compare
Homebrew vs Nix
The same facts for both, read from GitHub every night, and the relation a person reviewed.
| Fact | Homebrew | Nix |
|---|---|---|
| Language | Ruby | C++ |
| Licence | BSD-2-Clause | LGPL-2.1 |
| Stars | 50k | 18k |
| Latest | 7.0.9 | 2.35.3 |
| Last push | 2026-10-19 | 2026-10-19 |
| Release cadence | about 5 days between releases | too few releases |
| Active contributors | 44+ commit authors on the default branch in the last 90 days | 44+ commit authors on the default branch in the last 90 days |
| Flags | none | none |
How they relate
Nix replaces Homebrew. Alternatives to Homebrew →
PartialReproducible per-project packages on macOS and Linux, with a steeper learning curve.
Homebrew
- 7.0.92026-10-08formula: extract commit for goreleaser flags
- 7.0.82026-10-05test-bot: skip bottles for unsatisfiable formulae
- 7.0.72026-09-28Reconcile records for removed resources
- 7.0.62026-09-21Revert "Use InfluxDB v3 API for analytics reporting"
- 7.0.52026-09-21Reject redundant minimum macOS dependencies
Nix
This repository publishes tags, not GitHub releases.
Homebrew
✓ signed The latest release, 7.0.9, carries a signature GitHub verified.
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Nix
✓ signed The latest release, 2.35.3, carries a signature GitHub verified.
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