Pip vs Conda: an in-depth comparison of Python’s two packaging systems
If you’re using Python in the world of data science or scientific computing, you will soon discover that Python has two different packaging systems: pip and Conda.
Which raises some questions:
- How are they different?
- What are the tradeoffs between the two?
- Which should you use?
While it’s not possible to answer this question for every situation, in this article you will learn the basic differences, constrained to:
- Python only; Conda has support for other languages but I won’t go into that.
- Linux, including running on Docker, though with some mention of macOS and Windows.
- Focusing on the Conda-Forge package repository; Conda has multiple package repositories, or “channels”.
By the end you should understand why Conda exists, when you might want to use it, and the tradeoffs between