Spack
Shares rank 26 of 35 package managers by recommenders
Free HPC package manager that makes optimised builds with custom compilers easier. Caveat: Windows packages are less mature, and it integrates poorly with uv.
Free HPC package manager that makes optimised builds with custom compilers easier. Caveat: Windows packages are less mature, and it integrates poorly with uv.
10 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 8
- criticize it
- 2
- approval share
- 80%
Recommended in 6 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: 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
- 8 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 4 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 6 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
Optimised builds with custom compilers
“you can get optimised builds with whatever compiler tool chain and options you need quite easily that way”
Comment from 1 Nov 2025 on Hacker News “Spack and EasyBuild make this much much easier.”
Comment from 17 Apr 2026 in “30 Years of HPC: many hardware advances, little adoption of new languages”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Poor integration with uv
“doesn't integrate well with uv etc.”
Comment from 22 May 2026 in “Uv is fantastic, but its package management UX is a mess”
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
8 of the 13 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Works on macOS and Windows (though Windows packages aren't quite as mature as Linux and macOS)”
“EasyBuild and Spack were full of half broken recipes”
“doesn't integrate well with uv etc.”
“Spack and EasyBuild make this much much easier.”
“Spack is a really unfortunate name for a project given that it's a slur derived from 'spastic' in the UK.”
“Nix, Pkgsrc, MacPorts, and (and now Spack) all have better fundamental designs”
“you get the package name immediately from the left, which is nice”
“you can get optimised builds with whatever compiler tool chain and options you need quite easily that way”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.