Best Package Managers for Windows
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Compare the Top Package Managers for Windows as of November 2025
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What are Package Managers for Windows?
Package managers are software tools that automate the process of installing, upgrading, configuring, and removing software packages. They simplify dependency management by ensuring that required libraries and modules are downloaded and updated correctly. Many package managers connect to online repositories, allowing developers and system administrators to access large ecosystems of software quickly. By standardizing installations and updates, they reduce errors, improve consistency, and save time in both development and production environments. Package managers are widely used across programming languages, operating systems, and frameworks to streamline software distribution and maintenance. Compare and read user reviews of the best Package Managers for Windows currently available using the table below. This list is updated regularly.
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1
Posit
Posit
Posit builds tools that help data scientists work more efficiently, collaborate seamlessly, and share insights securely across their organizations. Its Positron code editor provides the speed of an interactive console combined with the power to build, debug, and deploy data-science workflows in Python and R. Posit’s platform enables teams to scale open-source data science, offering enterprise-ready capabilities for publishing, sharing, and operationalizing applications. Companies rely on Posit’s secure infrastructure to host Shiny apps, dashboards, APIs, and analytical reports with confidence. Whether using open-source packages or cloud-based solutions, Posit supports reproducible, high-quality work at every stage of the data lifecycle. Trusted by millions of users—and more than half of the Fortune 100—Posit empowers professionals across industries to innovate with data. -
2
Chocolatey
Chocolatey
Chocolatey has the largest online registry of Windows packages. Chocolatey packages encapsulate everything required to manage a particular piece of software into one deployment artifact by wrapping installers, executables, zips, and/or scripts into a compiled package file. Package submissions go through a rigorous moderation review process, including automatic virus scanning. The community repository has a strict policy on malicious and pirated software. Many organizations face the ongoing challenge of deploying and supporting various versions of software. Chocolatey allows organizations to automate and simplify the management of their complex Windows environments. Our customers have experienced a massive reduction in effort, improved speed of deployment, high reliability, and comprehensive reporting. Reduce complexity, save yourself time, and get up to speed on the latest technologies and approaches.Starting Price: $96 per year -
3
eAuditor Cloud
BTC Sp. z o.o.
eAuditor Cloud is a comprehensive SaaS platform for IT asset management, monitoring, security, and data protection. With more than 20 years of experience in corporate and public sector environments, it combines proven functionality with the accessibility and scalability of the cloud. The system provides full visibility and control over the infrastructure - from automatic inventory of computers, servers, operating systems, and software to continuous monitoring of users, devices, and network activity. Advanced modules include remote management, patch installation, BitLocker encryption, SOC dashboard, and task automation. A professional DLP engine protects sensitive data in use, at rest, and in transit through classification, rules, and policies. AI support for CMD/PowerShell and ChatGPT integration help administrators save time and eliminate repetitive tasks. eAuditor Cloud grows with your business - from a free version for up to 100 devices to advanced enterprise-grade packages.Starting Price: 0,4 € / mo./ per 1 PC -
4
Helm
The Linux Foundation
Helm helps you manage Kubernetes applications, Helm charts help you define, install, and upgrade even the most complex Kubernetes application. Charts are easy to create, version, share, and publish, so start using Helm and stop the copy-and-paste. Charts describe even the most complex apps, provide repeatable application installation, and serve as a single point of authority. Take the pain out of updates with in-place upgrades and custom hooks. Charts are easy to version, share, and host on public or private servers. Use helm rollback to roll back to an older version of a release with ease. Helm uses a packaging format called charts. A chart is a collection of files that describe a related set of Kubernetes resources. A single chart might be used to deploy something simple, like a memcached pod, or something complex, like a full web app stack with HTTP servers, databases, caches, and so on.Starting Price: Free -
5
Ninite
Ninite
You can manage your Windows PCs (Windows 7 and later) in a live web interface with Ninite Pro. Install the lightweight Ninite Agent on your machines and they instantly appear on the web for simple point-and-click management. It's an easy way to get a real-time interactive view of all your machines. The new Ninite Pro lets you manage your software in a live web interface. Each machine is a row and each app is a column. You can select an individual cell to update, install, or uninstall an app on a machine. Or select many cells (or whole rows or columns or everything) to perform bulk actions. You can even watch the agents work in real-time. The agent receives commands and sends back updates over a secure connection to Ninite's servers. This means that a roaming laptop looks and works just like any other machine in the web interface. It also makes it possible to issue install/update/uninstall commands for offline machines and have them be delivered the next time those machines are online.Starting Price: $35 per month -
6
NuGet
NuGet
