On this topic, I'd like to mention my own "alternative" to use-package, setup.el: https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/SetupEl. I write "alternative" in quotes, because it is not really the same thing, just a different way to tackle the issue of using a generic macro to simplify a personal configuration. While use-package has a flat, declaraive structure (for some package, these are my hook, this is the code to run before, this is the code to run after, ...), setup provides a few context sensitive macros that get expanded to regular code. That means you can mix in regular logic a lot easier, and the implementation is far simpler.

Also it is avalaible on GNU ELPA, so you don't need to configure MELPA before downloading it.