MacPorts and Nix are fine to use alongside each other. I recommend using Nix alongside a couple other systems so you have escape hatches. - Nix - pkgsrc o

MacPorts and Nix are fine to use alongside each other. I recommend using Nix alongside a couple other systems so you have escape hatches. - Nix - pkgsrc or MacPorts ‘just in case’ they're more convenient for some package for any reason - Homebrew, exclusively to use for Casks (which are really a separate system from the rest of Homebrew) To get the most out of Nix, you'll need to take some time to really learn it. For managing services like postgres, it's nicest to use Nix-Darwin (a module system for managing services and programs, including automatic startup via LaunchD) but if you want to always keep the same Postgres with Nix-Darwin, you'll have to learn how to pin packages. If you use Nix with Flakes, it'll feel a lot faster (much faster than Homebrew). If you use old-school Nix, it'll be slow if you call some deprecated commands.