Homebrew
Open-source command-line package manager for macOS and Linux.
Commenters rely on it as the go-to package manager for macOS12345 and increasingly use it on Linux and immutable distros, with Brewfiles for quick machine setup.67891011 The most common complaint is its aggressive dropping of older macOS versions and Intel hardware,1213141516 followed by forced upgrades that can't be pinned and break things.17181920
Why people recommend it
Essential on Mac · 3
Many call it the first or only must-have tool they install on a new Mac, filling the gap of no native package manager.
“Homebrew is the first thing I install on a new Mac. I love it.”
“Homebrew/nix: The most obvious one. MacOS just has no good package manager.”
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“homebrew ( indispensable ! all the other apps below are installed/managed via homebrew )”
Linux support · 3
Linux users like it for user-level packages kept separate from the system, especially on immutable distros.
“Homebrew is so good that I use it on Linux whenever possible.”
“Homebrew has been a great way to quickly bootstrap an environment in immutable Linux distributions.”
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“Brew actually works very nicely for Linux and is a useful method to enable package management of cli tools/libraries at the user level.”
Declarative setup · 3
Brewfiles let users record their packages and mass-install them on a new machine.
“it's useful to find things on Homebrew and record in a file. Then you can mass install next time around”
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“Brew works the same on almost every distro, same pathings, same behavior, and even offers the Brewfiles to let me specify my setup.”
Beats alternatives · 3
Several switched back from MacPorts, Nix, or Mise, citing better package support, dependency handling, and UX.
“At the time, Homebrew was less finicky and better at resolving dependency conflicts.”
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“I personally switched from Mise back to Brew.”
Fresh packages · 3
Formulas are said to update faster than MacPorts and most Linux distro repos.
“I found homebrew updated formulas faster than macports did”
“Homebrew is so good that I use it on Linux whenever possible.”
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“Almost everything else is installed using homebrew.”
Faster upgrades · 1
A recent release made upgrades noticeably faster through concurrency.
Caveats and dissent
Old macOS dropped · 3
Support tiers drop older macOS versions and Intel Macs quickly, pushing some users to MacPorts.
“Homebrew's aggressive dropping of macOS versions they consider "too old."”
“I'm not going to get on the hardware update treadmill just to keep using it.”
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“You need to rethink about this tierings”
Forced upgrades · 3
Limited pinning means unwanted upgrades and painful downgrades that can break setups.
“I stopped using Homebrew after I got screwed too many times on mandatory upgrades that I couldn't pin.”
“I love using Homebrew but I wish there was more support for pinning.”
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Breakage risk · 3
Some found installs or updates could cascade into broken packages.
“I had more problems with brew, where some package needed to be updated that I did not want, and I caused a cascade of issues.”
“Brew is a leaky piece of crap.”
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Security model · 2
Some worry about trusting maintainer-supplied code and about past insecure design.
“It is negligent that MacOS users, even those with prod access, all let any anon randos that sign up to be Homebrew maintainers execute any code they want on their computers with no accountability.”
“I think some of those design issues may have been fixed, but I’m wary of Homebrew.”
Filesystem clutter · 3
Critics say it spreads files across /usr/local and PATH and had permission quirks.
“It may work for some, but it wasn't for me anymore (and I used Homebrew for many years before that.)”
“It also always used /opt instead of taking over /usr/bin like Homebrew.”
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“then switched back after MacPorts inexplicably started wanting to install like 9000 packages”
Maintainer attitude · 2
A few describe maintainers and design decisions as unfriendly to user needs.
“got tired of their very grumpy maintainers”
“Homebrew is famous for making life hard for users.”
Often compared with
5 moved from MacPorts to Homebrew
8 moved from Homebrew to MacPorts
1 moved from Nix to Homebrew
5 moved from Homebrew to Nix
1 moved from mise to Homebrew
2 moved from Homebrew to mise
2 moved from Homebrew to nix-darwinasdf3 comments mention both
2 moved from Homebrew to asdf
1 moved from Homebrew to Debian
1 moved from Homebrew to Home Manager
Who recommends it in their own words
From the makers not counted in the ranking
“Ultimately you don’t need to know much Ruby to maintain or contribute to Homebrew.”
