niri AlternativesOnly apps categorised as Desktop Environments

The best Desktop Environment alternative to niri is Hyprland, which is both free and Open Source. If that doesn't suit you, our users have ranked more than 50 alternatives to niri and six of them are Desktop Environments so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. Other interesting Desktop Environment alternatives to niri are PaperDE, Lumina Desktop Environment, pekwm and Sawfish.

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niri alternatives are mainly Window Managers, but if you're looking for Desktop Environments or Wayland Compositors you can filter on that. These are just examples - use the filter bar below to find more specific alternatives to niri.
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Alternatives list

  1. Hyprland icon
     46 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.

    31 Hyprland alternatives

    Cost / License

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • BSD
    • openSUSE
    • Arch Linux
    • Gentoo
    • Fedora
    • Ubuntu
    • Debian
    • FreeBSD
    • Alpine Linux
    • Slackware
    • Wayland
     
  2. PaperDE icon
     1 like

    A light-weight desktop environment based on Qt/Wayland and wayfire.

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • Qt
    • Wayland
     
  3. Lumina is a lightweight, BSD licensed, standards-compliant desktop environment based upon Qt and Fluxbox. It is being developed on PC-BSD, and is being packaged for distribution on the PC-BSD package repository as well.

    58 Lumina Desktop Environment alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • BSD
    • PC-BSD
     
  4. pekwm icon
     5 likes

    pekwm is a window manager that once up on a time was based on the aewm++ window manager, but it has evolved enough that it no longer resembles aewm++ at all. It has a much expanded feature-set, including window grouping (similar to ion, pwm, or fluxbox), autoproperties...

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
     
  5. Sawfish icon
     3 likes

    Sawfish is an extensible window manager using a Lisp-based scripting language. Its policy is very minimal compared to most window managers. Its aim is simply to manage windows in the most flexible and attractive manner possible.

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • X11
    • Window Manager
     
  6. OmniWM icon
     Like

    MacOS Niri and Hyprland inspired tiling window manager that's developer signed and notorized (safe for managed enterprise environments). Aiming for parity and extra innovation.

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
     
6 of 6 niri alternatives