NuGet is the package manager for .NET. The NuGet client tools provide the ability to produce and consume packages. The NuGet Gallery is the central package repository used by all package authors and consumers. New to NuGet? Start with a walkthrough showing how NuGet powers your .NET development. Browse the thousands of packages that developers like you have created and shared with the .NET community. Want to make your first NuGet package and share it with the community? Start with our walkthrough! The command-line tool, nuget.exe, builds and runs under Mono 3.2+ and can create packages in Mono. Although nuget.exe works fully on Windows, there are known issues with Linux and OS X. The primary source for learning about a package is its listing page on NuGet (or another private feed). Each package page on NuGet includes a description of the package, its version history, and usage statistics.Starting Price: Free -
7
Yarn
Yarn
Yarn is a package manager which doubles down as project manager. Whether you work on one-shot projects or large monorepos, as a hobbyist or an enterprise user, we've got you covered. Split your project into sub-components kept within a single repository. Yarn guarantees that an install that works now will continue to work the same way in the future. Yarn cannot solve all your problems, but it can be the foundation for others to do it. We believe in challenging the status quo. What should the ideal developer experience be like? Yarn is an independent open-source project tied to no company. Your support makes us thrive. Yarn already knows everything there is to know about your dependency tree, it even installs it on the disk for you. So, why is it up to Node to find where your packages are? Instead, it should be the package manager's job to inform the interpreter about the location of the packages on the disk and manage any dependencies between packages and even versions of packages.Starting Price: Free -
8
Nix
NixOS
Nix is a tool that takes a unique approach to package management and system configuration. Learn how to make reproducible, declarative, and reliable systems. Nix builds packages in isolation from each other. This ensures that they are reproducible and don't have undeclared dependencies, so if a package works on one machine, it will also work on another. Nix makes it trivial to share development and build environments for your projects, regardless of what programming languages and tools you’re using. Nix ensures that installing or upgrading one package cannot break other packages. It allows you to roll back to previous versions and ensures that no package is in an inconsistent state during an upgrade. Nix is a purely functional package manager. This means that it treats packages like values in purely functional programming languages such as Haskell, they are built by functions that don’t have side effects, and they never change after they have been built.Starting Price: Free -
9
PowerShellGet
Microsoft
PowerShellGet is a module with commands for discovering, installing, updating, and publishing PowerShell artifacts like modules, DSC resources, role capabilities, and scripts. The Find-Command cmdlet finds PowerShell commands such as cmdlets, aliases, functions, and workflows. Find-Command searches modules in registered repositories. For each command found by Find-Command, a PSGetCommandInfo object is returned. The PSGetCommandInfo object can be sent down the pipeline to the Install-Module cmdlet. Install-Module installs the module that contains the command. DSC resources can be located using the parameters Tag and RequiredVersion. Tag displays the current version of every resource that contains the specified tag in the repository. RequiredVersion needs the ModuleName parameter and the Name parameter is optional. The Name and ModuleName parameters limit the output. Use the AllVersions parameter to display a DSC resource's available versions.Starting Price: Free -
10
Scoop
Scoop
Scoop installs programs you know and love, from the command line with a minimal amount of friction. For terminal applications, Scoop creates shims, a kind of command-line shortcuts, inside the ~\scoop\shims folder, which is accessible in the PATH. For graphical applications, Scoop creates program shortcuts in a dedicated Start menu folder, called 'Scoop Apps'. This way, packages are always cleanly uninstalled and you can be sure what tools are currently in your PATH and in your Start menu.Starting Price: Free -
11
RuckZuck
RuckZuck
Select a software from the repository and RuckZuck handles the download and installation for you. RuckZuck can detect and update existing software that was not installed with RuckZuck. The RuckZuck repository does not store binaries of the software, just links to where the software is downloaded. Installing software with RuckZuck does not grant you a license for that product. You will be able to provide an E-Mail address if you upload new software, but as soon as the software is approved, the address will be removed from the package. If a product does not provide a URL for automatic download and the license allows redistribution of binaries, RuckZuck will be able to host these files.Starting Price: Free -
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Windows Package Manager (winget)
Windows Package Manager
If you are new to the Windows Package Manager, you might want to Explore the Windows Package Manager tool. The packages available to the client are in the Windows Package Manager Community Repository. The client requires Windows 10 1809 (build 17763) or later at this time. Windows Server 2019 is not supported as the Microsoft Store is not available nor are updated dependencies. It may be possible to install on Windows Server 2022, this should be considered experimental (not supported), and requires dependencies to be manually installed as well.Starting Price: Free -
13
MSYS2
MSYS2
MSYS2 is a collection of tools and libraries providing you with an easy-to-use environment for building, installing and running native Windows software. It consists of a command line terminal called mintty, bash, version control systems like git and subversion, tools like tar and awk and even build systems like autotools, all based on a modified version of Cygwin. Despite some of these central parts being based on Cygwin, the main focus of MSYS2 is to provide a build environment for native Windows software and the Cygwin-using parts are kept at a minimum. MSYS2 provides up-to-date native builds for GCC, mingw-w64, CPython, CMake, Meson, OpenSSL, FFmpeg, Rust, Ruby, just to name a few. To provide easy installation of packages and a way to keep them updated it features a package management system called Pacman, which should be familiar to Arch Linux users.Starting Price: Free -
