diff --git a/lib/spack/spack/cmd/versions.py b/lib/spack/spack/cmd/versions.py
index 723f89ce08ef6775b1f8d7cca924c75c44726f39..366307f0b2cd05032bed969b038ebe2b2b9f55cb 100644
--- a/lib/spack/spack/cmd/versions.py
+++ b/lib/spack/spack/cmd/versions.py
@@ -21,6 +21,10 @@
 def setup_parser(subparser):
     subparser.add_argument('-s', '--safe-only', action='store_true',
                            help='only list safe versions of the package')
+    subparser.add_argument(
+        '-c', '--concurrency', default=32, type=int,
+        help='number of concurrent requests'
+    )
     arguments.add_common_arguments(subparser, ['package'])
 
 
@@ -45,7 +49,7 @@ def versions(parser, args):
     if sys.stdout.isatty():
         tty.msg('Remote versions (not yet checksummed):')
 
-    fetched_versions = pkg.fetch_remote_versions()
+    fetched_versions = pkg.fetch_remote_versions(args.concurrency)
     remote_versions = set(fetched_versions).difference(safe_versions)
 
     if not remote_versions:
diff --git a/lib/spack/spack/package.py b/lib/spack/spack/package.py
index bb5ea41dc3eee79248aed6d3f64cc3c20767f42f..c9774c5b29b1d7e611a6b390544272671d2acb4d 100644
--- a/lib/spack/spack/package.py
+++ b/lib/spack/spack/package.py
@@ -2020,7 +2020,7 @@ def all_urls(self):
                 urls.append(args['url'])
         return urls
 
-    def fetch_remote_versions(self):
+    def fetch_remote_versions(self, concurrency=128):
         """Find remote versions of this package.
 
         Uses ``list_url`` and any other URLs listed in the package file.
@@ -2033,7 +2033,8 @@ def fetch_remote_versions(self):
 
         try:
             return spack.util.web.find_versions_of_archive(
-                self.all_urls, self.list_url, self.list_depth)
+                self.all_urls, self.list_url, self.list_depth, concurrency
+            )
         except spack.util.web.NoNetworkConnectionError as e:
             tty.die("Package.fetch_versions couldn't connect to:", e.url,
                     e.message)
diff --git a/lib/spack/spack/test/web.py b/lib/spack/spack/test/web.py
index ae62301319b4a58bfd1cbefe6c14d900bccc8c0b..dfca41c95bbe1062acf8ff17217b387cc11ba92b 100644
--- a/lib/spack/spack/test/web.py
+++ b/lib/spack/spack/test/web.py
@@ -2,125 +2,101 @@
 # Spack Project Developers. See the top-level COPYRIGHT file for details.
 #
 # SPDX-License-Identifier: (Apache-2.0 OR MIT)
-
-"""Tests for web.py."""
 import os
-import pytest
-
-from ordereddict_backport import OrderedDict
 
+import ordereddict_backport
+import pytest
 import spack.paths
-import spack.util.web as web_util
+import spack.util.web
 from spack.version import ver
 
