Conan vs vcpkg

Conan is a free, open-source package manager for C and C++ projects. It manages dependencies and binary packages through Conan recipes, with dependency resolution, lockfiles, workspaces, private registry authentication and offline installation. Binary configurations can vary by architecture, compiler and version, runtime, and C++ standard library. If a matching binary is unavailable, Conan can build from source on demand. It supports Windows, Linux, macOS, Android, iOS, embedded and bare-metal targets, as well as desktop, server and mobile platforms. Build integrations include CMake, MSBuild, Makefiles, Meson and SCons; other integrations include Docker, MinGW, WSL and JFrog Artifactory. Teams can share and reuse native binaries. Artifactory Community Edition offers self-hosted private package hosting, with a WebUI, authentication and permissions. Conan is released under the MIT License. The listed plan describes the package manager as free and open source; no price is stated for either plan.

vcpkg is a free package manager for acquiring and managing C/C++ libraries. Its curated registry contains over 2,300 open-source libraries, with dependency resolution across Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS. Projects can declare dependencies, optional features, and version constraints in manifest files; baseline version sets and individual package pins help keep dependency choices reproducible. vcpkg integrates with CMake and MSBuild, while manual integration is supported for other build systems. Built packages can be cached for reuse across developer machines and continuous integration runs. Asset caching can mirror source assets and build tools for offline or air-gapped environments. Users can also create custom registries for private libraries, patches, or other packages. Documented editor integrations include Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code, CLion, and Qt Creator. The project says most ports use libraries' original build systems and obtain source code and tools from their official distribution locations. vcpkg collects anonymous usage data, with opt-out options. Firewall access needs depend on the ports installed.