What Conda Forge does

Conda-forge is a community-driven open-source packaging ecosystem built around the conda package manager. It operates as a GitHub organization containing more than 25,000 public repositories, including over 10,000 'feedstocks' — each a dedicated repository hosting a conda recipe (meta.yaml or recipe.yaml), CI configuration, and supporting scripts. Packages are built via Azure Pipelines and GitHub Actions across six+ architectures (linux-64, linux-aarch64, osx-64, osx-arm64, win-64, win-arm64, plus ppc64le), with high-compute CI runners sponsored by Namespace.so, Blacksmith.sh, and Depot.dev. Automated maintenance is performed by the conda-forge bot (auto-tick) which polls upstream sources and submits PRs for version updates, while dedicated migration tooling handles large-scale recipe rewrites such as Python version bumps. New contributions flow through the staged-recipes repository and, upon approval, are automatically promoted to standalone feedstocks with CI pre-wired.

The project was founded on 2015-04-11 during the SciPy sprints and is fiscally sponsored by NumFOCUS, a US-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit. It has thousands of volunteer maintainers and contributors, no paid staff, and no commercial revenue model. End users install conda-forge packages by adding the conda-forge channel via Miniforge (the community installer that bundles conda, mamba, and dependencies) or Anaconda Distribution. As of April 2025, the channel surpassed 1 billion monthly downloads for the first time, with nearly 27 billion cumulative downloads across its ten-year history. Corporate sponsors include Nvidia (financial), Anaconda Inc. (infrastructure and developer), NumFOCUS (fiscal), and a broad set of cloud/CI providers. The project is governed transparently via conda-forge enhancement proposals (CFEPs), and is citable via Zenodo (DOI 10.5281/zenodo.4774216).

Name

Conda Forge

Legal name

conda-forge

Website

https://conda-forge.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2015

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Conda-forge is a volunteer-driven, community-governed conda package distribution channel with 10,000+ feedstocks, serving over 1 billion monthly downloads for data scientists, researchers, and open-source software maintainers across the global scientific Python ecosystem.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Infrastructure, Technology or R&D, Operations, Personnel

Revenue model

1. No commercial revenue model: Conda-forge is a volunteer-driven open-source community project with no commercial revenue. Infrastructure is provided through corporate sponsorships (Anaconda, Nvidia, etc.) and financial donations via Open Collective/NumFOCUS. No product is sold to end users.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Conda-forge is a GitHub organization of community-maintained conda recipe repositories (feedstocks) that build and distribute conda packages for a wide range of software, primarily serving Python, R, and scientific computing users. Each recipe lives in its own feedstock repo with public CI builds across multiple platforms, and packages are distributed through the conda-forge channel on anaconda.org for free self-serve installation.

Product overview

Conda Forge is a community-driven package distribution ecosystem built around the conda package manager. The core offering consists of conda-forge itself — a GitHub organization hosting thousands of feedstock repositories that build and distribute conda packages. Related products include Miniforge (the preferred installer bundling conda, mamba, and dependencies), Grayskull (a recipe generator for PyPI/CRAN/GitHub packages), and rattler-build (a Rust-based v1 recipe builder). Infrastructure is managed through conda-smithy for CI automation and the conda-forge Bot for automated version updates and migrations. The system provides packages for scientific computing, data science, and general software, supporting multiple platforms including Linux, macOS, Windows, and various architectures (x86_64, ARM, PowerPC).

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Miniforge: A community installer that includes conda, mamba, and their dependencies with conda-forge as the default channel. It is the preferred installer for conda-forge users.

Products and services

• conda-forge (package channel and feedstock ecosystem) A community-driven GitHub organization of conda recipe repositories (feedstocks) that build and distribute conda packages via public CI for thousands of open-source projects, available to individual developers, data scientists, and researchers free of charge.
• Miniforge The preferred conda-forge installer that bundles conda, mamba, and their dependencies with conda-forge as the default channel, available for macOS (arm64, x86_64), Linux (x86_64, aarch64, ppc64le), and Windows (x86_64).
• Grayskull A conda recipe generator that creates recipes for packages available on PyPI, CRAN, Conan, and GitHub, factoring in platform, Python version, compilers, and license information.
• rattler-build A Rust-based build tool for creating conda packages from recipes, supporting the v1 recipe format with auto-generation from PyPI package metadata.
• conda-smithy A tool for building and deploying CI infrastructure for conda recipes across multiple platforms and architectures, including the ci-skeleton and rerender commands for generating and updating CI configurations.
• conda-forge Bot An automated system that creates pull requests for version updates, performs maintenance tasks, and runs migrations across conda-forge feedstocks by monitoring upstream sources.
• conda-forge Documentation Comprehensive documentation built with Docusaurus covering user guides, maintainer guides, infrastructure overview, guidelines, and a knowledge base for contributors and users.