 
-web_data_path = os.path.join(spack.paths.test_path, 'data', 'web')
-
-root = 'file://' + web_data_path + '/index.html'
-root_tarball = 'file://' + web_data_path + '/foo-0.0.0.tar.gz'
-
-page_1 = 'file://' + os.path.join(web_data_path, '1.html')
-page_2 = 'file://' + os.path.join(web_data_path, '2.html')
-page_3 = 'file://' + os.path.join(web_data_path, '3.html')
-page_4 = 'file://' + os.path.join(web_data_path, '4.html')
-
-
-def test_spider_0():
-    pages, links = web_util.spider(root, depth=0)
-
-    assert root in pages
-    assert page_1 not in pages
-    assert page_2 not in pages
-    assert page_3 not in pages
-    assert page_4 not in pages
-
-    assert "This is the root page." in pages[root]
-
-    assert root not in links
-    assert page_1 in links
-    assert page_2 not in links
-    assert page_3 not in links
-    assert page_4 not in links
-
-
-def test_spider_1():
-    pages, links = web_util.spider(root, depth=1)
-
-    assert root in pages
-    assert page_1 in pages
-    assert page_2 not in pages
-    assert page_3 not in pages
-    assert page_4 not in pages
-
-    assert "This is the root page." in pages[root]
-    assert "This is page 1." in pages[page_1]
-
-    assert root not in links
-    assert page_1 in links
-    assert page_2 in links
-    assert page_3 not in links
-    assert page_4 not in links
-
-
-def test_spider_2():
-    pages, links = web_util.spider(root, depth=2)
-
-    assert root in pages
-    assert page_1 in pages
-    assert page_2 in pages
-    assert page_3 not in pages
-    assert page_4 not in pages
-
-    assert "This is the root page." in pages[root]
-    assert "This is page 1." in pages[page_1]
-    assert "This is page 2." in pages[page_2]
-
-    assert root not in links
-    assert page_1 in links
-    assert page_1 in links
-    assert page_2 in links
-    assert page_3 in links
-    assert page_4 in links
-
-
-def test_spider_3():
-    pages, links = web_util.spider(root, depth=3)
-
-    assert root in pages
-    assert page_1 in pages
-    assert page_2 in pages
-    assert page_3 in pages
-    assert page_4 in pages
-
-    assert "This is the root page." in pages[root]
-    assert "This is page 1." in pages[page_1]
-    assert "This is page 2." in pages[page_2]
-    assert "This is page 3." in pages[page_3]
-    assert "This is page 4." in pages[page_4]
-
-    assert root in links  # circular link on page 3
-    assert page_1 in links
-    assert page_1 in links
-    assert page_2 in links
-    assert page_3 in links
-    assert page_4 in links
+def _create_url(relative_url):
+    web_data_path = os.path.join(spack.paths.test_path, 'data', 'web')
+    return 'file://' + os.path.join(web_data_path, relative_url)
+
+
+root = _create_url('index.html')
+root_tarball = _create_url('foo-0.0.0.tar.gz')
+page_1 = _create_url('1.html')
+page_2 = _create_url('2.html')
+page_3 = _create_url('3.html')
+page_4 = _create_url('4.html')
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize(
+    'depth,expected_found,expected_not_found,expected_text', [
+        (0,
+         {'pages': [root], 'links': [page_1]},
+         {'pages': [page_1, page_2, page_3, page_4],
+          'links': [root, page_2, page_3, page_4]},
+         {root: "This is the root page."}),
+        (1,
+         {'pages': [root, page_1], 'links': [page_1, page_2]},
+         {'pages': [page_2, page_3, page_4],
+          'links': [root, page_3, page_4]},
+         {root: "This is the root page.",
+          page_1: "This is page 1."}),
+        (2,
+         {'pages': [root, page_1, page_2],
+          'links': [page_1, page_2, page_3, page_4]},
+         {'pages': [page_3, page_4], 'links': [root]},
+         {root: "This is the root page.",
+          page_1: "This is page 1.",
+          page_2: "This is page 2."}),
+        (3,
+         {'pages': [root, page_1, page_2, page_3, page_4],
+          'links': [root, page_1, page_2, page_3, page_4]},
+         {'pages': [], 'links': []},
+         {root: "This is the root page.",
+          page_1: "This is page 1.",
+          page_2: "This is page 2.",
+          page_3: "This is page 3.",
+          page_4: "This is page 4."}),
+    ])
+def test_spider(depth, expected_found, expected_not_found, expected_text):
+    pages, links = spack.util.web.spider(root, depth=depth)
+
+    for page in expected_found['pages']:
+        assert page in pages
+
+    for page in expected_not_found['pages']:
+        assert page not in pages
+
+    for link in expected_found['links']:
+        assert link in links
+
+    for link in expected_not_found['links']:
+        assert link not in links
+
+    for page, text in expected_text.items():
+        assert text in pages[page]
+
+
+def test_spider_no_response(monkeypatch):
+    # Mock the absence of a response
+    monkeypatch.setattr(
+        spack.util.web, 'read_from_url', lambda x, y: (None, None, None)
+    )
+    pages, links = spack.util.web.spider(root, depth=0)
+    assert not pages and not links
 
 
 def test_find_versions_of_archive_0():
-    versions = web_util.find_versions_of_archive(
+    versions = spack.util.web.find_versions_of_archive(
         root_tarball, root, list_depth=0)
     assert ver('0.0.0') in versions
 
