No. 8 of 27 ·Python Package Managers

conda-lock

Windows · Mac · Linux

Freedom report

Three barsScore 6.5

Free tierA free tier is on its own pricing page
Open codeNo open-source code on record
Runs widely3 of 6 device platforms
DocumentedPlans, terms and facts published

conda-lock is ranked #8 of 27 in Python package managers on Freedom251. It runs on Linux, macOS, Windows. There is a free plan.

conda-lock plans and pricing

All plans

Free and open source Free MIT licensed software · installed with pip, conda, mamba, pipx, or condax github.com · 4 Oct 2026

Compared on Python package managers

Free plan: Yes
Lockfile support: Yes
Environment management: Yes
Private registry: Yes
Dependency groups: Yes
Supported platforms: cross-platform

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The record

Purpose: conda-lock is a lightweight library for generating fully reproducible lockfiles for conda environments.
How it works: It solves dependencies for each target platform and lets installations from generated lockfiles avoid invoking the conda solver.
Input formats: It supports environment.yml, conda-build meta.yaml, and pyproject.toml dependency specifications.
Unified lockfile: Its default output is a unified multi-platform lockfile that can be rendered into other lockfile formats.
Pip integration: It has experimental support for locking mixed conda and pip environments using a vendored copy of Poetry’s dependency solver.
Ecosystem integrations: The documentation describes usage with conda, mamba, pip, Docker, and pixi.
Installation: The project documents installation through pip, conda, and mamba, and recommends isolated installs with pipx or condax to reduce dependency-conflict risk.
Supported target platforms: The README lists linux-64, osx-64, win-64, osx-arm64, linux-aarch64, and linux-ppc64le as target platform examples.
Authentication: It supports token-based and basic authentication for channels and documents environment-variable substitution for credentials.
Credential handling: The unified lockfile omits raw credential-bearing channel URLs when it can match credential portions to environment variables, while rendered explicit lockfiles may contain substituted variables.
Private PyPI limit: The README says private pip repository support is limited to legacy PyPI repositories with basic authentication.
Explicit lockfile limitation: When pip-solved packages are present in an explicit lockfile, the docs say those packages can only be installed by conda-lock.
License: The repository lists the MIT License and states that the software is provided without warranty.
Support and contributions: The README directs contributors to its contributing guide for development setup; the documentation links to the GitHub repository.
Price from: Free

Where it ranks on Freedom251

Best Python Package Managers in 2026#8 of 27

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Sources

conda.github.io/conda-lock/· checked 4 Oct 2026
conda.github.io/conda-lock/output/· checked 4 Oct 2026
conda.github.io/conda-lock/pip/· checked 4 Oct 2026
github.com/conda/conda-lock· checked 4 Oct 2026
conda.github.io/conda-lock/authenticated_channels/· checked 4 Oct 2026
github.com/conda/conda-lock/blob/main/LICENSE· checked 4 Oct 2026