When comparing AROW vs KWM, the Slant community recommends KWM for most people. In the question“What is the best window manager for Mac?” KWM is ranked 18th while AROW is ranked 22nd. The most important reason people chose KWM is:
For those who would like the same tiling window management of Xmonad and i3.
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Support for multiple monitors
If you use external monitors, the app is useful. It also supports retina screen without problems.
Pro Customizable options
You can customize the app in Option, for example, where you can change the appearance of the preview outline, adjust the width of the recognition areas, and set keyboard hotkeys for quick window snapping.
Pro Define OS X window buttons
AROW enables you to change the actions of OS X’s window buttons. It only requires either a right or a left-click for the action to take place.
Pro Smart Panel to move and resize windows
The customizable grid panel is very intuitive and is an accurate way to resize and move windows. Simply drag your mouse across its grid, the window will be moved, and resize to the exact position instantly.
Pro Easy ways to snap windows
Simply drag windows to the edges of your Mac’s screen. Once the cursor reaches the screen’s edge, the window will automatically move and resize to fill exactly half or quarter of the screen.
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.
Cons
Con Trouble with GUI
Yosemite (10.10.5) it works but it's impossible to open the application GUI.
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.
Con You need HomeBrew to install it
Homebrew is required to install it. Takes more to get it work in the terminal to get it installed and working on your system.