How to choose between Homebrew and MacPorts for macOS Sonoma?

I have been using homebrew (sparingly) for years and it is regularly updated and serves its purpose. It will install Apple's Command Line Tools for Xcode if they are not previously installed as it compiles packages into the native platform binary. Also, homebrew supports what Apple currently supports, so although it will work on Monterey or older, the application tells you it is unsupported on that platform or older and may eventually not work. Fair enough.

Whether using Bash or Zsh, I have never incorporated any homebrew scripts into those dotfiles. Others have and nightmares have occurred.

My rule of thumb is to not use a package manager to install something if the original software provider offers a legitimate, signed installer for macOS. Or, if the package is simple enough I can download the source and build it without homebrew, or losing hair over required dependencies (e.g. tree or tag). I always use the Python.org installers, but one will encounter packages that have their own Python dependency and homebrew will add that dependency.

Speaking of dependencies, I try to avoid those packages that have hundreds of dependencies as that spawns more dependencies to the dependencies over time. That just gets out of control. Here is a non-installation peak at an example of horrid dependency trees:

brew deps --tree --installed imagemagick
brew deps --tree --installed graphviz
brew deps --tree --installed groff



For Ruby, I don't use the outdated Ruby provided by Apple and to maintain a separate Ruby (3.4.2) implementation, I need homebrew to install asdf, the multiple runtime version manager. The keyword here is multiple as it is not just for Ruby. It will download and build the platform binary from sources and will use what it needs from installed homebrew content to achieve it (e.g. libyaml).

Homebrew is currently the "Golden Haired Child" of the macOS package managers. Generally speaking, most blogs, YouTube videos, etc... will give Homebrew install instructions. So if you are deciding which you want to use, then go with Homebrew.

I have used Fink (the first package manager for the Mac), and then MacPorts when it became the "In Thing", and now Homebrew.

i am using homebrew and it worked well