Mamba vs Rattler
Mamba
mamba.readthedocs.ioRattler
github.comSide by side
| Figure | Mamba | Rattler |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | — |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | — | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 0 |
| Spec score · Package Managers | 8.8 (#9) | 7.8 (#47) |
| Components | The Mamba framework includes the libmamba C++ library, mamba executable, statically linked micromamba executable, and libmambapy Python bindings. | The project includes crates for package archives, repository metadata, environment solving, shell activation, lockfiles, networking, and other Conda-related tasks. |
| Installation | The docs recommend installing Mamba through the Miniforge distribution, which comes with conda-forge preconfigured, and also document Miniforge Docker images. | The README documents installing py-rattler with pip or conda and installing @conda-org/rattler with npm. |
| Lockfile support | Yes | Yes |
| Package verification | Mamba can verify package tarballs and extracted package files, including file sizes and SHA-256 checksums; repository index verification is experimental and under active development. | The `rattler_sigstore` crate discovers, fetches, and verifies Sigstore attestations of Conda packages. |
| Purpose | Mamba is a fast, robust, cross-platform package manager that manages conda environments. | Its stated goal is to let applications work with Conda without depending on Python. |
Plans
In their own words
Mamba
Mamba manages conda environments across Linux, macOS, Windows, API, and self-hosted setups. It creates and activates environments, installs packages, and runs commands inside them. It works with conda packages and supports most conda commands; its parallel downloads and libsolv solver speed package resolution. The framework includes the mamba command-line interface, the libmamba C++ library, micromamba, and Python bindings. Environment creation accepts text, Conda YAML, explicit, and conda-lock YAML specifications, and micromamba can install conda-lock files directly. The repoquery command searches repositories and can display direct, recursive, and reverse dependencies. Environments are self-contained prefixes that can manage native dependencies across programming languages. Mamba documents verification for package archives and extracted files, while repository index verification remains experimental. By default, it warns and asks for confirmation before transactions run package link scripts that can perform system operations. Mamba is free, open-source software under the BSD-3-Clause license, with lockfile support.