Choose something else if…
You want a minimalist, list-based home screen
Niagara Launcher is built entirely around that idea and does it better than a general-purpose launcher configured to imitate it. Meridian can be made spare — a Bedtime Space with four icons and no dock — but minimalism is a thing it can do, not the thing it is.
You want the drawer to sort itself and then be left alone
Smart Launcher's auto-categorising drawer is its centre of gravity, and if that one behaviour is what you are shopping for, go there. Meridian gives you drawer tabs you arrange yourself, which is more work and more control.
You want open source
Lawnchair is free, open source, and close to stock Pixel. Meridian is not open source. If being able to read and build the code matters to you on principle, that is a completely reasonable place to land and I am not going to argue you out of it. Meridian is $2.99 once, which is a different bargain: you are paying a person to keep working on it rather than hoping a volunteer project stays staffed.
Nova already does what you need
If your Nova setup works and you are happy, staying is the right call. The reason people are looking for alternatives is that Nova's development slowed considerably after its 2022 acquisition — not that it stopped working. If it works for you, it works.
Choose Meridian if…
- You want more than one home screen, each complete, switching itself by schedule or trigger — this is the thing that is genuinely hard to find elsewhere (Spaces)
- You want to describe a change rather than find it, and see it applied with an Undo (the assistant)
- Your Kustom setup keeps breaking when you move launchers (KLWP)
- You want one payment and no Pro tier — $2.99 once, every feature included, nothing sold back to you later
- You want no analytics of any kind — not "anonymised", none; there is no Meridian server for data to go to
Against the criteria people actually list
These are the requirements that come up in every "recommend me a launcher" thread, with Meridian's honest answer to each.
| Requirement | Meridian |
|---|---|
| No ads | None, anywhere |
| No subscription | None — one payment of $2.99 |
| Nothing behind a Pro tier | Every feature ships to everyone |
| Deep customization | 16×16 grids, half-cell, icon packs, 7 shapes, per-icon overrides |
| Updated often | See the changelog and judge for yourself |
| Multiple drawer tabs | Your own tabs, four layouts, drawer folders |
| KLWP / KWGT support | Touch, offsets and Kustom's delayed provider all handled |
| Material You | Accent and card surfaces follow the system tones |
| Widget support | Stacks, half-cell placement, resizable |
| Free | No — $2.99 once (there is an APK for people who can't use Play) |
| Open source | No |
| Backup you control | One file, rotating automatic backups, no account |
On the price
$2.99 once on Google Play. No subscription, no in-app purchases, no Pro tier, no ads and no analytics — that is the whole business model, and it is what pays for the release pace in the changelog. If you buy it and it turns out not to be for you, Play's refund window is a real one.
There is also an APK for people who can't use Play, with nothing held back from it. It is there so a missing Google account isn't a reason to go without — not as a cheaper tier.