river AlternativesWindow Managers & Wayland Compositors like river

river is described as 'Dynamic tiling Wayland compositor built in Zig with Master&Stack layout, tag-based window organization, and XWayland compatibility' and is a Window Manager in the os & utilities category. There are more than 10 alternatives to river for a variety of platforms, including Linux, Wayland, FreeBSD, Gentoo and Fedora apps. The best river alternative is Hyprland, which is both free and Open Source. Other great apps like river are niri, Sway, GlazeWM and SwayFX.

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Alternatives list

  1. Hyprland icon

    Hyprland

     38 likes
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    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.

    25 Hyprland alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • BSD
    • openSUSE
    • Arch Linux
    • Gentoo
    • Fedora
    • Ubuntu
    • Debian
    • FreeBSD
    • Alpine Linux
    • Slackware
    • Wayland
    Screenshot of a preconfigured setup
     

    • Hyprland is the most popular Linux alternative to river.

    • Hyprland is the most popular Open Source & free alternative to river.

    • Hyprland is Free and Open Sourceriver is also Free and Open Source
    • Hyprland is Lightweightriver is not according to our users
  2. niri icon

    niri

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

    76 niri alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • Wayland
    niri screenshot 1
     
  4. Sway icon

    Sway

     21 likes
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    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.

    25 Sway alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
    Sway screenshot 1
     
  5. GlazeWM icon

    GlazeWM

     7 likes
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    A tiling window manager for Windows inspired by i3 and Polybar.

    30 GlazeWM alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Rust
    GlazeWM screenshot 1
     

    • GlazeWM is the most popular Windows alternative to river.

    • GlazeWM is Free and Open Sourceriver is also Free and Open Source
    • GlazeWM is Lightweightriver is not according to our users
  6. SwayFX icon

    SwayFX

     3 likes
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    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...

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • Arch Linux
    • Gentoo Linux
    • Fedora
    • Nix Package Manager
    • Sway
    • FreeBSD
    • Wayland
    SwayFX screenshot 1
     
  7. Japokwm icon

    Japokwm

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

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
    Japokwm screenshot 1
     
  9. Wayfire icon

    Wayfire

     6 likes
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    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

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • FreeBSD
    Wayfire screenshot 1
     
  10. hikari icon

    hikari

     2 likes
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    hikari [ja. Light] is a stacking Wayland compositor which is actively developed on FreeBSD but also supports Linux.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • BSD
    hikari screenshot 1
     
  11. mangowc icon

    mangowc

     1 like
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    wayland compositor base wlroots and scenefx(dwm but wayland).

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Wayland
    • Linux
    mangowc screenshot 1
     
  13. Labwc icon

    Labwc

     2 likes
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    Labwc stands for Lab Wayland Compositor, where lab can mean any of the following:

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Linux
    Labwc screenshot 1
     
  14. Miriway icon

    Miriway

     1 like
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    Miriway is a starting point for creating a Wayland based desktop environment using Mir.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • Wayland
     
12 of 23 river alternatives