spectrwm Alternatives

spectrwm is described as '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' and is a Window Manager in the os & utilities category. There are more than 50 alternatives to spectrwm for a variety of platforms, including Linux, Wayland, BSD, Mac and Windows apps. The best spectrwm alternative is Hyprland, which is both free and Open Source. Other great apps like spectrwm are i3, Sway, Openbox and awesome.

spectrwm iconspectrwm
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spectrwm is a small dynamic tiling window manager for X11. It tries to stay out of the way so that valuable screen real...

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More about spectrwm
spectrwm alternatives page was last updated May 17, 2025
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  1. Bluetile icon

    Bluetile

     8 likes
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    Bluetile is a tiling window manager for Linux, designed to integrate with the GNOME desktop environment. It provides both a traditional, stacking layout mode as well as tiling layouts where windows are arranged to use the entire screen without overlapping.

    License model

    • Free • Open Source

    Application type

    Country of Origin

    • DE flagGermany
    • European Union flagEU

    Platforms

    • Linux
    Bluetile screenshot 1
    Discontinued

    The last commit on this software is ten years ago and the GNOME desktop has moved on. Notably, it is now difficult to replace the default window manager in GNOME.

    Bluetile Features

    1.  Snap windows

    Bluetile VS spectrwm

     
  2. Lumina Desktop Environment icon

    Lumina Desktop Environment

     14 likes
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    Lumina is a lightweight, BSD licensed, standards-compliant desktop environment based upon Qt and Fluxbox. It is being developed on PC-BSD, and is being packaged for distribution on the PC-BSD package repository as well.

    License model

    • Free • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • BSD
    • PC-BSD

    Lumina Desktop Environment VS spectrwm

     
  4. Phoenix icon

    Phoenix

     5 likes
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    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.

    License model

    • Free • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    Phoenix screenshot 1

    Properties

    1.  Lightweight

    Phoenix VS spectrwm

     

  5. Blackbox WM

     1 like
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    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...

    License model

    • Free • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
    Blackbox WM screenshot 1

    Blackbox WM VS spectrwm

     

  6. Vivarium

     1 like
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    A dynamic tiling Wayland compositor using wlroots, with desktop semantics inspired by xmonad.

    License model

    • Free • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
    Vivarium screenshot 1

    Vivarium Features

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

    Vivarium VS spectrwm

     
  7. Gnome Mutter icon

    Gnome Mutter

     1 like
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    Mutter is a Wayland display server and X11 window manager and compositor library.

    License model

    • Free • Open Source

    Application type

    Country of Origin

    • US flagUnited States

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • GNOME
    • Wayland

    Gnome Mutter Features

    1.  Wayland Support

    Gnome Mutter VS spectrwm

     
  9. Whim icon

    Whim

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    Whim is a hackable, pluggable and scriptable dynamic window manager for Windows 10 and 11, built using WinUI 3, .NET, and C# scripting.

    License model

    • Free • Open Source

    Application type

    Country of Origin

    • SE flagSweden
    • European Union flagEU

    Platforms

    • Windows
    Whim screenshot 1

    Properties

    1.  Lightweight

    Features

    1.  Support for scripting
    2.  No registration required
    3.  Dark Mode

    Whim VS spectrwm

     
  10. WMFS² icon

    WMFS²

     2 likes
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    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.

    License model

    • Free • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
    Source: zachsnyder.deviantart.com/art/My-WMFS-9-30-2011-260849127
    Discontinued

    The last update on the GitHub repo (https://github.com/xorg62/wmfs) was on August 14th, 2013. The official website is no longer accessible, but has been archived by Internet Archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20141218125810/http://wmfs.info/

    Properties

    1.  Lightweight
    2.  Minimalistic

    Features

    1.  Tiling

    WMFS² VS spectrwm

     

  11. Mahogany

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    Mahogany is a tiling window manager for Wayland modeled after StumpWM. While it is not a drop-in replacement for StumpWM, StumpWM users should be very comfortable with Mahogany. Its planned features are:

    License model

    • Free • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • Wayland

    Mahogany Features

    1.  Wayland Support

    Mahogany VS spectrwm

     
  12. StumpWM icon

    StumpWM

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    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.

    License model

    • Free • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
    StumpWM screenshot 1

    StumpWM Features

    1.  Support for scripting
    2.  Extensible window manager
    3.  Tiling Layouts
    4.  Tiling Window Manager

    StumpWM VS spectrwm

     
  13. sxwm icon

    sxwm

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    tiling window managers dont have to be difficult.

    License model

    • Free • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • X11
    sxwm screenshot 1

    Properties

    1.  Lightweight
    2.  Privacy focused

    Features

    1.  No Tracking
    2.  No registration required
    3.  Ad-free
    4.  Works Offline
    5.  X server
    6.  X11/Xorg

    sxwm VS spectrwm

     

  14. wio

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    Wio is a Wayland compositor for Linux & FreeBSD which has a similar look & feel to plan9's rio.

    License model

    • Free • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • FreeBSD

    wio Features

    1.  Wayland Support

    wio VS spectrwm

     
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