 
 def test_find_versions_of_archive_1():
-    versions = web_util.find_versions_of_archive(
+    versions = spack.util.web.find_versions_of_archive(
         root_tarball, root, list_depth=1)
     assert ver('0.0.0') in versions
     assert ver('1.0.0') in versions
 
 
 def test_find_versions_of_archive_2():
-    versions = web_util.find_versions_of_archive(
+    versions = spack.util.web.find_versions_of_archive(
         root_tarball, root, list_depth=2)
     assert ver('0.0.0') in versions
     assert ver('1.0.0') in versions
@@ -128,14 +104,14 @@ def test_find_versions_of_archive_2():
 
 
 def test_find_exotic_versions_of_archive_2():
-    versions = web_util.find_versions_of_archive(
+    versions = spack.util.web.find_versions_of_archive(
         root_tarball, root, list_depth=2)
     # up for grabs to make this better.
     assert ver('2.0.0b2') in versions
 
 
 def test_find_versions_of_archive_3():
-    versions = web_util.find_versions_of_archive(
+    versions = spack.util.web.find_versions_of_archive(
         root_tarball, root, list_depth=3)
     assert ver('0.0.0') in versions
     assert ver('1.0.0') in versions
@@ -145,7 +121,7 @@ def test_find_versions_of_archive_3():
 
 
 def test_find_exotic_versions_of_archive_3():
-    versions = web_util.find_versions_of_archive(
+    versions = spack.util.web.find_versions_of_archive(
         root_tarball, root, list_depth=3)
     assert ver('2.0.0b2') in versions
     assert ver('3.0a1') in versions
@@ -159,35 +135,35 @@ def test_get_header():
 
     # looking up headers should just work like a plain dict
     # lookup when there is an entry with the right key
-    assert(web_util.get_header(headers, 'Content-type') == 'text/plain')
+    assert(spack.util.web.get_header(headers, 'Content-type') == 'text/plain')
 
     # looking up headers should still work if there is a fuzzy match
-    assert(web_util.get_header(headers, 'contentType') == 'text/plain')
+    assert(spack.util.web.get_header(headers, 'contentType') == 'text/plain')
 
     # ...unless there is an exact match for the "fuzzy" spelling.
     headers['contentType'] = 'text/html'
-    assert(web_util.get_header(headers, 'contentType') == 'text/html')
+    assert(spack.util.web.get_header(headers, 'contentType') == 'text/html')
 
     # If lookup has to fallback to fuzzy matching and there are more than one
     # fuzzy match, the result depends on the internal ordering of the given
     # mapping
-    headers = OrderedDict()
+    headers = ordereddict_backport.OrderedDict()
     headers['Content-type'] = 'text/plain'
     headers['contentType'] = 'text/html'
 
-    assert(web_util.get_header(headers, 'CONTENT_TYPE') == 'text/plain')
+    assert(spack.util.web.get_header(headers, 'CONTENT_TYPE') == 'text/plain')
     del headers['Content-type']
-    assert(web_util.get_header(headers, 'CONTENT_TYPE') == 'text/html')
+    assert(spack.util.web.get_header(headers, 'CONTENT_TYPE') == 'text/html')
 
     # Same as above, but different ordering
-    headers = OrderedDict()
+    headers = ordereddict_backport.OrderedDict()
     headers['contentType'] = 'text/html'
     headers['Content-type'] = 'text/plain'
 
-    assert(web_util.get_header(headers, 'CONTENT_TYPE') == 'text/html')
+    assert(spack.util.web.get_header(headers, 'CONTENT_TYPE') == 'text/html')
     del headers['contentType']
-    assert(web_util.get_header(headers, 'CONTENT_TYPE') == 'text/plain')
+    assert(spack.util.web.get_header(headers, 'CONTENT_TYPE') == 'text/plain')
 
