This article compares variety of different X window managers. For an introduction to the topic, see X Window System.
| Name | Language | License | Type | Configurable titlebar buttons | Graphical configuration | Hotkeys | ICCCM/EWMH compliant | Panel for window switching | Tabbed windows | Themeable |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Compiz | C++ (OpenGL) | MIT | Compositing | Yes | Yes | Yes | third-party | Yes | Yes | |
| cwm | C | ISC | Stacking | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| KWin (KDE) | C++ (Qt) | GPL | Compositing and Tiling[1] | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Metacity (GNOME) | C, C++ (GTK+) | GPL | Compositing | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Mutter (GNOME/MeeGo) | C (Clutter) | GPL | Compositing | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Gnome Shell | No | Yes |
| Xfwm (Xfce) | C, C++ (GTK+) | GPL, LGPL | Compositing | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Enlightenment | C | BSD | Stacking | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| IceWM | C++ | GPL, LGPL | Stacking | Yes | third-party | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| JWM | C | GPL | Stacking | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes |
| Blackbox | C++ | MIT | Stacking | No | third-party | with bbkeys | through 0.65 / from 0.70[2] | Yes | No | Yes |
| Fluxbox | C++ | MIT | Stacking | Yes | third-party | Yes | Yes[3] | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Openbox | C | GPL | Stacking | Yes | third-party | Yes | Yes | third-party | No | Yes |
| awesome | C, Lua | GPL | Dynamic | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| xmonad | Haskell | BSD | Dynamic | Yes | Yes | Yes / ? | third-party | Yes | Yes | |
| FVWM | C | GPL | Dynamic | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes[4] | third-party[5][6] |
| Ion | C, Lua | LGPL with naming restrictions on modified versions | Tiling and stacking | no titlebar buttons | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | |
| twm | C | MIT License | re-parenting | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | solid colors | |
| Matchbox | C | GPL | Stacking | Yes | ||||||
| sithWM | C | GPL | Stacking | no titlebar buttons | No | Yes | Yes | |||
| evilwm | C | AEWM[7] | Stacking | no titlebar buttons | No | No | ?/Somewhat from 1.1.0[8] | No | Yes | |
| dwm | C | MIT | Tiling and stacking | no titlebar buttons | No | Yes | Yes/No | Yes | Yes | |
| WMFS | C | BSD | Tiling | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| wmii | C | MIT | Dynamic | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| scrotwm | C | BSD | Tiling and stacking | no titlebar buttons | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | solid colors |
| FLWM | C (FLTK) | GPL | stacking | No |
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