Here’s the Deal

Spectacle vs KWM

146 32

8 1

When comparing Spectacle vs KWM, the Slant community recommends Spectacle for most people. In the question“What is the best window manager for Mac?” Spectacle is ranked 7th while KWM is ranked 18th. The most important reason people chose Spectacle is:

Spectacle is licensed under MIT with source code available on [GitHub](https://github.com/eczarny/spectacle).

Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking

Common Questions

What is the best window manager for Mac?

What are the best Mac window managers with support for multiple monitors?

Pros

Pro
Free and open source

Spectacle is licensed under MIT with source code available on GitHub.

Pro
Simple hotkeys

Spectacle offers easy-to-remember preset hotkeys.

Pro
Mouseless

All windows in Spectacle can be controlled with keyboard shortcuts, so no mouse is needed. This makes for a fast way to control windows.

Pro
Great UX

Spectacle is easy to use and configure. It's plug and play.

Pro
Low footprint

Spectacle only uses up 18-19 MB of RAM, which means there is not much overhead by using this app.

Pro
Multi-monitor support

Pro
7+ years of use

Using it for 7 years

Pro
Works in the same way that Xmonad & i3 does for Linux

For those who would like the same tiling window management of Xmonad and i3.

Pro
Runs in the background

The application runs in the background. There is no indication that it is running except the automatic tiling of the windows. There is no menu bar icon or icon in the dock.

Pro
Windows respond very fast

Most users claim the tiling and splitting of the windows in KWM respond more quickly and more reliably than the only other known window manager of its type: Amethyst.

Pro
Software is free and open source

Pro
Highly configurable

Using the config file (kwmrc) you can configure a variety of options including Window spacing and padding, borders, hot-key commands, etc... There are those who would say that the possibilities are limitless.

Ad
Cons

Con
Not maintained

The software is free, but no longer seems to be maintained.

Con
Impossible to add new functions

While keyboard shortcuts can be changed for the available actions, there is no way to add custom actions which in turn limits the functionality of the app.

Con
Limited window sizing capabilities

You can use 1/2 of the screen vertically and horizontally (divide into 4 parts). You can also use the screen in thirds too, but only the left and right third: you can't use the 1/3 in the center. There is no way to do a more granular distribution.

Con
Breaks on macOS High Sierra / Chrome or Firefox

Doesn't support side by side windows.

Con
Doesn't work with any Adobe products

There are some apps like Adobe Reader that do not work with Spectacle. Basically, any app with a heavily customized UI that breaks OS X accessibility will not work correctly under Spectacle.

Con
No longer being developed

Sadly the developer has moved on to work on a different project (chunkwm), so there will be no more updates for KWM. However the code works well; no matter what version of macOS you are using.

Con
Takes long to set up

You need to use the terminal and edit the configuration file in order to adjust it to the way you want. This might be a little confusing for basic users. But once you have it set, you can just copy the config file and use it on a multiple amount of machines.