# pip

46 Hacker News commenters recommended pip and 95 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 12 of 13 months; owners who said how long report a median of 8 years (3 owners).

**Verdict:** The standard Python package installer: free, stable, and it works fine for common cases. Critics say its old internal design makes it slow and hard to fix.

## Why people recommend it

- Works well for common cases (6 comments): "i still rely on good ol pip and have had no issues" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47440582)) "pip install is perfectly fine for other use cases" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46707608)) "it does a package manager job well, it just works" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49526942))
- Standard, widely used Python tool (3 comments): "the pip+venv approach works fine with pyproject.toml, which was designed for interoperability" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46434377)) "if pip works, is easy, and is a python standard, why change?" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47734049)) "pip gets downloaded billions of times annually" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45787189))
- Faster in recent versions (3 comments): "I particularly work on performance and stability and think we've been making big strides over the last two years" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48546801)) "The 2025 pip experience is, believe it or not, much better than the ~2018 pip experience" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46399558)) "recent versions of pip are significantly faster" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46411261))
- Supports locked, hash-checked installs (2 comments): "pip install --require-hashes with a locked requirements file catches exactly this" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47624006)) "pip was fine for many use-cases after they added native lock files" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47444483))

## What people warn about

- Security risk from unvetted packages (4 comments): "use package managers (npm, cargo, pip, etc) outside of a VM you are substantially more vulnerable to attack" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47550905)) "If you do any npm install, pip install ... it is very easy to get compromise." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46318500)) "Importing software/code at runtime from the internet (like Apt, Go, Pacman, Pip, NPM, etc.) is the equivalent of those dreadful online stub installer packages" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49875653))
- Installs globally, needs venvs (3 comments): "it's a reasonable complaint that `pip install` has become less useful now that it resists installing tools outside of a venv" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46446677)) "The Python ecosystem has taken a huge step backwards with the preachy attitude that you have to do everything in a venv." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46434682)) "Pip installs everything system wide and you can't have different versions of the same package without venv." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49574183))
- Slow installs, rebuilt each time (2 comments): "Pip unpacks from the wheel each time (which also entails copying the data rather than doing fast filesystem operations" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45995873)) "pip install has been a significant percentage of the deploy time on pretty much every app I've ever deployed" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46396384))
- Dated internal architecture, hard to fix (2 comments): "pip doesn't have to be the way it is in order to actually solve the problem of installing Python packages" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46404625)) "Pip just has horrible internal architecture that can't be readily fixed because of all the legacy cruft." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45995283))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [uv](https://hackerapproved.com/p/uv.md): 533 recommend
- [Poetry](https://hackerapproved.com/p/poetry.md): 20 recommend
- [Python venv](https://hackerapproved.com/p/venv.md): 17 recommend
- [virtualenv](https://hackerapproved.com/p/virtualenv.md): 10 recommend
- [pipx](https://hackerapproved.com/p/pipx.md): 10 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "pip", https://hackerapproved.com/p/pip/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).