(npm vs yarn vs pnpm)

npm, yarn, and pnpm are the popular package
managers from the Javascript world.

There are new entrants in the market (bun and
deno), we will discuss them later.

Why is there a need for a package manager?

A packager manager is a tool that automates publishing,
installing, upgrading, and removing software programs.

Now, the next question.

Which one should you choose and why?

This question needs a deeper understanding and
comparison between the available options.

Let’s understand them one by one.

1- npm (Node Package Manager)

npm is the default package manager of Node.js.
As it is the default option, it has the
biggest community.

It does comes with its disadvantages.

Sequential installation is one of the main disadvantages
of npm. It increases the package install time.

npm duplicates packages for every project affecting
disk size.

npm audit is broken by default. There is no
graceful way to fix or update vulnerabilities.

2- yarn (created by Meta)
yarn solved the download problem with parallel
downloads.

It also came with an out-of-the-box offline mode.

Yarn came up with a new approach to manage
packages.

Instead of duplicating package code for every project,
it hoists the common packages further up the tree.

However, hoisting comes with its challenges.

You might end up importing something from a subpackage
which you did not install.

Another downside to hoisting is that it uses semver
(semantic versioning).

So if a package does not use semver consistently,
You might end up with problems that you
did not cause.

To solve these, yarn added Plug’n’Play (PnP).

It stores all the packages in a global directory
eliminating the need for a node_modules folder.

PnP uses symlinks (native file links in OS) to link
packages.

If you have 10 Next.js projects (with the same version),
yarn PnP will only install it once in the global directory.

3- pnpm (Performant NPM)
pnpm is the fastest of the three.

It works quite similarly to Yarn’s PnP and, it also
uses symlinks.

The cool thing is that it does not download the whole
packages for new versions, only the changes.

If I were building a project today, I would choose pnpm.

For me, pnpm > yarn > npm.

There are also other alternatives in the market like bun
and deno.

They are not simple package managers. They also include
JS runtime to compile and execute JS and TS.

However, in terms of speed bun is 100x faster than pnpm.

Deno is a relatively new entrant in the market, aiming to evolve
the Node.js ecosystem.

Let me know in the comments:
Which package manager do you regularly?

If you are interested in the JS ecosystem:
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