“Homebrew has never been better performant, secure, tested, linted and typed.”
“We do similar in Homebrew by autoclosing opens without the issue template”
“Lots of people over the years could have forked Homebrew but no meaningful forks have taken off”
Threads where it came up
- Homebrew 6.0.0 24 mentions
- Homebrew 7.0.0 12 mentions
- Ask HN: New clean macOS install. Must-have apps? Best browser? 6 mentions
- Zerobrew: A faster alternative to Homebrew 4 mentions
- Homebrew no longer allows bypassing Gatekeeper for unsigned/unnotarized software 4 mentions
- Turn off Apple Intelligence on macOS 27 and get its disk space back 2 mentions
Data: homebrew.json. Quotes are verbatim; the verdict and theme labels are written by a model from these comments, and every clause links to its sources.
All comments 51
“I use homebrew for my git and curl”
“zerobrew would literally NOT exist without homebrew”
“whilst it still has home brew and a BSD core it’s great”
“I use Brewfile too. Still prefer some stuff to be managed by brew.”
“Homebrew is rushing to drop support for Intel Macs”
“It may work for some, but it wasn't for me anymore (and I used Homebrew for many years before that.)”
“I don't use homebrew for speed. I use it for trust”
“NO! Brew sucks.”
“brew is terrible in terms of performance”
“Homebrew/nix: The most obvious one. MacOS just has no good package manager.”
“They needed compatibility hacks + Rosetta and even required re-compiling the software for Homebrew to work correctly”
“It works great there's no reason to use distro specific tooling when you can use what everyone else is using.”
“I used Homebrew just fine off the bat”
“It also always used /opt instead of taking over /usr/bin like Homebrew.”
“I reluctantly switched from MacPorts to Homebrew around 2014.”
“I had more problems with brew, where some package needed to be updated that I did not want, and I caused a cascade of issues.”
“Excellent update, very speedy on upgrades now.”
“I found homebrew updated formulas faster than macports did”
“At the time, Homebrew was less finicky and better at resolving dependency conflicts.”
“Homebrew's aggressive dropping of macOS versions they consider "too old."”
“Brew is notably slow compared to the other package managers I use, but never in an unbearable way.”
“I use "dnf" to upgrade my system and "flatpak update" and "brew upgrade" to upgrade the apps I've installed.”
“It is negligent that MacOS users, even those with prod access, all let any anon randos that sign up to be Homebrew maintainers execute any code they want on their computers with no accountability.”
“Homebrew or macports has a similar software inventory to debian.”
“Python through brew is the one I expect to be the latest one I use for one-off scripts.”
“brew is just awesome”
“The issue is end of support for brew”
“Brew is nice and all, but it's nothing compared to pacman/apt.”
“Install it through brew”
“homebrew ( indispensable ! all the other apps below are installed/managed via homebrew )”
“Homebrew to get a package manager that is not managed by Apple”
“Homebrew and mise-en-place are the only must have apps for me”
“it's useful to find things on Homebrew and record in a file. Then you can mass install next time around”
“Homebrew - https://brew.sh”
“Homebrew (https://brew.sh/)”
“I use Homebrew pretty extensively as a package manager on macOS”
“the most I can get most workplaces to standardize on is Homebrew for package management”
“You need to rethink about this tierings”
“I can't say how much I appreciate Homebrew, been using iti for years”
“downgrading was a pain”
“In the end I stuck with brew”
“Homebrew is the first thing I install on a new Mac. I love it.”
“I love using Homebrew but I wish there was more support for pinning.”
“Homebrew is so good that I use it on Linux whenever possible.”
“Homebrew became my go-to solution for installing software on my Macs”
“I'm not going to get on the hardware update treadmill just to keep using it.”
“Homebrew has been a great way to quickly bootstrap an environment in immutable Linux distributions.”
“I stopped using Homebrew after I got screwed too many times on mandatory upgrades that I couldn't pin.”
“Brew works the same on almost every distro, same pathings, same behavior, and even offers the Brewfiles to let me specify my setup.”
“Brew actually works very nicely for Linux and is a useful method to enable package management of cli tools/libraries at the user level.”
“On desktop MacOS I use brew exclusively.”