FreeBSD ports
Shares rank 28 of 35 package managers by recommenders
People recommend FreeBSD ports for keeping software current and for convenient, flexible installs on FreeBSD.
People recommend FreeBSD ports for keeping software current and for convenient, flexible installs on FreeBSD.
8 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 7
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 88%
Recommended in 5 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 7 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 7 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 5 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
Packages kept up to date
“FreeBSD ports is incredible up to date so there should be no flood of patches anyhow.”
Comment from 6 Sep 2026 in “Research carried out using NetBSD” “FreeBSD ports are more up to date.”
Comment from 3 Nov 2025 in “Using FreeBSD to make self-hosting fun again”
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.
See all 35 package managers, rankedWhat people said
All 8 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“FreeBSD ports is incredible up to date so there should be no flood of patches anyhow.”
“I had already used for many years (since around 1995) the FreeBSD ports”
“pkg/ports does what it should”
“you do not risk bricking your system by installing a port”
“the mechanistic approach to bundling packages into bigger meta state, is (in my personal opinion) better than the somewhat ad-hoc approach”
“it just choked on dependencies and quit”
“Gives a lot of convenient power and flexibility”
“FreeBSD ports are more up to date.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.