IceWM vs Qtile
IceWM
ice-wm.orgQtile
qtile.orgSide by side
| Figure | IceWM | Qtile |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · Window Management Software | 8.2 (#8) | 7.5 (#30) |
| Customization | IceWM is configurable and themeable, and the site says more than 450 themes are available to download. | Qtile is simple, small and extensible, with user-created layouts, widgets and built-in commands. |
| Installation | The site provides instructions to download the source archive, configure it, build it, and install it. | The stable version can be installed from PyPI with the command `uv tool install qtile`. |
| License | IceWM and its documentation are covered by the GNU LGPL license. | Qtile is distributed under the permissive MIT license. |
Plans
In their own words
Qtile
Qtile is a free tiling window manager for Linux, written and configured entirely in Python. It runs as a window manager on X11 and as a compositor on Wayland; the Wayland backend uses wlroots. Users can create layouts and widgets, use built-in commands, and define application rules, window groups and virtual desktop controls. Its command shell allows Qtile to be inspected and managed, while remote scripting can configure workspaces, manipulate windows and update status-bar widgets. The stable version can be installed from PyPI with `uv tool install qtile`. The project also provides installation guides for Arch, Fedora, Funtoo, Ubuntu/Debian, Slackware, FreeBSD and NixOS. Qtile is distributed under the MIT license. Its stated runtime aim is to support the last three CPython versions and usually the latest stable PyPy. The official release is positioned for users seeking stability; the development version has newer features but may contain bugs. Support is available through GitHub Discussions, IRC and Discord, with Discord bridged to IRC.