When comparing XBPS (X Binary Package System) vs yay, the Slant community recommends XBPS (X Binary Package System) for most people. In the question“What are the best Linux package managers?” XBPS (X Binary Package System) is ranked 4th while yay is ranked 8th.
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Pros
Pro Extremely fast
Pro Can detect incompatibilities
XBPS can detect incompatible shared libraries or dependencies and gives you options before installing.
Pro Can install binaries or build from source
When installing software you can choose to install binaries or build it from source (natively or cross-compiled).
Pro Lots of features
XBPS can not only be used for installing/removing packages, but it can query for package info (such as version, dependencies, size etc), reconfigure packages, report and fix issues by modifying the package database, search for alternatives, manage local repositories and various other useful tools.
Pro Allows partial updates
Pro Written from scratch
Pro Easy to add features
It's written in Go so it is fairly easy to add features or tweak this amazing tool.
Pro Intuitive CLI
Yay's commands and output make sense for anyone used to the pacman package manager.
Pro Written in Go
The compiled program is snappy while the source is easy to read.
Pro Available as a precompiled binary
Both yay and yay-bin are in the AUR, the latter of which doesn't require any dependencies or compilation, making installation and updates quick and painless.
Pro Yogurt interactive mode
Write package name without keys [yay <packagename>] to enter interactive mode.
Pro Doesn't rebuild already-installed apps like Trizen
Cons
Con Not just one command to run
It's not a very big drawback, just not as convenient as one command with multiple options to remove and search for apps.
Con Unable to create packages under a non-xbps distribution
Makes maintaining packages a hassle.
Con Written in Go
Running a Go program requires the Go runtime. Go is also a garbage collected language, so the program isn't as responsive as it could be.