diff --git a/aikido_zen/background_process/packages.py b/aikido_zen/background_process/packages.py
index 6b744bb9d..f2978d54d 100644
--- a/aikido_zen/background_process/packages.py
+++ b/aikido_zen/background_process/packages.py
@@ -1,8 +1,7 @@
 """Helper functions for packages"""
 
 import importlib.metadata as importlib_metadata
-
-from packaging.version import Version
+import re
 
 import aikido_zen.helpers.get_current_unixtime_ms as t
 from aikido_zen.helpers.logging import logger
@@ -49,9 +48,35 @@ def is_package_compatible(package=None, required_version=ANY_VERSION, packages=N
         return False  # We don't support it, since something unexpected happened in checking compatibility.
 
 
+# PEP 440 version scheme, the same one the packaging library accepts
+VERSION_PATTERN = re.compile(
+    r"v?(?:([0-9]+)!)?([0-9]+(?:\.[0-9]+)*)"
+    r"([-_.]?(?:alpha|a|beta|b|preview|pre|c|rc)[-_.]?[0-9]*)?"
+    r"(-[0-9]+|[-_.]?(?:post|rev|r)[-_.]?[0-9]*)?"
+    r"([-_.]?dev[-_.]?[0-9]*)?"
+    r"(?:\+[a-z0-9]+(?:[-_.][a-z0-9]+)*)?",
+    re.IGNORECASE,
+)
+
+
 def is_version_supported(version, required_version):
-    """Checks if the package version is supported"""
-    return Version(version) >= Version(required_version)
+    """Checks if the package version is supported, required_version is a final release (e.g. 2.8.6)"""
+    return parse_version(version) >= parse_version(required_version)
+
+
+def parse_version(version):
+    match = VERSION_PATTERN.fullmatch(version.strip())
+    if not match:
+        raise ValueError(f"Invalid version: {version}")
+    epoch, release, pre, post, dev = match.groups()
+    numbers = [int(number) for number in release.split(".")]
+    while len(numbers) > 1 and numbers[-1] == 0:
+        numbers.pop()
+    # Pre-releases (2.8.6rc1) and dev releases (2.8.6.dev0) come before 2.8.6,
+    # but a dev release of a post-release (2.8.6.post1.dev0) comes after it.
+    is_dev_release = dev is not None and post is None
+    is_before_release = pre is not None or is_dev_release
+    return int(epoch or 0), numbers, not is_before_release
 
 
 # packages store, uses python's built in GlobalInterpreterLock (GIL)
diff --git a/aikido_zen/background_process/packages_test.py b/aikido_zen/background_process/packages_test.py
index 66e3419a4..ca922f7a1 100644
--- a/aikido_zen/background_process/packages_test.py
+++ b/aikido_zen/background_process/packages_test.py
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 import pytest
 from unittest.mock import MagicMock
-from .packages import is_package_compatible, ANY_VERSION
+from .packages import is_package_compatible, is_version_supported, ANY_VERSION
 
 
 @pytest.fixture
@@ -85,3 +85,58 @@ def test_pkg_compat_check_partial_success(mock_get_comms, mocker):
 
     # Call the function under test
     is_package_compatible(pkg_name, ANY_VERSION)
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize(
+    "version, required_version, expected",
+    [
+        ("2.8.6", "2.8.6", True),
+        ("2.8.7", "2.8.6", True),
+        ("2.10.0", "2.8.6", True),
+        ("3.0", "2.8.6", True),
+        ("2.8.5", "2.8.6", False),
+        ("2.8", "2.8.6", False),
+        ("1.0", "1.0.0", True),
+        ("1.0.0.0", "1.0", True),
+        ("0.9.0", "0.0.0", True),
+        ("2.8.6rc1", "2.8.6", False),
+        ("2.8.6a1", "2.8.6", False),
+        ("2.8.6.dev0", "2.8.6", False),
+        ("2.8.6rc1.post1", "2.8.6", False),
+        ("2.8.6.post1", "2.8.6", True),
+        ("2.8.6.post1.dev0", "2.8.6", True),
+        ("2.8.6-1", "2.8.6", True),
+        ("2.8.6+ubuntu-1", "2.8.6", True),
+        ("2.8.7rc1", "2.8.6", True),
+        ("v2.8.6", "2.8.6", True),
+        (" 2.8.6 ", "2.8.6", True),
+        ("1!0.1", "2.8.6", True),
+    ],
+)
+def test_is_version_supported(version, required_version, expected):
+    assert is_version_supported(version, required_version) is expected
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize(
+    "version", ["2.8.6-foo", "garbage", "", "2.8.6+", "\u0663.\u0661"]
+)
+def test_is_version_supported_invalid_version(version):
+    with pytest.raises(ValueError):
+        is_version_supported(version, "2.8.6")
+
+
+def test_pkg_compat_check_invalid_version(mocker):
+    mocker.patch("importlib.metadata.version", return_value="2.2.4-foo")
+    assert is_package_compatible("example_invalid_package", "2.2.4") is False
+
+
+def test_packages_module_works_without_packaging(monkeypatch):
+    import importlib.util
+    import sys
+
+    monkeypatch.setitem(sys.modules, "packaging", None)
+    monkeypatch.setitem(sys.modules, "packaging.version", None)
+    spec = importlib.util.find_spec("aikido_zen.background_process.packages")
+    module = importlib.util.module_from_spec(spec)
+    spec.loader.exec_module(module)
+    assert module.is_version_supported("3.1.0", "2.2.4") is True
diff --git a/poetry.lock b/poetry.lock
index 0d0abfc07..bc6096dbc 100644
--- a/poetry.lock
+++ b/poetry.lock
@@ -2267,7 +2267,7 @@ version = "24.1"
 description = "Core utilities for Python packages"
 optional = false
 python-versions = ">=3.8"
-groups = ["main", "dev"]
+groups = ["dev"]
 files = [
     {file = "packaging-24.1-py3-none-any.whl", hash = "sha256:5b8f2217dbdbd2f7f384c41c628544e6d52f2d0f53c6d0c3ea61aa5d1d7ff124"},
     {file = "packaging-24.1.tar.gz", hash = "sha256:026ed72c8ed3fcce5bf8950572258698927fd1dbda10a5e981cdf0ac37f4f002"},
@@ -4238,4 +4238,4 @@ cffi = ["cffi (>=1.17,<2.0) ; platform_python_implementation != \"PyPy\" and pyt
 [metadata]
 lock-version = "2.1"
 python-versions = ">=3.8,<3.15"
-content-hash = "c77b3d119232b6bf287feec1ce02bee84defa04c192f3d5e2a7179358591a3ef"
+content-hash = "456651d105d4f0d5eadca0bd6ff4e0ad7d4c5300385c26077bca8a8066877215"
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 7ea7eb753..ec2575089 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -66,7 +66,6 @@ regex = [
     { version = "^2024.5.15", python = "<3.13" },
     { version = "^2026.8.31", python = ">=3.13" },
 ]
-packaging = "^24.1"
 wrapt = [
     { version = "^1.17.2", python = "<3.13" },
     { version = "^2.4.0", python = ">=3.13" },