What is the best way to package a Python application for distribution to non-technical users?

All answers to this question.

PyInstaller is the most common choice, but for smaller binaries, I highly recommend looking into 'Nuitka'. Unlike PyInstaller, which bundles a whole Python interpreter, Nuitka actually translates your Python code into C++ and compiles it into a machine-level executable. This often results in better performance and slightly smaller sizes. Regarding the antivirus issue, you usually need to sign your executable with a developer certificate, or at least instruct users to whitelist it. Also, creating a clean virtual environment with only the necessary dependencies before building will drastically reduce the final file size.

   Answered 2024-02-08 by Patricia Hall

Have you looked into using 'Briefcase' from the BeeWare project? It’s specifically designed to package Python apps as native installers for each platform, rather than just a single script wrapper. Does your application have a GUI, or is it strictly a command-line interface tool?

   Answered 2024-02-10 by Richard Lewis

• Richard, it’s currently a CLI tool, but I might add a simple Tkinter interface later. Briefcase sounds interesting because it handles the platform-specific packaging much more cleanly than what I was doing manually. I’ll check if it supports CLI-only apps effectively, as that would be a game-changer for my deployment workflow across the different departments here.

     Commented 2024-02-12 by Jennifer Lee

If your users can use a browser, you could also consider using 'PyScript' to run the logic directly in the web browser without any local installation required at all.

   Answered 2024-02-14 by James White

• PyScript is a bold suggestion, James! For simple automation, running it in a browser is the ultimate way to bypass the "it doesn't work on my machine" problem.

     Commented 2024-02-15 by Patricia Hall