     # If there isn't even a fuzzy match, raise KeyError
     with pytest.raises(KeyError):
-        web_util.get_header(headers, 'ContentLength')
+        spack.util.web.get_header(headers, 'ContentLength')
diff --git a/lib/spack/spack/util/web.py b/lib/spack/spack/util/web.py
index 8039dc5fdaf4212e39203fa7b1249b0fd2ad8bf6..3f71dd1f719a8f52979ae8e411519ea898ced171 100644
--- a/lib/spack/spack/util/web.py
+++ b/lib/spack/spack/util/web.py
@@ -7,17 +7,18 @@
 
 import codecs
 import errno
-import re
+import multiprocessing.pool
 import os
 import os.path
+import re
 import shutil
 import ssl
 import sys
 import traceback
 
-from six.moves.urllib.request import urlopen, Request
+import six
 from six.moves.urllib.error import URLError
-import multiprocessing.pool
+from six.moves.urllib.request import urlopen, Request
 
 try:
     # Python 2 had these in the HTMLParser package.
@@ -63,34 +64,6 @@ def handle_starttag(self, tag, attrs):
                     self.links.append(val)
 
 
-class NonDaemonProcess(multiprocessing.Process):
-    """Process that allows sub-processes, so pools can have sub-pools."""
-    @property
-    def daemon(self):
-        return False
-
-    @daemon.setter
-    def daemon(self, value):
-        pass
-
-
-if sys.version_info[0] < 3:
-    class NonDaemonPool(multiprocessing.pool.Pool):
-        """Pool that uses non-daemon processes"""
-        Process = NonDaemonProcess
-else:
-
-    class NonDaemonContext(type(multiprocessing.get_context())):  # novm
-        Process = NonDaemonProcess
-
-    class NonDaemonPool(multiprocessing.pool.Pool):
-        """Pool that uses non-daemon processes"""
-
-        def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
-            kwargs['context'] = NonDaemonContext()
-            super(NonDaemonPool, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)
-
-
 def uses_ssl(parsed_url):
     if parsed_url.scheme == 'https':
         return True
@@ -336,107 +309,150 @@ def list_url(url):
             for key in _iter_s3_prefix(s3, url)))
 
 
-def _spider(url, visited, root, depth, max_depth, raise_on_error):
-    """Fetches URL and any pages it links to up to max_depth.
+def spider(root_urls, depth=0, concurrency=32):
+    """Get web pages from root URLs.
 
-       depth should initially be zero, and max_depth is the max depth of
-       links to follow from the root.
+    If depth is specified (e.g., depth=2), then this will also follow
+    up to <depth> levels of links from each root.
 
-       Prints out a warning only if the root can't be fetched; it ignores
-       errors with pages that the root links to.
+    Args:
+        root_urls (str or list of str): root urls used as a starting point
+            for spidering
+        depth (int): level of recursion into links
+        concurrency (int): number of simultaneous requests that can be sent
 
-       Returns a tuple of:
-       - pages: dict of pages visited (URL) mapped to their full text.
-       - links: set of links encountered while visiting the pages.
+    Returns:
+        A dict of pages visited (URL) mapped to their full text and the
+        set of visited links.
     """
-    pages = {}     # dict from page URL -> text content.
-    links = set()  # set of all links seen on visited pages.
+    # Cache of visited links, meant to be captured by the closure below
+    _visited = set()
+
+    def _spider(url, collect_nested):
+        """Fetches URL and any pages it links to.
+
+        Prints out a warning only if the root can't be fetched; it ignores
+        errors with pages that the root links to.
+
+        Args:
+            url (str): url being fetched and searched for links
+            collect_nested (bool): whether we want to collect arguments
+                for nested spidering on the links found in this url
+
+        Returns:
+            A tuple of:
+            - pages: dict of pages visited (URL) mapped to their full text.
+            - links: set of links encountered while visiting the pages.
+            - spider_args: argument for subsequent call to spider
+        """
+        pages = {}  # dict from page URL -> text content.
+        links = set()  # set of all links seen on visited pages.
+        subcalls = []
 
-    try:
-        response_url, _, response = read_from_url(url, 'text/html')
-        if not response_url or not response:
-            return pages, links
+        try:
+            response_url, _, response = read_from_url(url, 'text/html')
+            if not response_url or not response:
+                return pages, links, subcalls
 
-        page = codecs.getreader('utf-8')(response).read()
-        pages[response_url] = page
+            page = codecs.getreader('utf-8')(response).read()
+            pages[response_url] = page
 
