# Sway 81 Hacker News commenters recommended Sway and 23 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 12 of 13 months; owners who said how long report a median of 4 years (17 owners). It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule. **Verdict:** People recommend Sway as a Wayland replacement for i3 that keeps the same config and keybind workflow, with clean scaling, fast workspace switching, and a lightweight feel. Critics say the stock setup needs substantial customization and some software features do not work on it. ## Why people recommend it - Easy switch from i3 config (4 comments): "Sway is basically i3 on Wayland. You pretty much keep your config file (with a few modifications), there really isn't much friction." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47390242)) "I used to run i3 (and eventually Sway) on it, which worked well" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46377748)) "Wayland+sway switch from x11+i3 is so simple and works so well." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46059263)) - Keybinds for fast workspace control (4 comments): "Sway + keybinds for each workspace. Everything in it's place, every time, by pressing 3 keys." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49828351)) "Sway + foot with keybinds to provision each workspace to your liking is pretty nice." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47557800)) "I've got Sway keybinds to jump between my most-used programs instantly" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47371011)) - Clean scaling and multi-monitor support (4 comments): "High DPI is a pain in Xorg, and essentially impossible with heterogeneous monitors." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47391704)) "Setting arbitrary custom resolutions on the fly works fine on Wayland for me." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46143971)) "Multiple displays with different scales has worked fine since at least 2017" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47731658)) - Lean, fast, responsive (4 comments): "SXMO with sway WM/composer, foot terminal, and wvkbd as a keyboard is very responsive" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49192982)) "Tiling WM is just so simple, clean, fast, and perfect in every way." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46504084)) "it's way snappier and sharper than on any Linux distro I tried" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47410481)) ## What people warn about - Needs heavy customization to be usable (2 comments): "I really don't feel like the stock package is decidedly unfinished and you need to install/make plugins to make it actually usable." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49716630)) "The cost of using a customized sway environment is basically your life." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46046429)) - Some software features unsupported (3 comments): "If your software wants to do something like "know where the pointer is" it won't work on sway." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47394218)) "to this day there's no InputCapture portal, so I can't use Synergy with Sway" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46386908)) "both Sway and Hyperland still doesn't has official support yet" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48390005)) - Tiling layout feels disorienting (3 comments): "it's not bad by any means it's a bit too unlike what I'm used to" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48373833)) "I personally find i3/sway to be a bit slightly disorienting with certain workloads" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48524556)) "sway/niri want me to tile every window into some top-level spot." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47548965)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [i3 window manager](https://hackerapproved.com/p/i3.md): 70 recommend - [XMonad](https://hackerapproved.com/p/xmonad.md): 28 recommend - [i3wm](https://hackerapproved.com/p/i3wm.md): 12 recommend - [Ratpoison](https://hackerapproved.com/p/ratpoison.md): 8 recommend - [PaperWM](https://hackerapproved.com/p/paperwm.md): 7 recommend ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Sway", https://hackerapproved.com/p/sway/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).