Package Managers

3 open source tools compared. Sorted by stars — scroll down for our analysis.

Tool	Stars	Velocity	Language	License	Score
uv An extremely fast Python package and project manager, written in Rust.	82.0k	—	Rust	Apache License 2.0	100
Homebrew The missing package manager for macOS	47.2k	—	Ruby	BSD 2-Clause "Simplified" License	79
Nix Purely functional package manager	16.4k	+70/wk	C++	—	69

Our Analysis

uv82.0k★

uv is what pip should have been. An extremely fast Python package manager written in Rust that handles virtual environments, dependency resolution, and project management in one tool. Astral (the Ruff people) is quietly building Python's default toolchain, and uv is the centerpiece. If you're starting any Python project — solo SaaS, API, ML pipeline — use uv. The speed difference (10-100x faster than pip) makes everything else feel broken. Poetry is the established alternative but noticeably slower. PDM is solid but has less momentum. There's no commercial equivalent worth paying for. Best for every Python developer, period. The combination of speed, correctness, and unified tooling is unmatched. It replaces pip, pip-tools, virtualenv, and pyenv in one binary. The catch: uv moves fast. Breaking changes between versions still happen, so pin your version in CI. And if you're deep in a Poetry monorepo, migration is a weekend project, not a one-liner. The ecosystem of plugins and integrations is growing but not yet as wide as Poetry's.

Homebrew47.2k★

Homebrew is the package manager that made macOS usable for developers. Before Homebrew, installing developer tools on Mac meant hunting for DMGs or compiling from source. Now it's "brew install" and move on with your life. If you're on macOS, you're probably already using it. There's no real competition in its niche — MacPorts is the legacy alternative with less community momentum. Nix is the technically superior option with reproducible builds, but the learning curve is brutal. On Linux, your distro's package manager (apt, dnf) handles the job, though Homebrew works on Linux too. The formula ecosystem is massive, the cask system handles GUI apps elegantly, and updates are a single command. It just works, which is the highest compliment for infrastructure tooling. The catch: Homebrew installs everything into a shared prefix, so version conflicts happen. It's opinionated about where things go and how they're linked. And if you need reproducible, pinned environments, Homebrew wasn't designed for that — look at Nix or Docker instead.

Nix16.4k★

Nix is the package manager that treats packages like pure functions — same inputs always produce the same outputs. Reproducible builds, atomic upgrades, rollbacks, and per-project environments without Docker. In theory, it's the future of software management. In practice, it's a beautiful idea trapped behind a brutal learning curve. If you need truly reproducible development environments or build systems, Nix is unmatched. Homebrew is the easy alternative that sacrifices reproducibility. Docker solves environment isolation differently. Guix is the GNU alternative with Scheme instead of Nix's custom language. Flox is a friendlier wrapper around Nix for dev environments. Nixpkgs has 122,000+ packages — more up-to-date packages than any other repository. NixOS (the Linux distro) takes the concept to the entire operating system. The catch: the learning curve is genuinely punishing. The Nix language is unlike anything else, documentation is scattered, and the community has had well-publicized governance issues. Lix is a community fork trying to fix the culture. For most indie hackers, Docker Compose gives you 80% of the reproducibility benefit with 20% of the learning investment. Only commit to Nix if you're tired of "works on my machine" problems and willing to invest weeks in learning.