pip vs easy_install#

easy_install, now deprecated, was released in 2004 as part of Setuptools. It was notable at the time for installing packages from PyPI using requirement specifiers, and automatically installing dependencies.

pip came later in 2008, as alternative to easy_install, although still largely built on top of Setuptools components. It was notable at the time for not installing packages as Eggs or from Eggs (but rather simply as ‘flat’ packages from sdists), and introducing the idea of Requirements Files, which gave users the power to easily replicate environments.

Here’s a breakdown of the important differences between pip and the deprecated easy_install:

	pip	easy_install
Installs from Wheels	Yes	No
Uninstall Packages	Yes (`python -m pip uninstall`)	No
Dependency Overrides	Yes (Requirements Files)	No
List Installed Packages	Yes (`python -m pip list` and `python -m pip freeze`)	No
PEP 438 Support	Yes	No
Installation format	‘Flat’ packages with `egg-info` metadata.	Encapsulated Egg format
sys.path modification	No	Yes
Installs from Eggs	No	Yes
pylauncher support	No	Yes [1]
Multi-version installs	No	Yes
Exclude scripts during install	No	Yes
per project index	Only in virtualenv	Yes, via setup.cfg