# uv

533 Hacker News commenters recommended uv and 100 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 12 of 13 months; owners who said how long report a median of 1 years (9 owners). It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Replaces pip, pyenv and venv, installing the right Python version and running scripts with inline dependencies without manual setup, though some dislike its quirks and Astral's OpenAI ties.

## Why people recommend it

- Replaces pip, pyenv and venv (6 comments): "Honestly for python just using uv is enough, not only does it handle virtualenv for you, it will also install the necessary python version you need locally." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48498572)) "They help a lot e.g. with linting speed, lock management, package dependency separation, correct python version mgmt and no need to fudge with venv." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49442780)) "uv has replaced that for me, and has replaced most other tools that I used with the (tiny amount of) Python that I write for production." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46436551))
- Installs needed Python versions automatically (4 comments): "This will auto-install Python 3.12 (or greater) in a per-script virtual environment, along with the httpx package from pypi & immediately execute the script, on any system that has uv." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46438855)) "Honestly for python just using uv is enough, not only does it handle virtualenv for you, it will also install the necessary python version you need locally." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48498572)) "uv also installs the python version your project needs which is a huge pain in the ass if you use some old Linux distro with outdated python" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50220429))
- Scripts with inline dependencies (6 comments): "This will auto-install Python 3.12 (or greater) in a per-script virtual environment, along with the httpx package from pypi & immediately execute the script, on any system that has uv." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46438855)) "the ability to write a standalone script that can pull in third-party dependencies without affecting your current project is a massive productivity boost" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46793540)) "`uv run` has transformed how I use Python since 99% of the time I don't need to setup or manage an environment and dependencies." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46125147))
- Just works, no expertise needed (5 comments): "It's game-changing - leaps and bounds above every previous attempt to make Python's packaging, dependency management, and dev workflow easy." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47440955)) "It takes a few minutes to install and do `uv sync`, or `nvm install`, or whatever, on a repository on a new computer, and it just works." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46463555)) "Uv is the first time there's a tool that just runs the software without requiring me to become a python ecosystem expert" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47449858))

## What people warn about

- Speed gains don't matter much (3 comments): "basically does nothing better then pip - the acclaimed 10x more speed doesn't really matter for installing dependencies" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47717074)) "uv can and does do this, but for this particular optimization I'm not sure how much absolute time it ends up saving" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49511324)) "I didn't find it fast at all. Every time I went to run the script it spent multiple seconds checking dependencies." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49508192))
- Opinionated quirks and gotchas (4 comments): "uv just adds additional quirks and gotchas and limitations, including storing authorization keys in plain text." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50223309)) "uv has a lot of opinionated quirks, its custom lockfile lockfile, and other nuances which many of us dislike" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50217379)) "uv provides things super fast, but those things may break 5% of the time in unusual ways on unusual configs" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46486964))
- Fragments ecosystem, creates lock-in (3 comments): "It would be much better to just make pip faster and add features to it instead of introducing a completely new package manager" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46411261)) "I'm arguing against gigantic forks in the Python installation ecosystem. Forks like these are harmful to the tooling" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46411522)) "uv taking over basically ensures that dependencies won't become managed properly and nothing will work without uv" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47553868))
- Trust concerns after OpenAI acquisition (2 comments): "Astral/OpenAI are actually giving -thousands- of randos other than the authors the ability to backdoor the uv binaries you produce, and without a reproducible full source bootstrapped build process, no one would be able to quickly or easily prove it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47708486)) "implicitly phoning home your project, all source code, its metadata, and inferring whether your idea/use-case is worth steamrolling with their own version." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47443522))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [pip](https://hackerapproved.com/p/pip.md): 46 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, "uv", https://hackerapproved.com/p/uv/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).