Software Alternatives & Startups

pkgsrc VS eget

Compare pkgsrc VS eget and see what are their differences

pkgsrc logo pkgsrc

pkgsrc is a framework for building over 17,000 open source software packages.

eget logo eget

Easily install prebuilt binaries from GitHub. Contribute to zyedidia/eget development by creating an account on GitHub.
  • pkgsrc Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-06-30
  • eget Landing page
    Landing page //
    2026-09-08

pkgsrc features and specs

  • Cross-Platform Support
    pkgsrc is designed to be a portable package management system and can be used on a variety of Unix-like operating systems, including NetBSD, Solaris, Linux, and macOS. This cross-platform capability makes it a versatile tool for developers working in diverse environments.
  • Consistency Across Systems
    Using pkgsrc allows for a consistent package management experience regardless of the underlying operating system, reducing the learning curve and maintenance overhead for administrators managing multiple systems.
  • Comprehensive Package Collection
    pkgsrc offers a wide range of software packages, providing a robust collection that can meet diverse user needs from scientific libraries to web applications.
  • Quarterly Releases
    With quarterly releases, pkgsrc provides a balanced approach between stability and keeping software up to date, offering users new features regularly while maintaining reliability.
  • Flexible Build Options
    pkgsrc supports a flexible build system, allowing users to customize package builds with specific options or dependencies, tailored to their specific needs or system requirements.

Possible disadvantages of pkgsrc

  • Smaller Community
    Compared to other popular package management systems like apt (Debian/Ubuntu) or yum (RedHat/CentOS), pkgsrc has a relatively smaller community, which might affect the availability of support and community-driven improvements.
  • Potentially Older Software
    While pkgsrc maintains stable quarterly releases, it may occasionally lag behind other systems in terms of offering the very latest versions of certain software, which might not be ideal for users needing the newest features.
  • Manual Configuration
    Setting up pkgsrc might require manual interventions and configurations, which could pose a hurdle for users unfamiliar with its setup process or those who prefer more automated solutions.
  • Dependency Management
    Although pkgsrc is quite capable in dependency handling, some users may find its dependency resolution to be less automatic or seamless compared to other systems which offer more integrated solutions.
  • Performance Overhead
    Because it is designed to be cross-platform, there can be some performance overhead associated with using pkgsrc compared to native package managers that are optimized for specific operating systems.

eget features and specs

  • Single binary installer
    eget downloads prebuilt binaries directly from GitHub releases and extracts them, making it easy to install command-line tools without needing to compile from source or use a package manager.
  • Cross-platform support
    Works across Linux, macOS, and Windows, automatically detecting the correct OS and architecture to fetch the appropriate binary asset from a GitHub release.
  • No dependencies required
    eget itself is distributed as a single static binary written in Go, so it has no external runtime dependencies, making it simple to bootstrap on a new system.
  • Flexible asset matching
    It provides smart heuristics and configurable options (like --asset, --tag, regex filters) to select the correct file when a release has multiple binaries or archives, reducing ambiguity.
  • Lightweight and fast
    Because it only downloads and extracts a binary rather than building from source, installation is typically very fast compared to compiling tools manually.

Possible disadvantages of eget

  • GitHub-only support
    eget is designed specifically around GitHub releases, so it cannot fetch binaries from other hosting platforms like GitLab, Bitbucket, or custom servers without workarounds.
  • Dependent on release maintainers
    The tool relies on project maintainers publishing consistent, well-named binary assets in their releases; poorly structured or inconsistent releases can cause eget to fail or require manual configuration.
  • No built-in dependency management
    Unlike full package managers, eget does not track installed versions, handle upgrades automatically, or manage dependencies between tools, requiring manual re-running to update binaries.
  • Limited verification features
    Checksum or signature verification support is minimal or manual in many cases, which may raise security concerns compared to package managers that enforce stronger verification standards.
  • Learning curve for advanced options
    While basic usage is simple, taking advantage of its more advanced filtering and configuration options (for asset selection, extraction paths, etc.) requires reading documentation and understanding its flags.

pkgsrc videos

pkgsrc on ChromeOS

More videos:

  • Review - Using pkgsrc for multi-platform deployments in heterogeneous environments, G Clifford Williams

eget videos

No eget videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

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Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to pkgsrc and eget)
Developer Tools
86 86%
14% 14
Windows Tools
0 0%
100% 100
Package Manager
82 82%
18% 18
Front End Package Manager

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, pkgsrc seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 11 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

pkgsrc mentions (11)

  • Debian isn't waiting for 2038 to blow up, switches to 64-bit time for everything
    > Most open source software packages are also compiled for BSD variants, they switched to 64 bit time_t a long time ago and reported back upstream any problems. * NetBSD in 2012: https://www.netbsd.org/releases/formal-6/NetBSD-6.0.html * OpenBSD in 2014: http://www.openbsd.org/55.html For packaging, NetBSD uses their (multi-platform) Pkgsrc, which has 29,000 packages, which probably covers a large swath of... - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
  • Our Audit of Homebrew
    > https://pkgsrc.smartos.org/install-on-macos/ Note that Pkgsrc is a NetBSD-derived project. * https://pkgsrc.org The Joyent folks leveraged it to allow their customers, who were perhaps not as familiar with Solaris/SmartOS, a larger pool of packages. Pkgsrc was running on Solaris before Joyent, Joyent built on top of it. - Source: Hacker News / about 2 years ago
  • Show HN: Brioche – A new Nix-like package manager
    Https://pkgsrc.org/ from netbsd runs on many systems. - Source: Hacker News / over 2 years ago
  • Installing packages without an internet connection?
    It seems according to pkgsrc.org that pkgin might follow the PKG_PATH environment variable. You're supposed to set PKG_PATH="http://cdn.NetBSD.org/pub/pkgsrc/packages/NetBSD/$(uname -p)/$(uname -r|cut -f '1 2' -d.)/All/", and according to uname(1), -p gives the processor architecture and -r gives the operating system [kernel] release. Source: over 3 years ago
  • pkgsrc.se is no more :(
    It seems like pkgsrc.org hasn’t got the news yet. Source: over 3 years ago
View more

eget mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of eget yet. Tracking of eget recommendations started around Sep 2026.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing pkgsrc and eget, you can also consider the following products

Conda - Binary package manager with support for environments.

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Homebrew - The missing package manager for macOS

npm - npm is a package manager for Node.

Yay - Yay is an AUR helper written in go, based on the design of yaourt, apacman and pacaur.

pacman (package manager) - The pacman package manager is one of the major distinguishing features of ...