Waybar VS Polybar

Compare Waybar VS Polybar and see what are their differences

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Waybar

Highly customizable Wayland bar for Sway and Wlroots based compositors. :v: :tada: - GitHub - Alexays/Waybar: Highly customizable Wayland bar for Sway and Wlroots based compositors.

Polybar

Status bar for Unix-like systems.

Landing page //
2023-09-18

Landing page //
2023-08-26

Waybar features and specs

Highly Customizable
Waybar provides extensive customization options that allow users to modify almost every aspect of its appearance and functionality to suit their personal preferences.
Support for Multiple Modules
It supports a wide range of modules including system status indicators such as CPU usage, memory consumption, network activity, and more, offering users comprehensive system monitoring.
Supports Wayland Compositors
Waybar is specifically designed for use with Wayland-based compositors, making it an ideal choice for users transitioning away from X11.
Active Development
The project is actively maintained and regularly updated, ensuring compatibility with the latest software updates and the continuous improvement of features.
Community Support
Waybar has an active community on GitHub and other platforms, providing users with the opportunity to engage, ask questions, or seek help with any issues.

Possible disadvantages of Waybar

Complex Configuration
The initial setup and configuration of Waybar can be complex and overwhelming, especially for users who are not familiar with JSON or configuration files.
Limited Out-of-the-box Functionality
New users may find that Waybar requires significant customization to be fully functional, as its out-of-the-box settings may not meet everyone's needs.
Wayland-Only
Since Waybar is designed specifically for Wayland, it may not be suitable for users who rely on X11 or systems that do not support Wayland.
Dependency on Third-party Tools
Many Waybar modules rely on external tools and scripts for information, requiring users to install and configure additional software to make full use of its capabilities.

Polybar features and specs

Highly Customizable
Polybar offers extensive customization options allowing users to tailor the status bar to their preferences, including color schemes, fonts, modules, and scripts.
Lightweight
Polybar is designed to be lightweight, ensuring it consumes minimal system resources while providing a functional user interface enhancement.
Modular Design
With its modular system, Polybar allows users to enable or disable certain modules according to their needs, offering flexibility and ease of use.
Script Support
Users can integrate scripts into Polybar for displaying custom information, which adds to its extensibility and adaptability to various use cases.
Active Community
There is an active community and extensive documentation that can provide support, resources, and inspiration for customization ideas.

Possible disadvantages of Polybar

Steep Learning Curve
For new users, especially those not familiar with configuration files and scripting, setting up Polybar can be initially challenging.
Limited to X11
Polybar currently does not support Wayland, limiting its use to X11 window systems unless additional third-party workarounds are applied.
Manual Configuration
Polybar requires manual editing of configuration files, which might not be user-friendly for those more accustomed to GUI-based customization.
Dependency Management
Users may need to manage and install dependencies manually, which can be cumbersome if not documented or managed by package distributions.
Potential for Overhead
Although lightweight, highly customizing Polybar with numerous scripts and modules can introduce overhead and require additional performance tuning.

Waybar videos

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Polybar videos

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[8e] | Polybar on i3

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Waybar and Polybar)

Polybar

Productivity

39 39%

Productivity

61% 61

Note Taking

39 39%

Note Taking

61% 61

App Launcher

54 54%

App Launcher

46% 46

LMS

30 30%

LMS

70% 70

User comments

Share your experience with using Waybar and Polybar. For example, how are they different and which one is better?

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Polybar seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 24 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.

Waybar mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of Waybar yet. Tracking of Waybar recommendations started around Jun 2022.

Polybar mentions (24)

Is there a way I can tell which exit node I am using from CLI in Linux?
I'd like to just be able to write a short shell script to check if an exit node is in use, and then pipe that output into polybar which I use anyway. The problem is that I can't find an option in the tailscale Linux CLI client that will show me whether I'm using an exit node or not. Is there a way to do this? Source: almost 2 years ago
Are there any tools to analyse/modify colours directly from a bash script?
I am on Arch Linux and I am using pywal to generate a colour palette from my wallpaper, which I then use throughout my system. In particular, I have a bash script which grabs these colours and uses them for polybar. The problem is that sometimes these colours do not have enough contrast, and the bar is hard to read. Is there any tool that would allow me to check the readability of my colours, and modify them... Source: over 2 years ago
How do you deal with volume >100% and ramp-weights?
Maybe check out the canonical page instead: https://github.com/polybar/polybar. Source: over 2 years ago
Top Bar
A common one is polybar, but there are quite a few so they can't be hard to tell just from how it looks. Source: over 2 years ago
Top Bar
That is a status bar, often used with tiling window managers. A popular one would be https://github.com/polybar/polybar. Source: over 2 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Waybar and Polybar, you can also consider the following products

wf-shell - wf-shell is a repository which contains the various components needed to built a fully functional DE based around wayfire. Currently it has only a GTK-based panel and background client.

Yambar - Modular status panel for X11 and Wayland, inspired by polybar.

slstatus - slstatus is a status monitor for window managers that use WM_NAME or stdin to fill the status bar.

tint2 - git clone https://gitlab. com/o9000/tint2. git cd tint2 git checkout 16. 1 mkdir build cd build cmake ..

ironbar - Customisable Wayland gtk bar written in Rust.

xfce-panel - Xfce componet to switch between opened windows, launch applications, switch workspaces and menu plugins to browse applications or directories.

xfce-panel vs Polybar