When comparing GDM vs SDDM, the Slant community recommends SDDM for most people. In the question“What is the best Linux Display Manager?” SDDM is ranked 7th while GDM is ranked 8th.
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro It just works
GDM is dull, but it just works, and it is highly stable. It's easy to switch between environments, and it integrates really well with Fedora or other Gnome Distros.
Pro Can run Wayland sessions
GDM can start Wayland sessions, which is the default for recent GNOME versions.
Pro Always signs the GNOME keyring
Works with any desktop. SOome display managers such as SDDM don't open the GNOME keyring at login.
Pro Not so difficult to customize
You just have to know which files to edit, and you can do quite a lot.
Pro Supports both X11 and Wayland
Pro SDDM can start each DE
Unlike GDM which is stubborn in many ways, SDDM can start both Wayland and X11 sessions and any matter of valid session type, even if it's something obscure like Windowmaker.
Pro Security
It doesn't support XDMCP.
Pro Recommended for Plasma 5 and LXQT
QML-based display manager. Successor to KDE4's KDM.
Pro SDDM can provide full eyecandy
SDDM themes can include animated videos/gifs, background music/sounds, and any combination of the various QML animations.
Cons
Con Tied to Gnome
You basically have to use Gnome or one of its forks to use it properly.
Con Really hard to customize
You'll have to recompile Gnome's resource files in order just to change the login background.
Con Depends on GTK and its dependencies
Con Ugly UI
It is very simple, and you can't change the layout.
Con Bloated
As with anything Gnome, there's a level of inelegance to be expected when it comes to absolute performance. It's supposed to be a login manager, not something bespoke.
Con It does not support some essential funtionality, like XDMCP
Con Buggy and..
- Missing suspend/hibernate/sleep shutdown buttons
- Needs to much clicks to switch user
- Missing proper keyboard control
Con Slow
Con Difficult to customize without KDE
SDDM-KCM only works for KDE.
Con Does not support expired passwords
You can not force users to change passwords on login.
Con No Bluetooth support on the Loginscreen
Con Heavy
It's not very lightweight.
Con Customizing is hard
Customizing this login manager is hard since you need to know QML very well.
Con A bit bloated
It requires Qt which is a huge dependency compared to other login managers.