Difference Between Hyprland and Sway: Architecture and Feature Comparison

Hyprland uses a self-contained C++20 stack with its own Aquamarine rendering backend and native plugin support, while Sway relies on the wlroots library to provide an i3-compatible tiling experience written in C.

The hyprwm/Hyprland repository represents a complete architectural departure from traditional Wayland compositors. While both are tiling window managers for Wayland, Hyprland implements all low-level protocols independently, whereas Sway leverages the community-maintained wlroots library. This divergence impacts rendering performance, customization depth, and system resource requirements.

Core Rendering Backend: Aquamarine vs wlroots

Hyprland operates on its own Aquamarine backend—a thin wrapper around DRM/KMS, GBM, and EGL that implements Wayland protocols directly. The compositor class defined in src/Compositor.hpp owns the CCompositor object that drives the entire server lifecycle, handling everything from output management to input processing without external abstraction layers.

Sway builds upon wlroots, a shared library supplying low-level compositor plumbing including output handling, input management, DRM integration, and XWayland support. Sway functions primarily as a translation layer that converts wlroots events into i3-style tiling logic, inheriting both the capabilities and constraints of the underlying library.

Language and Codebase Architecture

The projects diverge significantly in implementation languages and memory management:

• Hyprland: Written entirely in C++20, utilizing modern idioms like UP<>, WP<>, and SP<> smart pointers, extensive templates, and RAII patterns. The entry point in src/main.cpp instantiates CCompositor and initializes the display server.

• Sway: Written in C (C11 standard) with functional programming patterns and minimal C++ usage. This results in manual memory management compared to Hyprland's smart pointer abstraction, typically yielding smaller binary sizes but requiring more careful resource handling.

Plugin System: Native Extensions vs Fixed Features

Hyprland offers a native, dynamic plugin loader (hyprpm) that allows users to load compiled .so files at runtime. Plugins can register new layouts, animations, or modify core window management behavior. The plugin manager implementation in src/managers/PluginManager.hpp integrates shared objects into the main event loop without requiring a compositor restart.

Sway provides no first-class plugin system. New features must be submitted upstream, merged into wlroots or Sway itself, and distributed through recompilation. Adding custom layouts or window management behaviors requires patching the source code directly and rebuilding the binary.

Configuration and Reload Behavior

Configuration methodologies reflect each project's design philosophy:

Hyprland uses a Lua-style configuration file (hyprland.conf) that supports instant reloading. The CCompositor::initAllSignals() function in src/Compositor.hpp watches the filesystem for changes, applying updates immediately without session interruption. Configuration supports runtime expressions such as decoration:blur:radius = 5.

Sway employs an i3-compatible plain-text configuration (~/.config/sway/config). Changes require explicit invocation of swaymsg reload or a full session restart to take effect, maintaining parity with X11 i3 behavior.

Layouts and Window Management

Hyprland ships with two built-in layouts—dwindle and master—implemented in C++. Additional layouts can be loaded dynamically as plugins, as demonstrated in example/layouts/spiral.lua.

Sway offers a fixed set of layouts (default tiling, tabbed, stacked) implemented in the core. Users cannot add custom layouts without modifying the source code and recompiling the entire compositor.

Animations and Visual Effects

Visual sophistication differs substantially between the two:

• Hyprland: First-class support for custom Bezier curves, per-window shadows, background blur, and per-output animations implemented in src/render/*. The rendering pipeline in src/render/Renderer.hpp handles shaders and compositor effects natively as part of the core experience.

• Sway: Relies on wlroots' generic compositor effects. Advanced visual features require external tools like wlsunset or swayidle, lacking integrated animation support or advanced blur effects.

Inter-Process Communication (IPC)

Both compositors use Unix domain sockets for external control, but capabilities vary significantly:

Hyprland exposes socket-based IPC via hyprctl, with the server implementation in src/Compositor.cpp and protocol definitions in src/IPC.hpp. The interface supports workspace management, layout control, monitor configuration, and custom events:

# Switch to workspace 3

hyprctl dispatch workspace 3

# Move focused window to left monitor

hyprctl dispatch movewindow monitor left

# Instant configuration reload

hyprctl reload

Sway uses swaymsg with a protocol defined by wlroots. While functional for basic window management, it exposes only what wlroots permits, limiting access to compositor internals compared to Hyprland's rich command surface.

Dependencies and System Integration

Hyprland maintains minimal external dependencies: Aquamarine, Hyprutils, and stdc++. It does not link against wlroots, bundling all protocol implementations internally. XWayland support is handled by the XWaylandManager class in src/managers/XWaylandManager.hpp, operating independently of external libraries.

Sway depends heavily on wlroots, wayland, libinput, xcb, and pango, inheriting the library's release cycle, security updates, and architectural limitations.

Summary

• Hyprland builds its own rendering stack (Aquamarine) in C++20 with no wlroots dependency, offering deep customization through native plugins and real-time configuration reloading via filesystem monitoring.
• Sway leverages wlroots for low-level operations, providing a stable, i3-compatible experience in C with conservative resource usage and traditional configuration management.
• Hyprland targets users seeking modern animations, dynamic layouts, and extensibility through the hyprpm plugin system.
• Sway targets users prioritizing stability, minimal memory footprint, and direct migration compatibility from the i3 window manager.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Hyprland use wlroots?

No. According to the hyprwm/Hyprland source code, the compositor implements its own backend called Aquamarine that interfaces directly with DRM/KMS, GBM, and EGL. It does not link against or depend on wlroots, unlike Sway which is built entirely on top of the wlroots library.

Can Sway use Hyprland plugins?

No. Sway lacks a plugin system entirely. While Hyprland allows loading compiled .so files at runtime through hyprpm (managed in src/managers/PluginManager.hpp), Sway requires all features to be compiled into the core binary or provided by external processes communicating over IPC.

Which is more resource efficient: Hyprland or Sway?

Sway typically uses fewer system resources due to its C codebase and reliance on wlroots' optimized utilities. Hyprland's C++20 implementation with extensive animations, blur effects, and shadow rendering in src/render/Renderer.hpp consumes more GPU and CPU cycles, trading efficiency for visual fidelity and runtime customization.

How do configuration reloads differ between the two?

Hyprland monitors hyprland.conf via filesystem signals (CCompositor::initAllSignals()) and applies changes instantly without user intervention. Sway requires manual execution of swaymsg reload or a session restart to apply configuration changes, following traditional i3 window manager behavior.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "instagit": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "instagit@latest"]
    }
  }
}