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PackageManagement (OneGet)
PackageManagement (OneGet)
This module is currently not in development. We are no longer accepting any pull requests to this repository. OneGet is in a stable state and is expected to receive only high-priority bug fixes from Microsoft in the future. If you have a question or are seeing an unexpected behavior from this module please open up an issue in this repository. PackageManagement is supported in Windows, Linux and MacOS now. We periodically make binary drops to PowerShellCore, meaning PackageManagement is a part of PowerShell Core releases.Starting Price: Free -
15
AppGet
AppGet
AppGet is a Github moderated, open source package manager which focuses on security, automation and ease-of-use. All moderation is done in GitHub. Anyone can submit a pull request which is then checked and approved by our team. Install, update and remove any application available in our library even if the application wasn’t originally installed with AppGet. Our client code and application library are completely open source and available on GitHub. AppGet bots work around the clock to ensure our application library is kept up-to-date with the latest versions. Applications in AppGet's library are always downloaded directly from the author. No more looking around the web looking for the download link. AppGet uses metadata-only manifest files. This makes reviewing manifest much simpler and generally much more secure.Starting Price: Free -
16
Npackd
Npackd
Npackd (pronounced "unpacked") is a GPLv3 licensed installer/application store/package manager/marketplace for applications for Windows. It helps you to find and install software, keep your system up-to-date and uninstall it if no longer necessary. The process of installing and uninstalling applications is completely automated (silent or unattended installation and un-installation). It helps you to find and install software, keep your system up-to-date and uninstall it if no longer necessary. You can watch this short video to better understand how it works. The process of installing and uninstalling applications is completely automated (silent or unattended installation and un-installation).Starting Price: Free -
17
Zero Install
Zero Install
A decentralized cross-platform software installation system. Works on Linux, Windows and macOS. Fully open-source. Run apps with a single click. Run applications without having to install them first. Control everything from a command line or graphical interface. You control your own computer. You don't have to guess what happens during installation. Mix and match stable and experimental apps on a single system. Anyone can distribute software. Create one package that works on multiple platforms. Publish on any static web host; no central point of control. With dependency handling and automatic updates. Security is central. Installing an app doesn't grant it administrator access. Digital signatures are always checked before new software is run. Apps can share libraries without having to trust each other. Adds automatic self-updating, staged rollouts and various improvements to desktop integration.Starting Price: Free -
18
RPM Package Manager
RPM Package Manager
The RPM Package Manager (RPM) is a powerful package management system capable of building computer software from the source into easily distributable packages; installing, updating, and uninstalling packaged software; querying detailed information about the packaged software, whether installed or not; and verifying the integrity of packaged software and resulting software installation. The package’s metadata is stored in the RPM header. The header is a binary data structure that stores single pieces of data in tags. Each tag has a pre-defined meaning and data type. These are not stored in the header itself but need to be known by the code reading the header. In the header, the tags are only referred to by their number. Each tag is either of a plain scalar type or is an array of one of these types. While not enforced by the type system the RPM code assumes that tags belonging together have the same number of entries.Starting Price: Free -
19
WPKG
WPKG
WPKG is an automated software deployment, upgrade, and removal program for Windows. It can be used to push/pull software packages, such as Service Packs, hotfixes, or program installations from a central server (for example, Samba or Active Directory) to a number of workstations. It can run as a service to install the software in the background (silent install), without user interaction. It can install MSI, InstallShield, PackagefortheWeb, Inno Setup, Nullsoft, other software installers or .exe packages, .bat and .cmd scripts, and similar, no more repackaging to perform software installation. WPKG is open-source software. WPKG can add great value to your Samba or Active Directory setup, as it allows you to perform software installation, updates, removal, etc. on your workstations. It is also possible to execute custom scripts on your workstations, like synchronizing time, setting printers, changing permissions, or adding registry entries.Starting Price: Free -
20
Fortran Package Manager
Fortran
Package manager and build system for Fortran. There are already many packages available for use with fpm, providing an easily accessible and rich ecosystem of general-purpose and high-performance code. Fortran Package Manager (fpm) is a package manager and build system for Fortran. Its key goal is to improve the user experience of Fortran programmers. It does so by making it easier to build your Fortran program or library, run the executables, tests, and examples, and distribute it as a dependency to other Fortran projects. Fpm’s user interface is modeled after Rust’s Cargo. Its long-term vision is to nurture and grow the ecosystem of modern Fortran applications and libraries. The Fortran package manager has a plugin system that allows it to easily extend its functionality. The fpm-search project is a plugin to query the package registry. Since it is built with fpm we can easily install it on our system.Starting Price: Free -