-        # Parse out the links in the page
-        link_parser = LinkParser()
-        subcalls = []
-        link_parser.feed(page)
-
-        while link_parser.links:
-            raw_link = link_parser.links.pop()
-            abs_link = url_util.join(
-                response_url,
-                raw_link.strip(),
-                resolve_href=True)
-            links.add(abs_link)
-
-            # Skip stuff that looks like an archive
-            if any(raw_link.endswith(suf) for suf in ALLOWED_ARCHIVE_TYPES):
-                continue
+            # Parse out the links in the page
+            link_parser = LinkParser()
+            link_parser.feed(page)
 
-            # Skip things outside the root directory
-            if not abs_link.startswith(root):
-                continue
+            while link_parser.links:
+                raw_link = link_parser.links.pop()
+                abs_link = url_util.join(
+                    response_url,
+                    raw_link.strip(),
+                    resolve_href=True)
+                links.add(abs_link)
 
-            # Skip already-visited links
-            if abs_link in visited:
-                continue
+                # Skip stuff that looks like an archive
+                if any(raw_link.endswith(s) for s in ALLOWED_ARCHIVE_TYPES):
+                    continue
 
-            # If we're not at max depth, follow links.
-            if depth < max_depth:
-                subcalls.append((abs_link, visited, root,
-                                 depth + 1, max_depth, raise_on_error))
-                visited.add(abs_link)
+                # Skip already-visited links
+                if abs_link in _visited:
+                    continue
 
-        if subcalls:
-            pool = NonDaemonPool(processes=len(subcalls))
-            try:
-                results = pool.map(_spider_wrapper, subcalls)
+                # If we're not at max depth, follow links.
+                if collect_nested:
+                    subcalls.append((abs_link,))
+                    _visited.add(abs_link)
 
-                for sub_pages, sub_links in results:
-                    pages.update(sub_pages)
-                    links.update(sub_links)
+        except URLError as e:
+            tty.debug(str(e))
 
-            finally:
-                pool.terminate()
-                pool.join()
+            if hasattr(e, 'reason') and isinstance(e.reason, ssl.SSLError):
+                tty.warn("Spack was unable to fetch url list due to a "
+                         "certificate verification problem. You can try "
+                         "running spack -k, which will not check SSL "
+                         "certificates. Use this at your own risk.")
 
-    except URLError as e:
-        tty.debug(e)
+        except HTMLParseError as e:
+            # This error indicates that Python's HTML parser sucks.
+            msg = "Got an error parsing HTML."
 
-        if hasattr(e, 'reason') and isinstance(e.reason, ssl.SSLError):
-            tty.warn("Spack was unable to fetch url list due to a certificate "
-                     "verification problem. You can try running spack -k, "
-                     "which will not check SSL certificates. Use this at your "
-                     "own risk.")
+            # Pre-2.7.3 Pythons in particular have rather prickly HTML parsing.
+            if sys.version_info[:3] < (2, 7, 3):
+                msg += " Use Python 2.7.3 or newer for better HTML parsing."
 
-        if raise_on_error:
-            raise NoNetworkConnectionError(str(e), url)
+            tty.warn(msg, url, "HTMLParseError: " + str(e))
 
-    except HTMLParseError as e:
-        # This error indicates that Python's HTML parser sucks.
-        msg = "Got an error parsing HTML."
+        except Exception as e:
+            # Other types of errors are completely ignored,
+            # except in debug mode
+            tty.debug("Error in _spider: %s:%s" % (type(e), str(e)),
+                      traceback.format_exc())
 
-        # Pre-2.7.3 Pythons in particular have rather prickly HTML parsing.
-        if sys.version_info[:3] < (2, 7, 3):
-            msg += " Use Python 2.7.3 or newer for better HTML parsing."
+        finally:
+            tty.debug("SPIDER: [url={0}]".format(url))
 
-        tty.warn(msg, url, "HTMLParseError: " + str(e))
+        return pages, links, subcalls
 
