Rift Alternatives

Rift is described as 'Tiling window manager for macOS that focuses on performance and usability' and is a Window Manager in the os & utilities category. There are more than 25 alternatives to Rift for a variety of platforms, including Linux, BSD, Mac, Wayland and Windows apps. The best Rift alternative is Hyprland, which is both free and Open Source. Other great apps like Rift are niri, i3, Sway and GlazeWM.

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Rift alternatives page was last updated Dec 16, 2025

Vivarium
1 like
A dynamic tiling Wayland compositor using wlroots, with desktop semantics inspired by xmonad.
Cost / License
Free
Open Source
Application type
Window Manager
Platforms
Linux
Is Vivarium a good alternative to Rift?
Blackbox WM
1 like
Blackbox is an original window manager, sharing no code with any others. It's designed to be fairly small and minimal, making it particularly suited to less powerful computers. It doesn't support images, other than generated gradients, but it does support multiple...
Cost / License
Free
Open Source
Application type
Window Manager
Platforms
Linux
Is Blackbox WM a good alternative to Rift?
Phoenix
5 likes
Phoenix is a lightweight OS X window and app manager scriptable with JavaScript. You can also easily use languages which compile to JavaScript such as CoffeeScript. Phoenix aims for efficiency and a very small footprint.
Cost / License
Free
Open Source
Application type
Window Manager
Platforms
Mac
Is Phoenix a good alternative to Rift?
WMFS²
2 likes
WMFS² is a lightweight and highly configurable tiling window manager for X written in C. WMFS² is a free software distributed under the BSD license. It can be driven from keyboard or mouse and its configuration stands in one text file, easily understandable.
Cost / License
Free
Open Source
Application type
Window Manager
Alerts
Discontinued
Platforms
Linux
Is WMFS² a good alternative to Rift?
Way Cooler
Like
Way Cooler is a tiling Wayland window manager, written in Rust, configurable using Lua, and extendable with D-Bus.
Cost / License
Free
Open Source
Application type
Window Manager
Platforms
Linux
Is Way Cooler a good alternative to Rift?
wtftw
Like
Window Tiling For The Win (wtftw) is a tiling window manager written in Rust.
Cost / License
Free
Open Source
Application type
Window Manager
Alerts
Discontinued
Platforms
Mac
Linux
Is wtftw a good alternative to Rift?
Cagebreak
Like
A Wayland Tiling Compositor Inspired by Ratpoison.
55 Cagebreak alternatives
Cost / License
Free
Open Source
Application type
Window Manager
Platforms
Linux
Wayland
Is Cagebreak a good alternative to Rift?
AeroSpace
Like
AeroSpace is an i3-like tiling window manager for macOS.
Cost / License
Free
Open Source
Application type
Window Manager
Platforms
Mac
Is AeroSpace a good alternative to Rift?
Xlambda
Like
Xlambda is an X window manager that is extensible in Guile.
Cost / License
Free
Open Source
Application type
Window Manager
Platforms
Linux
Is Xlambda a good alternative to Rift?
StumpWM
Like
StumpWM is a tiling, keyboard driven X11 Window Manager written and scriptable in Common Lisp. StumpWM attempts to be customizable yet visually minimal. There are no window decorations, no icons, and no buttons.
Cost / License
Free
Open Source
Application type
Window Manager
Origin
International
Platforms
Linux
Is StumpWM a good alternative to Rift?
PaperWM
Like
PaperWM is an experimental Gnome Shell extension providing scrollable tiling of windows and per monitor workspaces. It's inspired by paper notebooks and tiling window managers. Supports Gnome Shell 3.28 and 3.30 on X11 and wayland.
51 PaperWM alternatives
Cost / License
Free
Open Source
Application type
Window Manager
Platforms
Linux
GNOME
+1
Is PaperWM a good alternative to Rift?
Wmderland
Like
Heavily Inspired by i3wm. Wmderland aims to simplify the core functionalities of i3wm, and bundle in the essential features required for a modern but minimal Tiling Window Manager.
Cost / License
Free
Open Source
Application type
Window Manager
Platforms
Linux
Is Wmderland a good alternative to Rift?