Compare software

StumpWM vs spectrwm: catalog facts
StumpWM	spectrwm
Best for: Lisp users who want a tiling window manager they can reprogram while it runs	Best for: Linux and BSD users who want a minimal tiling window manager
Free Free and open source.	Free Free and open source.
Linux	Linux
Can be reconfigured live from Common Lisp Fully keyboard-driven tiling All 4 strengths for StumpWM Can be reconfigured live from Common Lisp Fully keyboard-driven tiling Module collection in stumpwm-contrib Versioned manuals in several formats	Small and lightweight with few dependencies Single plain-text configuration file All 3 strengths for spectrwm Small and lightweight with few dependencies Single plain-text configuration file Runs on Linux and the BSDs
X11 only, no Wayland support Customisation requires learning Common Lisp All 3 limitations for StumpWM X11 only, no Wayland support Customisation requires learning Common Lisp Minimal look with no built-in decorations	X11 only, no Wayland support Keyboard-centric workflow has a learning curve
Downloadable app	Downloadable app
Open source	Open source
License: GPL-2.0	License: ISC
No account needed	No account needed
Offline features available	Offline features available
Official website Full listing and sources Sources for StumpWM stumpwm.github.io Catalog checked September 24, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Sources for spectrwm github.com/conformal/spectrwm Catalog checked September 23, 2026

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