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miracle-wm vs river: catalog facts
miracle-wm	river
Best for: Linux users who want a customizable tiling Wayland compositor	Best for: Linux users who want to build or choose their own Wayland window manager
Free Free and open source.	Free Free and open source.
Linux	Linux
i3-style tiling on Wayland Animations and shader effects All 4 strengths for miracle-wm i3-style tiling on Wayland Animations and shader effects Plugin support, including Rust plugins Packaged as a Snap and Debian package	Window management policy is a separate, replaceable program Documented window management protocol All 3 strengths for river Window management policy is a separate, replaceable program Documented window management protocol Actively developed with regular releases
Smaller community than Sway or Hyprland Linux only	Needs a separate window manager to be useful Building from source requires the Zig toolchain All 3 limitations for river Needs a separate window manager to be useful Building from source requires the Zig toolchain Older configurations belong to river-classic
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 miracle-wm github.com/miracle-wm-org/miracle-wm Catalog checked September 24, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Sources for river isaacfreund.com/software/river Catalog checked September 23, 2026

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