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venv vs virtualenv

When working with Python, you will often encounter two similar tools for creating isolated environments: venv and virtualenv. While they serve the same primary purpose, there are key historical and functional differences.

1. venv (The Standard)

venv is the standard Python module for creating virtual environments.

  • Built-in: It has been included in the Python standard library since Python 3.3. You do not need to install anything extra.
  • Usage: python -m venv .venv
  • Limitation: It can only create environments for the version of Python that is currently running. It cannot create an environment for Python 3.8 if you are running the command with Python 3.10.
  • Recommendation: It is the recommended tool for creating virtual environments in Python 3.

2. virtualenv (The Third-Party Tool)

virtualenv is a third-party package that predates venv.

  • Installation Required: You must install it via pip (pip install virtualenv).
  • Speed: It is often faster than venv because of how it handles file copying/symlinking.
  • Python 2 Support: It supports Python 2.7, whereas venv does not.
  • Version Selection: It can create environments for arbitrary Python versions (e.g., virtualenv -p python3.8 myenv), provided that version is installed on your system.
  • Extendability: It has a richer API for tools that want to build upon it.

Summary Comparison

Feature venv virtualenv
Source Standard Library (Python 3.3+) Third-party (PyPI)
Installation None required pip install virtualenv
Python 2 Support No Yes
Speed Good Faster
Upgradability Tied to Python version Can be upgraded via pip

Which one should I use?

  • Use venv for almost all standard Python 3 development. It is built-in, guaranteed to be available, and sufficient for 99% of use cases.
  • Use virtualenv if you are stuck working with Python 2, or if you are building a tool that needs to generate environments programmatically with specific requirements that venv doesn't cover.

Note: Modern dependency managers like Poetry or Pipenv often use virtualenv or venv under the hood automatically.

See also:

programming/python/python

Created: March 17, 2026 • Last Modified: January 30, 2026