Sway offers an i3-compatible tiling compositor for Wayland-based desktop sessions.
Open source
24 alternativesLabWC
labwc provides a Wayland compositor that stacks windows rather than tiling them.
About LabWC
Labwc (Lab Wayland Compositor) is an open-source, wlroots-based Wayland compositor that stacks windows rather than tiling them, inspired by Openbox. It is designed to be lightweight and independent, with a focus on core window stacking and window decoration rendering, and avoids extra features such as animations.
It has no reliance on any desktop environment, desktop shell, session, or UI toolkits such as Qt or GTK. It only supports standard wayland-protocols and wlr-protocols, with no support for dbus, sway/i3 IPC or other non-standard control methods, and relies on separate client applications for panels, wallpapers, screenshots and other full desktop environment functionality.
Key features
- Lightweight window-stacking Wayland compositor
- Openbox-inspired window decoration rendering
- No dependencies on desktop environments or UI toolkits
- Supports only standard Wayland and wlroots protocols
- Excludes built-in animations and extra bloat
- Requires external clients for desktop environment features
Best for: It is best suited for users seeking a minimal, lightweight Wayland compositor with Openbox-like core functionality, who prefer to assemble their desktop environment from separate independent components.
Good for
- Lightweight design with low resource usage
- Tightly controlled scope prioritizing stability and robustness over new features
- No dependencies on desktop environments, shells, or UI toolkits
Watch out for
- Feature additions are rare, as the project prioritizes stability
- No support for non-standard control methods like dbus or sway/i3 IPC
- Requires separate client applications for panels, wallpapers, screenshots and other desktop features
LabWC at a glance
- Website
- github.com/labwc/labwc
- Category
- Software & Utilities › Desktop Customization
- Type
- Open-source project
- Pricing
- Not confirmed. Check the site
- Open source
- Yes · Source code
- Language
- English
- Last checked
- Oct 6, 2026 · Online when checked
- Listed
- Oct 5, 2026
LabWC alternatives
Tools and sites you could use instead, ranked by how closely they match.
Wayfire offers a modular Wayland compositor with extension points and customizable behavior.
Open source
24 alternatives
Waybar provides a customizable status bar for Wayland compositors such as Sway and wlroots-based environments.
Open source
24 alternatives
Forge adds window tiling and management controls to the GNOME Shell desktop.
Open source
24 alternatives
Arrange desktop windows as leaves in a binary tree with bspwm, a tiling window manager that responds to X events.
Open source
24 alternatives
SwayFX extends the Sway compositor with visual effects through changes to its rendering layer.
Open source
24 alternativesPopular in Desktop Customization
Well-known listings from the same topic.
Chezmoichezmoi.ioawesomewmawesomewm.orgdotfilesdotfiles.github.iobackieeapps.microsoft.com/store/detail/backiee-wallpa…Dynamic Themeapps.microsoft.com/detail/9nblggh1zbkwHydraPaperhydrapaper.gabmus.org
LabWC FAQ
What type of Wayland compositor is Labwc?
Labwc is a wlroots-based, window-stacking Wayland compositor inspired by Openbox.
Does Labwc include built-in desktop environment features?
No, Labwc relies on separate client applications for panels, wallpapers, screenshots and other desktop environment functionality.
What control methods does Labwc support?
Labwc only supports standard wayland-protocols and wlr-protocols, with no support for dbus, sway/i3 IPC or other non-standard control methods.
Is something wrong or out of date?
Tell us and an editor will check it.
Own this website?
Claim this listing
Claim the listing and suggest updates yourself. An editor checks every claim first.