XMonad
Hacker ApprovedRanked 5 of 11 tiling window managers by recommenders
Fast, keyboard-driven tiling window manager with strong multi-monitor workspace handling and easy code-based config. Critics say it's not right for most people.
Fast, keyboard-driven tiling window manager with strong multi-monitor workspace handling and easy code-based config. Critics say it's not right for most people.
29 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 28
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 97%
Recommended in 11 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Owned for 10 years
Median of the 5 owners who said how long they have had it.
Each square is one year.
Why it carries the badge
- 28 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 28 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 11 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Keyboard-driven tiling with fast focus
“XMonad with some lightly customized layouts gives me the operations to do all of this quickly”
Comment from 24 Sep 2026 in “Ideas on modernizing the open-source desktop” “I tried xmonad, a tiling window manager, and I was hooked”
Comment from 7 Dec 2025 in “Screenshots from developers: 2002 vs. 2015 (2015)” “Also has nice hot-keys for moving focus.”
Comment from 9 Oct 2026 in “Show HN: K10s – A Clickable Kubernetes TUI (Go, Bubble Tea)” - Comment from 13 Feb 2026 in “Resizing windows on macOS Tahoe – the saga continues”
Fast and lightweight
“It's definitely quick as heck and I like how compact the codebase is for edits.”
Comment from 15 Nov 2025 in “Moving Back to a Tiling WM – XMonad” “I just run xmonad and everything is pretty snappy”
Comment from 18 May 2026 in “I turned a $80 RK3562 Android tablet into a Debian Linux workstation” “it takes basically no resources”
Comment from 24 May 2026 in “I turned a $80 RK3562 Android tablet into a Debian Linux workstation” Strong multi-monitor workspace handling
“xmonad is really really good. Especially how it handles workspaces on multiple monitors.”
Comment from 14 Nov 2025 in “Moving Back to a Tiling WM – XMonad” “With Xmonad I had 10 spaces on a single laptop screen”
Comment from 3 Apr 2026 in “Improving my focus by giving up my big monitor” “the ability to have empty workspaces”
Comment from 14 Nov 2025 in “Moving Back to a Tiling WM – XMonad” Configurable directly in code
“XMonad with a few cargo-culted tweaks works noticeably better for me than I've been able to configure i3wm”
Comment from 14 Nov 2025 in “Moving Back to a Tiling WM – XMonad” “Or even customize my Xmonad to show specific Gimp instances on select workspaces.”
Comment from 15 Nov 2025 in “Moving Back to a Tiling WM – XMonad” “you can actually just throw stuff into your config to change core behavior”
Comment from 15 Nov 2025 in “Moving Back to a Tiling WM – XMonad”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Not the right choice for most people
“I'm not denigrating XMonad or such here; it's more that I think it's probably not the right choice for most people”
Comment from 14 Nov 2025 in “Moving Back to a Tiling WM – XMonad” Stuck on X11, not Wayland
“worked well with MATE and kde until the wayland switch”
Comment from 14 Nov 2025 in “Moving Back to a Tiling WM – XMonad”
Other tiling window managers people recommend
The four most recommended other tiling window managers, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Niri | 125 | 17 | 88% | 13 | 6 mo16 owners | Approved |
| Sway | 81 | 23 | 78% | 12 | 4 yrs17 owners | Approved |
| AeroSpace | 77 | 12 | 87% | 12 | 4 mo10 owners | Approved |
| i3 window manager | 70 | 9 | 89% | 12 | — | Approved |
| XMonadThis page | 28 | 1 | 97% | 11 | 10 yrs5 owners | Approved |
What people said
38 of the 41 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Also has nice hot-keys for moving focus.”
“I used to use XMonad (now on Hyprland) and feel that the tiling window manager experience you can get on Linux doesn't have an equivalent on macos.”
“I've found my Zen with xmonad and emacs”
“XMonad with some lightly customized layouts gives me the operations to do all of this quickly”
“I've had to adapt to exactly zero change in my ux in ten years.”
“You don't need a desktop environment!”
“I just went with xmonad and the few apps I actually use.”
“it takes basically no resources”
“I just run xmonad and everything is pretty snappy”
“I find it very natural and predictable.”
“With Xmonad I had 10 spaces on a single laptop screen”
“the simple fact that XMonad runs on X11 and not on Wayland is a killer feature for others”
“Almost no fiddling with windows at all.”
“which is great for invoking a possibly slow command”
“The only DE's that I haven't had poor experiences with are xfce, bspwm, i3/i3gaps, and xmonad.”
“or strict tile enforcement (i3/xMonad)”
“I've run Void Linux + Xmonad for many years without any such issues”
“I dig it despite Haskell, not because of it”
“I tried xmonad, a tiling window manager, and I was hooked”
“the only one that looks even remotely good to me”
“Or even customize my Xmonad to show specific Gimp instances on select workspaces.”
“you can actually just throw stuff into your config to change core behavior”
“It's definitely quick as heck and I like how compact the codebase is for edits.”
“This is the reaon I use XMonad”
“worked well with MATE and kde until the wayland switch”
“it came with enough of the batteries included in the package that spinning up a nice and productive environment took barely any code”
“the ability to have empty workspaces”
“I'm not denigrating XMonad or such here; it's more that I think it's probably not the right choice for most people”
“It's not about discovering it doesn't work so much as discovering the specific reason it doesn't work.”
“it just does everything I want”
“xmonad is really really good. Especially how it handles workspaces on multiple monitors.”
“so that I could have a tiling window manager but still have all the normal desktop environment conveniences”
“XMonad with a few cargo-culted tweaks works noticeably better for me than I've been able to configure i3wm”
“Type-checking keybindings is cute, but you're going to discover that the keybinding doesn't work when you go to use it”
“it had really nice I3, bspwm, and xmonad distributions”
“pandoc and xmonad are super useful”
“XMonad works noticeably better for me than i3wm/Sway”
“I usually prefer XMonad or i3wm atop X11”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.