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nwg-drawer vs Whisker Menu: catalog facts
nwg-drawer	Whisker Menu
Best for: sway or Hyprland users who want a GNOME-style app grid	Best for: Xfce desktop users who want a searchable start menu
Free Free and open source.	Free Free and distributed as an Xfce panel plugin.
Linux	Linux
Graphical app grid with search for tiling Wayland setups Styled with a plain CSS file All 3 strengths for nwg-drawer Graphical app grid with search for tiling Wayland setups Styled with a plain CSS file Part of the wider nwg-shell toolset	Search starts as soon as the menu opens and also matches descriptions Favorites, recently used and category browsing in one menu All 3 strengths for Whisker Menu Search starts as soon as the menu opens and also matches descriptions Favorites, recently used and category browsing in one menu Drag and drop to reorder favorites
Limited to wlroots-based Wayland compositors Launches applications only, no calculator or command actions	Only works as a plugin for the Xfce panel
Downloadable app	Downloadable app
Open source	Not open source
License: MIT	License not stated
No account needed	No account needed
Offline features available	Offline features available
Official website Full listing and sources Sources for nwg-drawer github.com/nwg-piotr/nwg-drawer Catalog checked September 23, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Sources for Whisker Menu docs.xfce.org/panel-plugins/xfce4-whiskermenu-plugin/start Catalog checked October 2, 2026

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