Rift Alternatives

Apps similar to Rift include Hyprland, which is free and open source. Other options are niri, GlazeWM, Sway and i3. Window Managers like Rift are a crowded field, with more than 50 alternatives for Linux, Mac and Windows.

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Rift alternatives page was last updated Dec 16, 2025

AeroSpace
1 like
AeroSpace is an i3-like tiling window manager for macOS.
Cost / License
Free
Open Source (MIT)
Application type
Window Manager
Platforms
Mac
R
Good alternative?Is AeroSpace a good alternative to Rift?
mangowc
1 like
wayland compositor base wlroots and scenefx(dwm but wayland).
Cost / License
Free
Open Source
Application type
Wayland Compositor
Platforms
Wayland
Linux
R
Good alternative?Is mangowc a good alternative to Rift?
spectrwm
11 likes
spectrwm is a small dynamic tiling window manager for X11. It tries to stay out of the way so that valuable screen real estate can be used for much more important stuff. It has sane defaults and does not require one to learn a language to do any configuration.
Cost / License
Free
Open Source
Application type
Window Manager
Platforms
Mac
Linux
BSD
R
Good alternative?Is spectrwm a good alternative to Rift?
hikari
2 likes
hikari [ja. Light] is a stacking Wayland compositor which is actively developed on FreeBSD but also supports Linux.
87 hikari alternatives
Cost / License
Free
Open Source
Platforms
Linux
BSD
+2
R
Good alternative?Is hikari a good alternative to Rift?
wmii
9 likes
wmii is a small, dynamic window manager for X11. It is scriptable, has a 9p filesystem interface and supports classic and tiling (acme-like) window management. It aims to maintain a small and clean (read hackable and beautiful) codebase.
Cost / License
Free
Open Source
Application type
Window Manager
Platforms
Linux
R
Good alternative?Is wmii a good alternative to Rift?
JWM
5 likes
JWM is a light-weight window manager for the X11 Window System. JWM is written in C and uses only Xlib at a minimum. Because of its small footprint, JWM makes a good window manager for older computers and less powerful systems, such as the .
Cost / License
Free
Open Source (MIT)
Application type
Window Manager
Platforms
Linux
R
Good alternative?Is JWM a good alternative to Rift?
LeftWM
3 likes
Left is a tiling window manager written in rust for stability and performance. The core of left is designed to do one thing and one thing well. Be a window manager. Because you probably want more than just a black screen LeftWM is built around the concept of theming.
76 LeftWM alternatives
Cost / License
Free
Open Source (MIT)
Application type
Window Manager
Platforms
Linux
+1
R
Good alternative?Is LeftWM a good alternative to Rift?
herbstluftwm
5 likes
herbstluftwm is a manual tiling window manager for X11 using Xlib and Glib.
Cost / License
Free
Open Source
Application type
Window Manager
Platforms
Linux
BSD
+2
R
Good alternative?Is herbstluftwm a good alternative to Rift?
Ratpoison
5 likes
Ratpoison is a simple window manager with no fat library dependencies, no fancy graphics, no window decorations, and no rodent dependence. The screen can be split into non-overlapping frames. All windows are kept maximized inside their frames to take full advantage of your...
71 Ratpoison alternatives
Cost / License
Free
Open Source (GPL-2.0)
Application type
Window Manager
Platforms
Linux
X11
R
Good alternative?Is Ratpoison a good alternative to Rift?
doWM
1 like
doWM is a beautiful floating and tiling window manager for X11 completely written in golang.
Cost / License
Free
Open Source (MIT)
Application type
Window Manager
Platforms
X11
Linux
BSD
+6
R
Good alternative?Is doWM a good alternative to Rift?
D
D
dwl
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:
85 dwl alternatives
Cost / License
Free
Open Source (GPL-3.0)
Application type
Wayland Compositor
Platforms
Linux
Wayland
+5
D
R
Good alternative?Is dwl a good alternative to Rift?
i3-gaps
2 likes
i3-gaps is a fork of i3wm, a tiling window manager for X11. It is kept up to date with upstream, adding a few additional features such as gaps between windows.
Cost / License
Free
Open Source
Application type
Window Manager
Alerts
Discontinued
Platforms
Linux
R
Good alternative?Is i3-gaps a good alternative to Rift?