niri AlternativesOnly apps categorised as Window Managers

The best Window Manager 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 loads of them are Window Managers so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. Other interesting Window Manager alternatives to niri are i3, GlazeWM, Openbox and awesome.

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niri alternatives are mainly Window Managers, but if you're looking for 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. i3 icon
     72 likes

    i3 is a dynamic tiling window manager with clean, readable and documented code, featuring extended Xinerama support, usage of libxcb instead of xlib and several improvements over wmii.

    84 i3 alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • BSD
     
  3. Openbox icon
     78 likes

    Openbox is a highly configurable, next generation window manager with extensive standards support.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • BSD
     
  4. awesome icon
     39 likes

    awesome is a highly configurable, next generation framework window manager for X. It is very fast, extensible and licensed under the GNU GPLv2 license.

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • BSD
     
  5. Fluxbox icon
     33 likes

    Fluxbox is a window manager for X that was based on the Blackbox 0.61.1 code. It is very light on resources and easy to handle but yet full of features to make an easy, and extremely fast, desktop experience. It is built using C++ and licensed under the MIT license.

    77 Fluxbox alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • BSD
    • C++
     
  6. bspwm icon
     13 likes

    A tiling window manager based on binary space partitioning.

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
     
  7.  9 likes

    KWin is a window manager for the X Window System, and is in the process of becoming a Wayland compositor. It is an integral part, and the default window manager of the Plasma Workspaces, but it can also be used on its own or with other desktop environments.

    59 KWin alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • BSD
     
  8.  3 likes

    Rift is a tiling window manager for macOS that focuses on performance and usability.

    53 Rift alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
     
  9. Sxmo icon
     2 likes

    A minimalist Linux smartphone environment that is truly yours to control. Sxmo, or Simple X Mobile, is a collection of simple and suckless X programs and scripts used together to create a fully functional mobile UI adhering to the Unix philosophy for the PinePhone and other...

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • postmarketOS
    • Linux Mobile
     
  10. river icon
     4 likes

    Wayland compositor featuring dynamic tiling and Master&Stack layout, offering configuration through riverctl tool with tag system for window management, customizable with rivertile and user layout generators, allowing flexible workspace setup without traditional workspaces.

    Cost / License

    Platforms

    • Linux
     
  11. Qtile icon
     8 likes

    A full-featured, hackable tiling window manager written and configured in Python.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source (MIT)

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
     
12 of 72 niri alternatives