Best Package Managers in 2026
Updated
93 package managers ranked on what their makers publish — plans and prices, free tiers, platforms and the facts on their own pages.
93ranked
1free plans on this page
4 Oct 2026last checked
Package Managers, one module each. A lit port is something its maker publishes; 0 of the 25 on this page have a public API.
- 51 pkgsrc API not on recordOSS not on recordFREE not on recordDOCS 5.6
- 52 Scoop API not on recordOSS not on recordFREE not on recordDOCS 5.6
- 53 Shards API not on recordOSS not on recordFREE not on recordDOCS 5.6
- 54 cpan API not on recordOSS not on recordFREE not on recordDOCS 5.6
- 55 Apache Ivy API not on recordOSS not on recordFREE not on recordDOCS 5.6
- 56 Zypper API not on recordOSS not on recordFREE not on recordDOCS 5.6
- 57 pkgman API not on recordOSS yesFREE not on recordDOCS 5.6
- 58 LuaRocks API not on recordOSS not on recordFREE not on recordDOCS 5.5
- 59 MSYS2 API not on recordOSS not on recordFREE not on recordDOCS 5.5
- 60 Racket Package Manager API not on recordOSS not on recordFREE not on recordDOCS 5.5
- 61 Flatpak Builder API not on recordOSS not on recordFREE yesDOCS 5.5Free
- 62 Pamac API not on recordOSS not on recordFREE not on recordDOCS 5.4
- 63 Alpine apk-tools API not on recordOSS not on recordFREE not on recordDOCS 5.4
- 64 XBPS API not on recordOSS not on recordFREE not on recordDOCS 5.4
- 65 tdnf API not on recordOSS not on recordFREE not on recordDOCS 5.4
- 66 MacPorts API not on recordOSS not on recordFREE not on recordDOCS 5.3
- 67 pkg_add API not on recordOSS not on recordFREE not on recordDOCS 5.3
- 68 FreeBSD pkg API not on recordOSS not on recordFREE not on recordDOCS 5.3
- 69 PEAR API not on recordOSS not on recordFREE not on recordDOCS 5.3
- 70 Nala API not on recordOSS not on recordFREE not on recordDOCS 5.2
- 71 Quicklisp API not on recordOSS not on recordFREE not on recordDOCS 5.2
- 72 Synaptic API not on recordOSS not on recordFREE not on recordDOCS 5.2
- 73 CLPM API not on recordOSS not on recordFREE not on recordDOCS 5.2
- 74 Haxelib API not on recordOSS not on recordFREE not on recordDOCS 5.2
- 75 pkgin API not on recordOSS not on recordFREE not on recordDOCS 5.1
Compare all 25 in a table
| # | Platform | Score | Free plan | From | Free plan | Paid from | Package formats | Supported platforms |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 51 | pkgsrc | 5.6 | No | — | Yes | — | source packages; binary packages | NetBSD, Solaris, SmartOS, illumos, Linux, macOS (Darwin), FreeBSD, OpenBSD, DragonFlyBSD, MINIX 3, SCO OpenServer/UnixWare, HP-UX |
| 52 | Scoop | 5.6 | No | — | Yes | — | ZIP, 7z, TAR, GZ, LZMA, LZH archives; installer files; single-file apps; PowerShell scripts | Windows 10 and newer; Windows Server 2016 and newer; Windows 7/8 and Server 2008/2012 with PowerShell 5.1 |
| 53 | Shards | 5.6 | No | — | Yes | — | Crystal shards defined in shard.yml | Linux, macOS, Windows |
| 54 | cpan | 5.6 | No | — | Yes | — | Perl modules; Perl distributions, commonly .tar.gz archives | Linux, macOS, Windows |
| 55 | Apache Ivy | 5.6 | No | — | Yes | — | Ivy files, Maven POMs, OSGi bundles | Java/JRE |
| 56 | Zypper | 5.6 | No | — | Yes | — | RPM packages and source RPM packages | Linux, including openSUSE and SUSE Enterprise Linux |
| 57 | pkgman | 5.6 | No | — | — | — | HPKG | Haiku OS |
| 58 | LuaRocks | 5.5 | No | — | Yes | — | .rock, .rockspec | Linux, macOS, Windows, Unix, FreeBSD, Cygwin |
| 59 | MSYS2 | 5.5 | No | — | — | — | tar.zst, tar.xz | Windows 10 1809+ x86_64; Windows 10 ARM64 |
| 60 | Racket Package Manager | 5.5 | No | — | Yes | — | ZIP, TAR, TGZ, TAR.GZ, PLT archives; directories; Git and GitHub repositories | Windows, macOS, Linux |
| 61 | Flatpak Builder | 5.5 | Free plan | Free | — | — | — | — |
| 62 | Pamac | 5.4 | No | — | Yes | — | ALPM, AUR, Appstream, Flatpak, Snap | Linux, especially Manjaro Linux |
| 63 | Alpine apk-tools | 5.4 | No | — | Yes | — | — | Linux |
| 64 | XBPS | 5.4 | No | — | Yes | — | XBPS binary packages | Linux |
| 65 | tdnf | 5.4 | No | — | Yes | — | RPM | Linux |
| 66 | MacPorts | 5.3 | No | — | Yes | — | tbz2, tar, tbz, tgz, tlz, txz, xar, zip, cpgz, cpio | macOS |
| 67 | pkg_add | 5.3 | No | — | Yes | — | TGZ, gzip-compressed ustar archives with packing lists | OpenBSD alpha, amd64, arm64, armv7, hppa, i386, landisk, luna88k, macppc, octeon, powerpc64, riscv64, sparc64 |
| 68 | FreeBSD pkg | 5.3 | No | — | Yes | — | tar archive (.pkg), gzip, bzip2, zstd, xz | FreeBSD |
| 69 | PEAR | 5.3 | No | — | — | — | phar, tar, tgz, zip | Windows, Unix/Linux/BSD, macOS |
| 70 | Nala | 5.2 | No | — | — | — | .deb | Debian, Ubuntu, and derivatives |
| 71 | Quicklisp | 5.2 | No | — | — | — | Common Lisp systems/libraries and source archives | Linux, Mac OS X, Windows |
| 72 | Synaptic | 5.2 | No | — | Yes | — | Debian packages (.deb) | Linux (Debian) |
| 73 | CLPM | 5.2 | No | — | — | — | Quicklisp, CLPI, ASDF | macOS, Linux, Windows; Common Lisp implementations including SBCL and CCL |
| 74 | Haxelib | 5.2 | No | — | Yes | — | ZIP archives containing Haxe source and haxelib.json manifests | Windows, macOS, Linux |
| 75 | pkgin | 5.1 | No | — | — | — | pkgsrc binary packages | NetBSD; DragonFly BSD; Solaris/SunOS; Debian GNU/Linux; Mac OS X; Minix |
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