It can be used standalone, in place of Pipenv. Install virtualenv via pip: $ pip install virtualenv Test your installation $ virtualenv --version Create a virtual environment for a project: $ cd my_project_folder $ virtualenv my_project virtualenv my_project will create a folder in the current directory which will contain the Python executable files, and a copy of the pip library which you can use to install other packages. The name of the virtual environment (in this case, it was my_project) can be anything; omitting the name will place the files in the current directory instead. This creates a copy of Python in whichever directory you ran the command in, placing it in a folder named my_project. You can also use the Python interpreter of your choice (like python2.7). $ virtualenv -p /usr/bin/python2.7 my_project or change the interpreter globally with an env variable in ~/.bashrc: $ export VIRTUALENVWRAPPER_PYTHON=/usr/bin/python2.7 To begin using the virtual environment, it needs to be activated: $ source my_project/bin/activate The name of the current virtual environment will now appear on the left of the prompt (e.g. (my_project)Your-Computer:your_project UserName$) to let you know that it’s active. From now on, any package that you install using pip will be placed in the my_project folder, isolated from the global Python installation. Install packages as usual, for example: $ pip install requests If you are done working in the virtual environment for the moment, you can deactivate it: $ deactivate This puts you back to the system’s default Python interpreter with all its installed libraries. To delete a virtual environment, just delete its folder. (In this case, it would be rm -rf my_project.) After a while, though, you might end up with a lot of virtual environments littered across your system, and its possible you’ll forget their names or where they were placed. Running virtualenv with the option --no-site-packages will not include the packages that are installed globally. This can be useful for keeping the package list clean in case it needs to be accessed later. [This is the default behavior for virtualenv 1.7 and later.] In order to keep your environment consistent, it’s a good idea to “freeze” the current state of the environment packages. To do this, run $ pip freeze > requirements.txt This will create a requirements.txt file, which contains a simple list of all the packages in the current environment, and their respective versions. You can see the list of installed packages without the requirements format using “pip list”. Later it will be easier for a different developer (or you, if you need to re-create the environment) to install the same packages using the same versions: $ pip install -r requirements.txt This can help ensure consistency across installations, across deployments, and across developers. Lastly, remember to exclude the virtual environment folder from source control by adding it to the ignore list. virtualenvwrapper virtualenvwrapper provides a set of commands which makes working with virtual environments much more pleasant. It also places all your virtual environments in one place. To install (make sure virtualenv is already installed): $ pip install virtualenvwrapper $ export WORKON_HOME=~/Envs $ source /usr/local/bin/virtualenvwrapper.sh (Full virtualenvwrapper install instructions.) For Windows, you can use the virtualenvwrapper-win. To install (make sure virtualenv is already installed): $ pip install virtualenvwrapper-win In Windows, the default path for WORKON_HOME is %USERPROFILE%Envs Basic Usage Create a virtual environment: $ mkvirtualenv my_project This creates the my_project folder inside ~/Envs. Work on a virtual environment: $ workon my_project Alternatively, you can make a project, which creates the virtual environment, and also a project directory inside $PROJECT_HOME, which is cd -ed into when you workon myproject. $ mkproject myproject virtualenvwrapper pr