I've used both homebrew and macports recently. Both are fine, but I do prefer macports. I like the way it tracks dependencies. Yes it takes a bit longer to install packages because it likes to install its own versions of everything, but that really hasn't been a problem for me. I suppose it would matter if you needed to set up a new laptop on battery power using crummy public wifi, but otherwise it isn't a big factor for me in picking between the two.
Homebrew does have the cask system for installing apps and fonts. It is useful for grabbing things quickly, especially stuff like the oracle jdk and vagrant which use package installers. Still, anything you install with cask is going to self-update, most likely, rather than providing updated through homebrew, so it is really a one time benefit.
Homebrew does have the cask system for installing apps and fonts. It is useful for grabbing things quickly, especially stuff like the oracle jdk and vagrant which use package installers. Still, anything you install with cask is going to self-update, most likely, rather than providing updated through homebrew, so it is really a one time benefit.