Software Alternatives & Reviews

tmux VS Sway

Compare tmux VS Sway and see what are their differences

tmux logo tmux

tmux is a terminal multiplexer: it enables a number of terminals (or windows), each running a...

Sway logo Sway

Sway is a drop-in replacement for the i3 window manager, but for Wayland instead of X11.
  • tmux Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-19
  • Sway Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-03-20

tmux videos

How I Work: Tmux

More videos:

  • Tutorial - You need to know how to use TMUX
  • Review - Getting Started with tmux Part 1 - Overview and Features

Sway videos

Sway beats Powerpoint for these 4 reasons (Microsoft Office 365).

More videos:

  • Review - VOD REVIEW: IS FAZE SWAY BEING COACHED 🎮 BY FAZE BIZZLE WORTH IT? (Full Game)
  • Review - Microsoft Sway Hands On Review!
  • Review - Sway by Mitchell Bubble
  • Tutorial - SWAY HOUSE TOUR FORTNITE

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to tmux and Sway)
Terminal Tools
100 100%
0% 0
Health And Fitness
0 0%
100% 100
SSH
100 100%
0% 0
Meditation
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using tmux and Sway. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare tmux and Sway

tmux Reviews

Top 13 Best Tiling Window Managers For Linux In 2022
Tmux makes the most of the available space and is simple to use thanks to keybindings that may be used to divide windows and create extra panes. Individual shell instances can also be shared throughout various sessions and utilised for different purposes by different users.
Source: www.hubtech.org
13 Best Tiling Window Managers for Linux
tilix is a multiplexing terminal, not a tiling window manager. tmux is a terminal multiplexer, not a tiling window manager either. jwm is a lightweight STACKING window manager. I guess you could call tmux a tiling wm for a console only system (along with gnu screen and dvtm), but that’s really stretching your definition, and the other two certainly don’t qualify.
Source: www.tecmint.com

Sway Reviews

Top 13 Best Tiling Window Managers For Linux In 2022
Sway is a tiling Wayland i3-compatible window manager that dynamically arranges app windows to rationally maximise desktop space. It is free, open-source, and lightweight. By default, it arranges windows in a grid and supports practically all of the i3 commands.
Source: www.hubtech.org
13 Best Tiling Window Managers for Linux
Sway is a free, open-source, and lightweight tiling Wayland i3-compatible window manager that automatically arranges app windows to logically maximize desktop space. It arranges windows into a grid by default and supports almost all the commands included in i3.
Source: www.tecmint.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Sway should be more popular than tmux. It has been mentiond 52 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

tmux mentions (26)

  • Easy Access to Terminal Commands in Neovim using FTerm
    Having a common set of tools already set up in different windows or sessions in Tmux or Zellij is obviously an option, but there is a subset of us ( 👋 ) that would rather just have fingertip access to our common tools inside of our editor. - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • Automating the startup of a dev workflow
    Well, I now use tmux and tmuxinator. I have had many failed tmux attempts over the years, but I'm firmly bedded in now. - Source: dev.to / 4 months ago
  • Connecting Debugger to Rails Applications
    The downside of overmind is that it requires tmux, which is a terminal multiplexer tool. If you don't already use tmux, I'd say it's probably not worth learning it just for the purposes of using overmind. But if you're like me and already know/use tmux, this can be a great solution to pursue. - Source: dev.to / 5 months ago
  • NeoVim Capability Functions
    For splitting the terminal you could try either toggleterm or tmux. If you want to send things from one tmux pane to another, then you can use slime. For a toggle-able filetree, you can use nvim tree. Source: 6 months ago
  • New User
    Another reason the above setup is helpful is that I use terminal vim in conjunction with Tmux. I always configure my IDE where vim is about 75% of my terminal window, on the left. The other 25% is a command line. In tmux, you can "zoom in" to a tmux pane by using Leader+z (for default tmux, this is "Ctrl+b z"). This effectively allows me to focus on vim but pop out a command line when I need it. Having the three... Source: about 1 year ago
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Sway mentions (52)

  • "We understand" ;)
    This is partially why I use tools like i3 (/ sway). I like the tool; it works extremely well for me; the design has stayed the same for 20 years; there's no profit motive to come along and fuck everything up. It just works. It is boring in the best way possible. Source: 5 months ago
  • Framework 13 with AMD Ryzen 7040 Series Makes for a Great Linux Laptop
    I've tested using i3 but never fully got into it. But my plan for the F13 is to try out Hyprland[0] and perhaps Sway[1]. [0] https://hyprland.org/ [1] https://swaywm.org/. - Source: Hacker News / 6 months ago
  • Rethinking Window Management in Gnome
    Sway does all those things very well: https://swaywm.org/. - Source: Hacker News / 9 months ago
  • Just ran Sway on openSUSE. Complete noob. I need help.
    Read the manual on https://swaywm.org/. There are tons of youtube videos showcasing basic configuration and usage. This is extremely basic stuff you need to do yourself. Source: 11 months ago
  • Thinking about doing distro hop after half a year any recommendations?
    While both the Pop Shell and Material shell extensions offer very easy access to window tiling on GNOME, they're not as powerful as the likes of Sway or Hyprland. Source: 11 months ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing tmux and Sway, you can also consider the following products

Alacritty - Alacritty is a blazing fast, GPU accelerated terminal emulator.

i3 - A dynamic tiling window manager designed for X11, inspired by wmii, and written in C.

wezterm - GPU-accelerated cross-platform terminal emulator and multiplexer made with Rust.

awesome - A dynamic window manager for the X Window System developed in the C and Lua programming languages.

iTerm2 - A terminal emulator for macOS that does amazing things.

Pacifica - Stress and anxiety relief through beautiful CBT tools