Difference Between PIP and PIPX

❓ What?

I know too little python to actually write a meaningful answer so here’s a much better excerpt from a random helpful user on reddit:

Great question, and I admit the names can be confusing.

In short, pipx is a tool to use for installing python commands, not for installing dependencies in your projects.

When making a project, use virtual environments and pip (or use Poetry or other tool). I wrote a tutorial on virtual environments and various tools around them that you may find useful.

Perhaps some use cases would be helpful:

• you want to install youtube-dlc in order to download Youtube videos for offline playback: use pipx install youtube-dlc
• you are writing a Python script that uses the requests library: use a virtual environment and pip install requests within that environment
• you want the black autoformatter to be available all the time for all Python projects, including one-off scripts, etc.: use pipx install black
• you don’t usually use black, but want it available on a particular project, and managed as a dependency: use virtual environments and pip install black

I hope this is helpful! Feel free to read my brief intro to pipx if you are interested.

👓 References

https://old.reddit.com/r/learnpython/comments/jq5miv/pip_vs_pipx/gblibwq/