a simple slightly biased comparison between x11 and wayland

Wayland.md

Feature comparison the X11 and wayland protocol

Please do fact-check and suggest corrections/improvements below.

✅ Supported ⚠️ Available with limitations or only present op some systems ❌ Not available

Functionality	Xorg	Wayland
Performance	✅ Best (DistroWatch)	⚠️ Worse (?) (DistroWatch)
Power consumption	?	?
RAM usage	✅ ~150 MB lower (Phoronix)	⚠️ ~150 MB higher (Phoronix)
Nvidia GPUs	✅ Well supported by proprietary Nvidia driver, also older hardware (open source driver Nouveau never worked satisfactorily)	⚠️ Turing (launched in 2018) or later
Multi-monitor	✅ Supported via XRandR, Xinerama (TheServerHost, KDE Blog)	✅ Stable, dynamic hotplug, ✅ multi-monitor support, ❌ no protocol to choose primary display (KDE Blog, CBT Nuggets)
Screen Recording / Capture	✅ Supported via X APIs; easy screen & window recording (Xlib Manual, OBS Wiki)	✅ wlr-screencopy and/or ext-image-copy-capture or the Screencast Portal.
Input Devices / Event Routing	✅ XInput, XInput2, global intercept (XInput2 Docs)	✅ Input Capture Portal
Input Injection	✅ Via XTEST, XSendEvent (XTEST Spec)	✅ Remote Desktop Portal.
Global Hotkeys / Key Grabs	✅ XGrabKey()/XGrabButton() (Xlib Docs)	✅ Global Shortcuts Portal,
Window Positioning / Stacking	✅ Clients move/resize windows (Xlib Ref)	⚠️ Only compositor controls window positioning (Wayland FAQ, KDE Dev), 2 Years Later Wayland Is Still Debating A Basic Feature
Clipboard Access	✅ Full/explicit, ICCCM selections (ICCCM)	✅ Clipboard Portal.
Drag and Drop / Copy and Paste	✅ Xdnd, Motif (Xdnd Spec), Motif (Motif DND)	⚠️ wl_data_offer, wl_data_device_manager, wl_data_source, wl_data_device dragging between X11 and Wayland applications seems flaky (?)
Touch / Gesture Support	✅ XInput2 (XInput Multi-Touch)	✅ wl_touch, gestures via zwp_pointer_gestures_v1
Tablet Support	✅ XInput2 (libinput Tablet)	✅ zwp_tablet_manager_v2
Remote Display / Network Transparency	✅ X11 protocol, SSH forwarding (OpenBSD FAQ, XForwarding)	✅ Remote Desktop Portal.
Screen Configuration	✅ XRandR direct (xrandr manpage)	✅ wlr-output-management and associated tools like wlr-randr.
Global menus	✅ Works	❌ Not natively available—requires qt_extended_surface set_generic_property which may not be present on every system
Window Management Hints (size, position)	✅ XSetWMHints, XSetNormalHints (ICCCM)	❌ Position not supported, only size
Window Title / Icon Name	✅ XSetWMName, XSetIconName (ICCCM)	✅ xdg_toplevel.set_title/xdg_toplevel.set_app_id
Window State (iconic, withdrawn, etc.)	✅ XSetWMState (ICCCM)	⚠️ Handled by compositor (Wayland FAQ)
Window Protocols (WM_DELETE_WINDOW)	✅ ICCCM, WM_DELETE_WINDOW (ICCCM)	✅ xdg_toplevel.close
Window Class / Instance	✅ XSetClassHint (ICCCM)	❌ Not supported (Wayland FAQ)
Window Transience (dialogs, popups)	✅ XSetTransientForHint (ICCCM)	✅ xdg_toplevel.set_parent
Input Focus (active window)	✅ XSetInputFocus (Xlib Ref)	⚠️ Managed by compositor (Wayland FAQ)
Selections	✅ Selections (ICCCM)	✅ Clipboard Portal.
Drag and Drop	✅ Motif/Xdnd (Xdnd Spec)	✅ Native protocol (Wayland/Drag&Drop)
Window Grouping	✅ XSetWMHints group (ICCCM)	✅ Identity based grouping via xdg_toplevel.set_app_id, ✅ Hierarchical grouping via xdg_toplevel.set_parent, ❌ No arbitary grouping
Input Model / Input Hint	✅ Input model hints (ICCCM)	❌ Not exposed/natively supported (Wayland FAQ)
Window Manager Communication	✅ ICCCM client-to-WM (ICCCM)	❌ No standard protocol (Wayland FAQ)
Colormap / Visual hints	✅ Colormap per ICCCM (ICCCM)	⚠️ Handled by compositor (Wayland FAQ)
Icon Pixmap / Bitmap	✅ ICCCM icon hints (ICCCM)	✅ fetches Icon through the desktopfile via xdg_toplevel.set_app_id
Urgency Hint	✅ XUrgencyHint (ICCCM)	⚠️ xdg_activation_v1 implemented by sway unclear it is implemented like this on other compositors
Window Shade (roll up/down)	✅ WM_STATE (mapped/unmapped state)	❌ Not supported
Window Always On Top (z-order)	✅ Applications can request stacking/z-order via WM_HINTS, window group, _NET_WM_STATE_ABOVE (EWMH)	⚠️ xdg-toplevel-tag
Exclusive Display Control / DRM Leasing	⚠️ No protocol, possible with libdrm (libdrm)	✅ wp_drm_lease_v1
Transparency / Compositing	⚠️ With composite extension/compton/picom (wiki.archlinux)	✅ Built-in to the compositor (Wayland FAQ)
Color Management	⚠️ Apps/loaders like xiccd (XCM docs)	✅ wp-color-manager-v1
VSync / Tear-free Rendering	⚠️ Inconsistent, needs correct driver/config (AskUbuntu)	✅ Guaranteed by compositor; always tear-free (Wayland FAQ)
Security / App Isolation	⚠️ Via extensions, e.g., Xnamespace extension (The Register)	✅ Wayland isolates applications from each other. for many things they did via xorg they now have to go through portals.
Click into a window to terminate the application	✅ xkill	❌ Not natively available—some compositors may have proprietary mechanisms, which may not be present on every system
Click into a window to see its metadata	✅ xprop	❌ Not supported
Set and get metadata (properties) on windows to exchange information regarding windows	✅ X Atoms (Docs)	❌ Not supported
One window server used by virtually all desktop environments and distributions	✅ Xorg (and Xlibre)	⚠️ Every desktop environment comes with a different compositor, specifically build for their environment. compositor libraries like wlroots or mir can be shared between desktop environments