-    except Exception as e:
-        # Other types of errors are completely ignored, except in debug mode.
-        tty.debug("Error in _spider: %s:%s" % (type(e), e),
-                  traceback.format_exc())
+    # TODO: Needed until we drop support for Python 2.X
+    def star(func):
+        def _wrapper(args):
+            return func(*args)
+        return _wrapper
 
-    return pages, links
+    if isinstance(root_urls, six.string_types):
+        root_urls = [root_urls]
 
+    # Clear the local cache of visited pages before starting the search
+    _visited.clear()
 
-def _spider_wrapper(args):
-    """Wrapper for using spider with multiprocessing."""
-    return _spider(*args)
+    current_depth = 0
+    pages, links, spider_args = {}, set(), []
+
+    collect = current_depth < depth
+    for root in root_urls:
+        root = url_util.parse(root)
+        spider_args.append((root, collect))
+
+    tp = multiprocessing.pool.ThreadPool(processes=concurrency)
+    try:
+        while current_depth <= depth:
+            tty.debug("SPIDER: [depth={0}, max_depth={1}, urls={2}]".format(
+                current_depth, depth, len(spider_args))
+            )
+            results = tp.map(star(_spider), spider_args)
+            spider_args = []
+            collect = current_depth < depth
+            for sub_pages, sub_links, sub_spider_args in results:
+                sub_spider_args = [x + (collect,) for x in sub_spider_args]
+                pages.update(sub_pages)
+                links.update(sub_links)
+                spider_args.extend(sub_spider_args)
+
+            current_depth += 1
+    finally:
+        tp.terminate()
+        tp.join()
+
+    return pages, links
 
 
 def _urlopen(req, *args, **kwargs):
@@ -460,37 +476,22 @@ def _urlopen(req, *args, **kwargs):
     return opener(req, *args, **kwargs)
 
 
-def spider(root, depth=0):
-    """Gets web pages from a root URL.
-
-       If depth is specified (e.g., depth=2), then this will also follow
-       up to <depth> levels of links from the root.
-
-       This will spawn processes to fetch the children, for much improved
-       performance over a sequential fetch.
-
-    """
-    root = url_util.parse(root)
-    pages, links = _spider(root, set(), root, 0, depth, False)
-    return pages, links
-
-
-def find_versions_of_archive(archive_urls, list_url=None, list_depth=0):
+def find_versions_of_archive(
+        archive_urls, list_url=None, list_depth=0, concurrency=32
+):
     """Scrape web pages for new versions of a tarball.
 
-    Arguments:
+    Args:
         archive_urls (str or list or tuple): URL or sequence of URLs for
             different versions of a package. Typically these are just the
             tarballs from the package file itself. By default, this searches
             the parent directories of archives.
-
-    Keyword Arguments:
         list_url (str or None): URL for a listing of archives.
             Spack will scrape these pages for download links that look
             like the archive URL.
-
-        list_depth (int): Max depth to follow links on list_url pages.
+        list_depth (int): max depth to follow links on list_url pages.
             Defaults to 0.
+        concurrency (int): maximum number of concurrent requests
     """
     if not isinstance(archive_urls, (list, tuple)):
         archive_urls = [archive_urls]
@@ -511,12 +512,7 @@ def find_versions_of_archive(archive_urls, list_url=None, list_depth=0):
     list_urls |= additional_list_urls
 
     # Grab some web pages to scrape.
-    pages = {}
-    links = set()
-    for lurl in list_urls:
-        pg, lnk = spider(lurl, depth=list_depth)
-        pages.update(pg)
-        links.update(lnk)
+    pages, links = spider(list_urls, depth=list_depth, concurrency=concurrency)
 
     # Scrape them for archive URLs
     regexes = []
diff --git a/share/spack/spack-completion.bash b/share/spack/spack-completion.bash
index fa1e79c9c7f09f3cbb54438e0124d364cabfcf9e..0a74d1448836070650c738212d04c3f681aa36b3 100755
--- a/share/spack/spack-completion.bash
+++ b/share/spack/spack-completion.bash
@@ -1510,7 +1510,7 @@ _spack_verify() {
 _spack_versions() {
     if $list_options
     then
-        SPACK_COMPREPLY="-h --help -s --safe-only"
+        SPACK_COMPREPLY="-h --help -s --safe-only -c --concurrency"
     else
         _all_packages
     fi