are just examples - use the filter bar below to find more specific alternatives to i3.
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Alternatives list

  1. Hyprland icon
     48 likes

    An independent tiling Wayland compositor written in C++. Noteworthy features of Hyprland include dynamic tiling, tabbed windows, a clean and readable C++ code-base, and a custom renderer that provides window animations, rounded corners, and Dual-Kawase Blur on transparent windows.

    33 Hyprland alternatives

    Cost / License

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • BSD
    • openSUSE
    • Arch Linux
    • Gentoo
    • Fedora
    • Ubuntu
    • Debian
    • FreeBSD
    • Alpine Linux
    • Slackware
    • Wayland
     
  2. Sway icon
     24 likes

    Sway is a Tiling Wayland Compositor and a drop-in replacement for the i3 window manager for X11. It works with your existing i3 configuration and supports most of i3's features, plus a few extras.

    54 Sway alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source (MIT)

    Platforms

    • Linux
     
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  3. niri icon
     14 likes

    Windows are arranged in columns on an infinite strip going to the right. Opening a new window never causes existing windows to resize.

    83 niri alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • Wayland
     
  4. Wayfire icon
     8 likes

    Wayfire is a 3D Wayland compositor, inspired by Compiz and based on wlroots. It aims to create a customizable, extendable and lightweight environment without sacrificing its appearance.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source (MIT)

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • FreeBSD
     
  5. SwayFX icon
     3 likes

    Sway is an incredible window manager, and certainly one of the most well established wayland window managers. However, it is restricted to only include the functionality that existed in i3. This fork ditches the simple wlr_renderer, and replaces it with our fx_renderer, capable...

    73 SwayFX alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source (MIT)

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • Arch Linux
    • Gentoo Linux
    • Fedora
    • Nix Package Manager
    • Sway
    • FreeBSD
    • Wayland
     
  6. Japokwm icon
     2 likes

    A dynamic tiling Wayland compositor (forked from dwl) that makes it a breeze to create custom layouts with a simple configuration. 🚀

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Linux
     
  7. miracle-wm icon
     1 like

    A Wayland compositor based on Mir. It features a tiling window manager at its core, very much in the style of i3 and sway. The intention is to build a compositor that is flashier and more feature-rich than either of those compositors, like swayfx.

    71 miracle-wm alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • Wayland
     
  8. MagmaWM icon
     Like

    A versatile and customizable window manager / Wayland compositor, currently in development and actively seeking contributions from the community.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source (MIT)

    Application type

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • Wayland
     
  9.  1 like

    dwl is a compact, hackable compositor for Wayland based on wlroots. It is intended to fill the same space in the Wayland world that dwm does in X11, primarily in terms of functionality, and secondarily in terms of philosophy. Like dwm, dwl is:

    83 dwl alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • Wayland
     
  10. Cardboard is a unique, scrollable tiling Wayland compositor designed with laptops in mind. Based on wlroots.

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • Wayland
     
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