Manjarovs
Arch Linux
Arch Linux: The upstream distribution, fully current and manually installed
Manjaro
Arch-based Linux distribution with an installer and sane defaults
As of 29 August 2026, Manjaro is free to use. Arch Linux made approachable: rolling releases and the AUR, with a graphical installer and delayed updates. Softwr lists it under Operating Systems. Manjaro is made by Manjaro GmbH, available on Linux, Windows, macOS.
Overview
What Manjaro does
Manjaro is a desktop Linux distribution based on Arch, aimed at people who want Arch’s rolling releases and access to the AUR without Arch’s installation process. It ships a graphical installer, preconfigured desktop environments and hardware detection that handles drivers automatically. Its other significant difference is update timing: Manjaro holds packages back from Arch upstream for a period of testing, which trades some currency for stability. That delay is also the source of its main criticism, because it can create version mismatches with AUR packages built against current Arch.
What people use it for
- Wanting Arch and the AUR without the manual install
- Desktops needing current package versions with some stability buffer
- Hardware that benefits from automatic proprietary driver handling
Related searches
The honest half
Where it falls short
Concrete and checkable, so you can decide whether any of them matter to you. This is the half of a review a vendor will not write about Manjaro.
- Holding packages back from Arch can break AUR packages built against current Arch, which is its best-known complaint
- Still a rolling release, so updates can require intervention and are not fit-and-forget
- The project has had public incidents around expired certificates and governance that dented confidence
- Not as current as Arch nor as stable as a fixed-release distribution, which is the cost of sitting between them
Cross-shopped
What people choose instead of Manjaro
Each pairing was judged by two reviewers asking whether a buyer would genuinely weigh the two against each other. The ones that failed were deleted rather than published.
- ManjarovsLinux Mint
Linux Mint: A fixed-release alternative for people who want stability over currency
Pricing
What Manjaro costs
Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.
Manjaro
Free
- Full functionality
- Commercial use permitted
- Community support
Capabilities
Features
Graphical installer
Arch underneath without the manual installation sequence
Delayed updates
Packages held back from Arch upstream for testing
Hardware detection
Driver installation handled automatically, including proprietary GPU drivers
Multiple desktops
Official KDE, GNOME and XFCE editions
Answered, with sources
Questions people ask
Each answer names the page it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.
Is Manjaro free?
Yes, entirely free and open source.
Is Manjaro the same as Arch?
It is based on Arch and uses pacman and the AUR, but holds packages back for testing and ships a graphical installer, so it is not identical.
Why can AUR packages break on Manjaro?
AUR packages are built against current Arch. Manjaro delays packages, so an AUR build can expect a library version Manjaro has not shipped yet.
Keep looking
Where to go from Manjaro
- Manjaro alternativesEvery product people weigh against it
- Manjaro pricingPlans, floors and what the tiers exclude
- Manjaro badgesWhich rules it meets, and the figure behind each
- All Operating Systems softwareThe full category
- Best Operating Systems softwareThe shortlist, and how it was cut
Best Operating Systems software for
Compare Manjaro with
- Arch Linux
- Linux Mint
- openSUSE
- Pop!_OS
- Ubuntu
- Debian
- Fedora
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux
- FreeBSD
- Alpine Linux
- AlmaLinux
- NixOS
- Qubes OS
- Rocky Linux
- Pop!_OS
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Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for Manjaro, because a rating we did not collect is not ours to publish. What is here is the pricing and platform detail from the vendor’s own pages, limitations we could state concretely, and alternatives a reviewer confirmed people weigh against it. Tell us if any of it is wrong.
More on Manjaro
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Every tier, and where the cost actually lands
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Put it head to head with anything we hold
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