21
Cargo
Cargo
Cargo is the Rust package manager. Cargo downloads your Rust package's dependencies, compiles your packages, makes distributable packages, and uploads them to crates.io, the Rust community’s package registry. You can contribute to this book on GitHub. To get started with Cargo, install Cargo (and Rust) and set up your first crate. The commands will let you interact with Cargo using its command-line interface. A Rust crate is either a library or an executable program, referred to as either a library crate or a binary crate, respectively. Loosely, the term crate may refer to either the source code of the target or to the compiled artifact that the target produces. It may also refer to a compressed package fetched from a registry. Your crates can depend on other libraries from crates.io or other registries, git repositories, or subdirectories on your local file system. You can also temporarily override the location of a dependency.Starting Price: Free -
22
Novus
Novus
A blazingly fast and futuristic package manager for windows. Unlike any other package manager, Novus uses multithreaded downloads making the download speeds 8 times faster. Apart from being extremely fast, Novus also installs and uninstalls packages concurrently, making it as efficient as possible. Not only are all of Novus’s packages are monitored regularly, but all of them are always up to date and trusted by the community. Apart from being extremely fast, Novus also installs and uninstalls packages concurrently, making it as efficient as possible. Not only are all of Novus’s packages are monitored regularly, but all of them are always up to date and trusted by the community.Starting Price: Free -
23
Apache Ivy
Apache Software Foundation
Apache Ivy™ is a popular dependency manager focusing on flexibility and simplicity. Find out more about its unique enterprise features, what people say about it, and how it can improve your build system! Ivy is a tool for managing (recording, tracking, resolving, and reporting) project dependencies. Ivy is essentially process agnostic and is not tied to any methodology or structure. Instead, it provides the necessary flexibility and reconfigurability to be adapted to a broad range of dependency management and build processes. While available as a standalone tool, Ivy works particularly well with Apache Ant providing a number of powerful Ant tasks ranging from dependency resolution to dependency reporting and publication. Ivy has a lot of powerful features, the most popular and useful being its flexibility, integration with Ant, and strong transitive dependencies management engine. Ivy is open source and released under a very permissive Apache License.Starting Price: Free -
24
Flox
Flox
Flox is a development environment manager and package tool that lets developers define, share, and replicate consistent environments across machines by leveraging the Nix ecosystem. Flox lets you create environments via a simple manifest.toml, layering and replacing dependencies precisely where needed. It activates subshells with reproducible dependencies and integrates shell hooks, version constraints, and services (e.g., local databases) to automate setup. Because it runs on the host system (rather than inside containers), developers maintain access to files, configurations, SSH keys, and shell aliases without Docker-style bind mounts. Flox supports cross-platform and multi-architecture environments by default, allowing environments to run identically on various systems; you can constrain them to specific systems or use package groups to manage architecture-specific dependencies.Starting Price: $20 per month -
25
Conda
Conda
Package, dependency, and environment management for any language, Python, R, Ruby, Lua, Scala, Java, JavaScript, C/ C++, Fortran, and more. Conda is an open-source package management system and environment management system that runs on Windows, macOS, Linux, and z/OS. Conda quickly installs, runs, and updates packages and their dependencies. Conda easily creates, saves, loads, and switches between environments on your local computer. It was created for Python programs, but it can package and distribute software for any language. Conda as a package manager helps you find and install packages. If you need a package that requires a different version of Python, you do not need to switch to a different environment manager, because conda is also an environment manager. With just a few commands, you can set up a totally separate environment to run that different version of Python, while continuing to run your usual version of Python in your normal environment.Starting Price: Free -
26
just-install
just-install
just-install is a humble package installer for Windows. just-install provides you the opportunity to install packages, install a specific architecture, check the list of packages, and get help all with simple cms commands.Starting Price: Free -
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Master Packager
Master Packager
Master Packager is an application packaging tool to create and edit Microsoft Windows Installer (MSI) files and repackage other installations to MSI format. Our vision is to make application packaging easy, fast, and affordable for everyone, from application packaging freelancers to small companies and enterprises. * Fast - You will never see "not responding" text in the tool. Modifying large MSIs is effortless. The same goes for repackaging. * High quality - Standardized naming, ICE validation, and .dll/.exe file registration mapping are just a few examples of how this tool will reduce human errors and increases quality. * Simple - The user interface allows new and experienced packagers to start creating packages immediately. * Automation - Capturing, building, and applying templates can be fully automated, making it possible to fully automate repackaging. * Price - Providing the same value or better Master Packager can save you money as it can be up to 10 times.
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