uv

What hackers pick instead

• pipThe 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.46recommend
• PoetryPython packaging tool many used happily before uv, valued for handling dependencies. Critics note it does not manage Python versions or virtual environments.20recommend
• Python venvBuilt-in tool that isolates each project's Python packages. Simple once set up, but the activation script and shell handling are awkward.17recommend
• virtualenvGives each Python project its own separate package environment, and many report few problems with it. Critics call it a hack and say it isn't relocatable out of the box.10recommend
• pipxRuns Python command-line tools in isolated environments so they stay separate and safe, with the virtual environment handled under the hood.10recommend

Every quote

The 40 most detailed of 897 comments. Each links to the original.

1. 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.

   Recommends · Dec 2025 · in “Go Away Python”

2. 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.

   Recommends · Jun 2026 · in “Homebrew 6.0.0”

3. the ability to write a standalone script that can pull in third-party dependencies without affecting your current project is a massive productivity boost

   Recommends · Jan 2026 · in “Make.ts”

4. 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.

   Recommends · Aug 2026 · in “Python's pre-declared constants are kinda weird”

5. It's game-changing - leaps and bounds above every previous attempt to make Python's packaging, dependency management, and dev workflow easy.

   Recommends · Mar 2026 · in “Astral to Join OpenAI”

6. 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installs the python version your project needs which is a huge pain in the ass if you use some old Linux distro with outdated python

   Recommends · Oct 2026 · in “Bringing uv and ty together”

7. 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.

   Recommends · Dec 2025 · in “Go Away Python”

8. uv not only completely replaces all of pip, pyenv & venv, but it also does a much better job than any of them at their intended function

   Recommends · Dec 2025 · in “Go Away Python”

9. 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.

   Recommends · Jan 2026 · in “Going immutable on macOS, using Nix-Darwin”

10. the UX of `uv` is their own, and to me has significantly reduced the amount of time I spend thinking about requirements, modules, etc.

    Recommends · Dec 2025 · in “Go Away Python”

11. With uv, you copy/install a single binary file which can then install python + dependencies and automatically do the right thing.

    Recommends · Dec 2025 · in “How uv got so fast”

12. `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.

    Recommends · Dec 2025 · in “Anthropic acquires Bun”

13. It would be much better to just make pip faster and add features to it instead of introducing a completely new package manager

    Mixed · Dec 2025 · in “How uv got so fast”

14. Uv is the first time there's a tool that just runs the software without requiring me to become a python ecosystem expert

    Recommends · Mar 2026 · in “Thoughts on OpenAI acquiring Astral and uv/ruff/ty”

15. It's vastly improved now. With uv, many times you can download a new utility off GitHub and run it with `uv run foo.py`

    Recommends · Nov 2025 · in “What Killed Perl?”

16. uv solves many problems, but one textbook case is the problem of running some arbitrary Python-based command-line tool

    Recommends · Dec 2025 · in “Go Away Python”

17. It's good to see at last someone in the Python space got their ducks in a row and we've finally got a sensible tool.

    Recommends · Dec 2025 · in “How uv got so fast”

18. a couple of use cases where the speed is a nice feature are tool running with uvx and inline dependencies in scripts

    Recommends · Aug 2026 · in “uv: Deduplicate all files in the wheel cache”

19. uv can and does do this, but for this particular optimization I'm not sure how much absolute time it ends up saving

    Mixed · Aug 2026 · in “uv: Deduplicate all files in the wheel cache”

20. I didn't find it fast at all. Every time I went to run the script it spent multiple seconds checking dependencies.

    Mixed · Aug 2026 · in “uv: Deduplicate all files in the wheel cache”

21. uv has many useful features like dev dependencies and inline dependencies, that are much more reliable than uvx.

    Recommends · Dec 2025 · in “Claude Code gets native LSP support”

22. uv just adds additional quirks and gotchas and limitations, including storing authorization keys in plain text.

    Mixed · Oct 2026 · in “Bringing uv and ty together”

23. uv provides things super fast, but those things may break 5% of the time in unusual ways on unusual configs

    Mixed · Jan 2026 · in “Go Away Python”

24. 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.

    Criticizes · Apr 2026 · in “Open Source Security at Astral”

25. implicitly phoning home your project, all source code, its metadata, and inferring whether your idea/use-case is worth steamrolling with their own version.

    Criticizes · Mar 2026 · in “Astral to Join OpenAI”

26. basically does nothing better then pip - the acclaimed 10x more speed doesn't really matter for installing dependencies

    Criticizes · Apr 2026 · in “Why Aren't We Uv Yet?”

27. I'm arguing against gigantic forks in the Python installation ecosystem. Forks like these are harmful to the tooling

    Criticizes · Dec 2025 · in “How uv got so fast”

28. uv taking over basically ensures that dependencies won't become managed properly and nothing will work without uv

    Criticizes · Mar 2026 · in “Telnyx v4.87.1 and v4.87.2 are compromised by TeamPCP”

29. uv still created a .python_version file and using the one installed in the system instead of what was in mise

    Criticizes · Dec 2025 · in “How uv got so fast”

30. uv has a lot of opinionated quirks, its custom lockfile lockfile, and other nuances which many of us dislike

    Criticizes · Oct 2026 · in “Bringing uv and ty together”

31. When such upper bounds are respected, they contaminate other packages, because you have to add them yourself to be compatible with your dependencies.

    Recommends · Dec 2025 · in “How uv got so fast”

32. That's a nice touch, but goes against the explicit/implicit rule- a different behaviour automatically triggered by something environmental.

    Mixed · Feb 2026 · in “I Fixed Windows Native Development”

33. I love uv, the why not works great if it’s your machine but in places without your machine uv is just another step for a customer

    Mixed · Dec 2025 · in “Using Python for Scripting”

34. uv retains compatibility with newer (but still well-established) standards in the Python community that don't share this insanity

    Recommends · Dec 2025 · in “How uv got so fast”

35. UV is a drop-in for pip, rather than a replacement. It functions differently than pip behind the scenes, which is why it's faster

    Recommends · Dec 2025 · in “Go Away Python”

36. uv is an existence proof that when you make something that doesn’t suck ass the entire industry will very very rapidly converge.

    Recommends · Mar 2026 · in “C++26 is done ISO C++ standards meeting, Trip Report”

37. I'm not sure I would have thought about, for example, hard-linking files when installing them from cache, without uv existing.

    Recommends · Dec 2025 · in “How uv got so fast”

38. At least UV is still open source, it would suck to have to fork and foe there to be yet another python package management tool

    Recommends · Apr 2026 · in “Open Source Security at Astral”

39. It's MIT licensed. If Astral ever truly dies, there'll be community versions of their software, because it's that "necessary".

    Recommends · Oct 2026 · in “Bringing uv and ty together”

40. The biggest benefit is in CI environments and Docker images and the like where all packages can get reinstalled on every run.

    Recommends · Dec 2025 · in “How uv got so fast”