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Kickoff vs sway-launcher-desktop: catalog facts
Kickoff	sway-launcher-desktop
Best for: Wayland users on Sway or similar compositors who want a simple rofi-style launcher	Best for: Sway and other tiling window manager users who want a light launcher
Free Free and open source.	Free Free and open source.
Linux	Linux, Command line
Native Wayland launcher Simple install through cargo or the AUR All 3 strengths for Kickoff Native Wayland launcher Simple install through cargo or the AUR Nix flake included	Supports .desktop files and their actions Only needs bash, gawk and fzf All 3 strengths for sway-launcher-desktop Supports .desktop files and their actions Only needs bash, gawk and fzf Works with almost any window manager
Only supports wlroots-based compositors Small project with a narrow feature set	Runs inside a terminal, so it needs a terminal window set up to show it Linux-focused, with no graphical interface of its own
Downloadable app	Downloadable app
Open source	Open source
License not stated	License not stated
No account needed	No account needed
Offline features available	Offline features available
Official website Full listing and sources Sources for Kickoff github.com/j0ru/kickoff Catalog checked September 24, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Sources for sway-launcher-desktop github.com/Biont/sway-launcher-desktop Catalog checked October 1, 2026

“Not stated” means we have not confirmed it. Features can vary by device and plan.