What is the difference between venv, pyvenv, pyenv, virtualenv, virtualenvwrapper, pipenv, etc?

Question

Python 3.3 includes in its standard library the new package venv. What does it do, and how does it differ from all the other packages that seem to match the reg

Answer 1

Nov 2020 Update

We have two new stances on virtual environments (both official):

• Python Packaging now recommends Pipenv
• Python.org now recommends venv

April 2020 Update

I was searching for same when I came across this post. I think this issue of what tool to use is quite confusing and difficult for new Python users like me. This is directly from PyPA website regarding pipenv:

While this tutorial covers the pipenv project as a tool that focuses primarily on the needs of Python application development rather than Python library development, the project itself is currently working through several process and maintenance issues that are preventing bug fixes and new features from being published (with the entirety of 2019 passing without a new release). This means that in the near term, pipenv still suffers from several quirks and performance problems without a clear timeline for resolution of those isses.

While this remains the case, project maintainers are likely to want to investigate Other Tools for Application Dependency Management for use instead of, or together with, pipenv.

Assuming the April 2020 pipenv release goes ahead as planned, and the release after that also remains on track, then this caveat on the tutorial will be removed. If those releases don’t remain on track, then the tutorial itself will be removed, and replaced with a discussion page on the available dependency management options.