Hacker ApprovedDepartments

apk package manager

Shares rank 28 of 35 package managers by recommenders

Alpine Linux's package manager, praised for fast installs and deterministic results, with some saying it beats pacman, apt and rpm.

Alpine Linux's package manager, praised for fast installs and deterministic results, with some saying it beats pacman, apt and rpm.

7 people gave an opinion

recommend it
7
criticize it
0
approval share
100%
Each figure is one person. RecommendsCriticizes

Recommended in 4 of 13 months

  1. November 2025: not recommended
  2. December 2025: recommended
  3. January 2026: recommended
  4. February 2026: recommended
  5. March 2026: recommended
  6. April 2026: not recommended
  7. May 2026: not recommended
  8. June 2026: not recommended
  9. July 2026: not recommended
  10. August 2026: not recommended
  11. September 2026: not recommended
  12. October 2026: not recommended
  13. November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)

Why it doesn’t carry the badge

  • 7 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
  • Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
  • Recommended in 4 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.

The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works

What people say about it

The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.

Why people recommend it

Each mark is one comment

  • Fast, well-regarded package manager

    “how fast apk installs packages on alpine”

    Comment from 24 Mar 2026 in “Nanobrew: The fastest macOS package manager compatible with brew”

    “the wonderful alpine apk package manager”

    Comment from 1 Dec 2025 in “Migrating Dillo from GitHub”

Other package managers people recommend

The four most recommended other package managers, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.

apk package manager compared with 4 alternatives
ProductRecommendCriticizeApprovalMonthsOwnedBadge
Nix37815072%133 yrs24 ownersApproved
Homebrew27117561%1210 yrs13 owners—
npm16146126%12——
pnpm1242484%125 yrs4 ownersApproved
apk package managerThis page70100%4——
See all 35 package managers, ranked

What people said

6 of the 7 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.

“it's easier to catch such issue”

RecommendsComment from 31 Mar 2026 in “Axios Compromised on NPM – Malicious Versions Drop Remote Access Trojan”

“how fast apk installs packages on alpine”

RecommendsComment from 24 Mar 2026 in “Nanobrew: The fastest macOS package manager compatible with brew”

“So glad they finally mainlined apk.”

RecommendsComment from 6 Mar 2026 in “OpenWrt 25.12 Stable Release”

“I much prefer apk to pacman or xbps, or apt and rpm for that matter”

RecommendsComment from 15 Feb 2026 in “I love the work of the ArchWiki maintainers”

“It's a lovely way to get deterministic results.”

RecommendsComment from 29 Jan 2026 in “Apt-bundle: brew bundle for apt”

“the wonderful alpine apk package manager”

RecommendsComment from 1 Dec 2025 in “Migrating Dillo from GitHub”

Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.