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, Arch Linux, FreeBSD and Gentoo apps. The best river alternative is Hyprland, which is both free and Open Source. Other great apps like river are Sway, niri, Wayfire and Labwc.

river iconriver
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Dynamic tiling Wayland compositor built in Zig with Master&Stack layout, tag-based window organization, and XWayland...

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river alternatives page was last updated Jan 10, 2025
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  1. Hyprland icon

    Hyprland

     26 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.

    20 Hyprland alternatives

    License model

    • Free • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

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

    Properties

    1.  Customizable
    2.  Lightweight

    Features

    1.  Tiling Window Manager
    2.  Compositor
    3.  Extensible by Plugins/Extensions
    4.  Support for scripting
    5.  Support for Multiple Monitors

    Hyprland VS river

     

    • 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 Customizable and Lightweightriver is not according to our users
  2. Sway icon

    Sway

     20 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.

    20 Sway alternatives

    License model

    • Free • Open Source

    Application type

    Country of Origin

    • International

    Platforms

    • Linux
    Sway screenshot 1

    Properties

    1.  Lightweight

    Features

    1.  Wayland Support
    2.  Tiling Window Manager
    3.  Support for Multiple Monitors
    4.  Tiling Layouts
    5.  Tiling

    Sway VS river

     
  4. niri icon

    niri

     3 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.

    71 niri alternatives

    License model

    • Free • Open Source

    Application types

    Country of Origin

    • RU flagRussia

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • Wayland
    niri screenshot 1

    niri Features

    1.  Rust
    2.  Tiling Window Manager

    niri VS river

     
  5. 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.

    License model

    • Free • Open Source

    Application types

    Country of Origin

    • BG flagBulgaria
    • European Union flagEU

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • FreeBSD
    Wayfire screenshot 1

    Wayfire Features

    1.  Wayland Support

    Wayfire VS river

     
  6. Labwc icon

    Labwc

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

    License model

    • Free • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Linux
    Labwc screenshot 1

    Properties

    1.  Privacy focused
    2.  Lightweight

    Features

    1.  No registration required
    2.  Ad-free
    3.  No Tracking
    4.  Wayland Support

    Labwc VS river

     
  7. 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...

    License model

    • Free • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • Arch Linux
    • Gentoo Linux
    • Fedora
    • Nix Package Manager
    • Sway
    • FreeBSD
    • Wayland
    SwayFX screenshot 1

    SwayFX Features

    1.  No registration required
    2.  No Tracking
    3.  Compositor
    4.  Wayland Support
    5.  OPENGL

    SwayFX VS river

     
  9. Miriway icon

    Miriway

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

    License model

    • Free • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • Wayland

    Miriway Features

    1.  Wayland Support

    Miriway VS river

     

  10. Waybox

     1 like
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    An openbox clone on Wayland (WIP).

    License model

    • Free • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • Openbox
    • Wayland
    Waybox screenshot 1

    Waybox Features

    1.  Wayland Support

    Waybox VS river

     
  11. Pinnacle icon

    Pinnacle

     1 like
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    Pinnacle is a Wayland compositor built in Rust using Smithay. It's my attempt at creating something like AwesomeWM for Wayland.

    License model

    • Free • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • Wayland
    Pinnacle screenshot 1

    Pinnacle Features

    1.  Compositor
    2.  Rust
    3.  Wayland Support

    Pinnacle VS river

     

  12. miracle-wm

     1 like
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    A Wayland compositor based on Mir. It features a tiling window manager at its core, very much in the style of i3 and sway. The intention is to build a compositor that is flashier and more feature-rich than either of those compositors, like swayfx.

    63 miracle-wm alternatives

    License model

    • Free • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Wayland
    • Linux
    miracle-wm screenshot 1

    miracle-wm Features

    1.  Wayland Support
    2.  Tiling
    3.  Tiling Window Manager

    miracle-wm VS river

     

  13. dwl

     1 like
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    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:

    License model

    • Free • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • Wayland
    dwl screenshot 1

    dwl Features

    1.  Compositor
    2.  Tiling

    dwl VS river

     
  14. Japokwm icon

    Japokwm

     1 like
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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. 🚀

    License model

    • Free • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Linux
    Japokwm screenshot 1

    Properties

    1.  Lightweight

    Features

    1.  Ad-free
    2.  No registration required
    3.  Tiling

    Japokwm VS river

     
12 of 20 river alternatives