Quantifiable outcome

• Over 1 billion monthly downloads as of April 2025
• +3 more outcomes

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature6 records

Partnerships

Six partnerships are on record, tiered core and major.

• NumFOCUScoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerNumFOCUS is a nonprofit dedicated to supporting the open source scientific computing community. Conda-forge is a fiscally sponsored project of NumFOCUS, providing financial administration, legal support, and organizational infrastructure.
• Anaconda Inc.coreTechnology or IntegrationAnaconda provides infrastructure support (CDN hosting via anaconda.org, package channel distribution) and developer support. The relationship is mutual: conda-forge builds packages for the conda ecosystem that Anaconda distributes, while Anaconda's infrastructure hosts conda-forge's package channel.
• NvidiamajorTechnology or IntegrationNvidia provides financial support for infrastructure and developer support. Conda-forge provides CUDA-enabled package builds and GPU support for the scientific computing community.
• Blacksmith.shmajorTechnology or IntegrationBlacksmith.sh sponsors large CPU CI runners (8-core and 16-core Ubuntu 2404 on linux-64 and linux-aarch64, 6-core and 12-core macOS on osx-arm64, 8-core and 16-core Windows) for feedstocks requiring more compute than default runners.
• Depot.devmajorTechnology or IntegrationDepot.dev sponsors large CPU CI runners (8 to 64 CPU on linux-64, linux-aarch64, osx-arm64, win-64) for feedstocks requiring high-compute builds beyond default runner capabilities.
• Namespace.somajorTechnology or IntegrationNamespace.so sponsors large CPU runners (8-core and 16-core on linux-64, linux-aarch64, osx-arm64, win-64) for feedstocks needing heavy compute capacity beyond standard runners.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• CRAN: CRAN is the Comprehensive R Archive Network, a community-maintained distribution system for R packages. It parallels conda-forge's role in distributing scientific computing packages, but is specific to the R ecosystem.
• Spack: Spack is an open-source package manager for HPC and scientific computing, comparable to conda-forge in serving scientific Python users but specialized for HPC environments with compiler- and MPI-aware builds.
• pip: pip is the standard Python package installer, the most widely used tool for installing Python packages. It is comparable to conda-forge's installer (Miniforge/mamba) as the user-facing mechanism for acquiring Python packages, though it generally installs from source rather than binaries.
• npm: npm is the default package registry for Node.js and the world's largest software registry. It is comparable to conda-forge as a community-scale package distribution platform, though serving the JavaScript ecosystem rather than Python/scientific computing.
• Homebrew: Homebrew is a community-driven open-source package manager for macOS and Linux. It shares the same architectural philosophy as conda-forge: community-maintained recipes, automated CI, and self-serve installation of binary packages.
• MSYS2: MSYS2 is a community-driven software distribution platform for Windows providing binary package management. It overlaps with conda-forge's Windows build capabilities and follows a similar recipe-driven, community-maintained model.
• PyPI (Python Package Index): PyPI is the official Python package repository hosting source-distributed packages installed via pip. It is directly comparable to conda-forge as a community-driven Python package distribution platform, though PyPI focuses on source distributions while conda-forge specializes in cross-platform binary distributions.

Emerging players

• Prefix.dev: Prefix.dev maintains rattler-build (used by conda-forge for v1 recipes) and operates a competing conda-compatible package channel (prefix.dev). It directly overlaps with conda-forge in conda ecosystem tooling and is both a partner and a potential competitor.
• Poetry: Poetry is a Python dependency management and packaging tool that competes with conda as a packaging workflow. It overlaps with conda-forge at the user level for Python package management but focuses on dependency resolution and project packaging rather than multi-platform binary distribution.

Broad incumbents

• Anaconda: Anaconda operates a broader commercial distribution platform (Anaconda Distribution) that hosts both its defaults channel and conda-forge. It overlaps in packaging infrastructure and is a key corporate sponsor, but operates a wider portfolio including commercial products, IDEs, and enterprise services.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks4 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• GitHubgithub.com/conda-forge
• Xx.com/condaforge

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Conda Forge