What is the difference between pip search and conda search

Question

Pip search says I have Beautifulsoup installed but conda search says I don't have it. What does that mean exactly?

Answer 1

pip searches a specific python instance that it is linked with (the version that you initiated pip installation on). It is usually your system's python installation, but you can also set it to be any other python that exists in your system.

Meanwhile, conda checks the currently active anaconda python instance and installs packages to that instance.

The difference and similarity is that if the conda has pip installed and if you launch conda activate some_env from your console (or open conda python's console is any other way), pip will be equal to conda in that isolated scope.

System python is deeply interconnected with your operating system and is required for it to run properly. Conda installs minimum standalone version(s) of python in your user dir and allows you to have isolated virtual instances with unique sets of installed packages.

Most often you would like to install things to conda as opposed to your system's python.