uv is replacing pip and venv in more Python projects

uv, the Rust-based Python package manager from Astral (the team behind the ruff linter), has been steadily replacing pip and venv in new Python projects rather than sitting alongside them. The pitch is simple: one tool instead of four or five, and dependency installs fast enough that "wait for pip install" stops being a natural break in your workflow.

What it replaces

A typical Python setup reaches for pip for installing packages, venv for isolating them, and often pip-tools or poetry on top for locking versions. uv covers the first two directly and adds proper lockfile support:

uv venv
uv pip install requests
uv pip compile requirements.in -o requirements.txt

Same mental model as pip and venv — the commands are deliberately familiar — just backed by a resolver written in Rust instead of pure Python.

Why the speed matters more than it sounds

Benchmarks from the project consistently show installs an order of magnitude faster than pip, largely from a smarter dependency resolver and aggressive caching across projects. In practice that mostly shows up in CI: a dependency install step that took a minute or more now finishes in a few seconds, which adds up fast across a team running the pipeline dozens of times a day.

Trying it without commitment

uv reads existing requirements.txt and pyproject.toml files directly, so trying it doesn't mean migrating anything:

pip install uv
uv venv
uv pip install -r requirements.txt

If it doesn't work out, the project's .venv folder and lockfiles are still just a standard Python virtual environment underneath — nothing uv-specific to unwind.

Source: github.com