astral-sh/uv
An extremely fast Python package and project manager, written in Rust.
uv is a drop-in replacement for pip, pip-tools, pipx, poetry, pyenv, and virtualenv written in Rust by Astral. It resolves and installs Python packages 10-100x faster than the standard tooling, with a single binary and no external dependencies required.
Our Review
Astral built uv after shipping Ruff, a Python linter written in Rust that ran 10-100x faster than flake8 by rewriting the toolchain component from Python to native code. The engineering lesson applied directly to package management: Python's installer had been Python-implemented for decades, and a Rust rewrite produced the same step-change performance. Where pip spawns subprocesses and resolves sequentially, uv parallelizes resolution natively and caches aggressively -- a complex data science dependency tree that takes 60-120 seconds in pip completes in under 5 seconds.
Key capabilities
- •Drop-in pip replacement: run uv pip install instead of pip install and immediately get 10-100x speed without changing any other tooling
- •Unified tool: replaces pip, pip-tools, pipx, poetry, pyenv, and virtualenv -- a single binary handles all Python environment and package management
- •Python version management: uv downloads and manages Python versions itself, no separate pyenv installation needed
- •Lock files and reproducibility: uv.lock files pin exact dependency versions for reproducible installs across dev, staging, and production
- •Workspace support: monorepo projects with multiple Python packages share a single dependency resolution pass
- •Global tool installs: replace pipx with uv tool install for isolated global CLI tool management
Getting started
Install with curl -Lsf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh on Linux/Mac or via pip install uv. Run uv sync in any project with a pyproject.toml to create a virtualenv and install all dependencies. Drop-in: replace pip in any existing workflow without other changes.
Limitation
uv is relatively young compared to pip (which has a decade of ecosystem support). Some edge cases in complex dependency graphs, private registries, or unusual index configurations may require workarounds. Projects relying on legacy setup.py installs rather than pyproject.toml may need migration work before uv can fully replace pip.
Our Verdict
uv is the fastest package manager in the Python ecosystem by a significant margin in 2026. If you install Python packages -- in CI, in Docker, in local dev -- switching to uv is the highest ROI change you can make. The speed improvement alone (often 10-100x over pip) eliminates wait time that compounds across every developer and every build.
The broader vision is to be the single Python tool: one binary that handles package management, virtual environments, Python version management, and global tool installs. That unified surface is already largely realized and makes onboarding new contributors significantly simpler -- one tool install replaces five.
For production Python teams, the key questions are private registry support and edge-case dependency graph behavior. Both are areas astral-sh is actively investing in, and the 85,000+ stars signal the community is already betting on uv as the long-term pip successor.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much faster is uv compared to pip?
uv installs packages 10-100x faster than pip, depending on the number of packages and whether they are cached. On a cold cache, resolving and installing a typical data science stack (numpy, pandas, scikit-learn, matplotlib) takes under 5 seconds with uv versus 60-120 seconds with pip. CI pipelines see the largest absolute time savings in 2026.
Does uv replace pip, poetry, virtualenv, and pyenv?
Yes. uv is designed as a single replacement for pip, pip-tools, pipx, poetry, pyenv, and virtualenv. You can install packages (uv pip install), manage virtual environments (uv venv), manage Python versions (uv python install), install global CLI tools (uv tool install), and pin dependencies (uv lock) -- all with one binary.
Is uv compatible with existing pip and pyproject.toml workflows?
Yes. uv is a drop-in replacement for pip -- commands like uv pip install -r requirements.txt work identically. It also natively reads pyproject.toml for project-based workflows. Most existing Python projects can switch to uv without any changes to their dependency files or build configuration.
Who made uv and is it production-ready?
uv is built by Astral, the same team that created Ruff (the Python linter adopted by Meta, Anthropic, and Hugging Face). uv reached version 0.4 in 2024 and is widely used in production CI pipelines by large engineering teams. The 85,000 GitHub stars and active release cadence in 2026 indicate strong production adoption.
How does uv handle Python version management?
uv includes built-in Python version management, replacing pyenv. Run uv python install 3.12 to download and install a specific Python version. Run uv python pin 3.11 in a project directory to lock that project to a specific version. uv manages all Python installations in its own directory, separate from system Python.
What is uv?
uv is a drop-in replacement for pip, pip-tools, pipx, poetry, pyenv, and virtualenv written in Rust by Astral. It resolves and installs Python packages 10-100x faster than the standard tooling, with a single binary and no external dependencies required.
How do I install uv?
Visit the GitHub repository at https://github.com/astral-sh/uv for installation instructions.
What license does uv use?
uv uses the Apache-2.0 license.
What are alternatives to uv?
Explore related tools and alternatives on My AI Guide.
Open source & community-verified
Apache-2.0 licensed: free to use in any project, no strings attached. 85,253 developers have starred this, meaning the community has reviewed and trusted it.
Reviewed by My AI Guide for relevance, quality, and active maintenance before listing.
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