Choose the Right Package Manager

NPM, PNPM and Yarn are package managers that help to manage a project’s dependencies. We need them because managing the dependencies in the project is very difficult and boring task.

Basic Overview

NPM - It stands for 'Node Package Manager' and it is the default package manager for Node.js, which is a JavaScript runtime built on Chrome's V8 JavaScript engine. npm allows developers to manage dependencies (libraries and tools) needed for their projects easily.

YARN - It stands for 'Yet Another Resource Negotiator' and it is a package manager for JavaScript projects that was developed by Facebook. It serves as an alternative to npm (Node Package Manager) and is designed to address some of npm's shortcomings, particularly in terms of performance and reliability.

PNPM - It stands for 'Performant npm' and it is a fast, efficient, and disk-space-saving package manager. It is an alternative to npm and yarn that solves some of their inherent issues, particularly around speed, disk usage, and dependency management in monorepos.

Comparison

• Package Installation: pnpm is known for its speed and efficiency, while Yarn and npm (in recent versions) are also fast.
• Disk Space Usage: pnpm uses a unique symlinking approach that significantly reduces disk space usage compared to npm and Yarn.
• Monorepo Support: pnpm has built-in support for monorepos, Yarn supports it through Workspaces, and npm has limited support.
• Lockfile: Each package manager uses a different lockfile format to ensure deterministic installs.
• Parallel Installation: All three support parallel package installation, which can speed up the process.
• Offline Mode: All three package managers support offline installation if packages are cached.
• Security: All three package managers have good security features, including integrity checking.
• Community Size: npm has the largest community, being the default package manager for Node.js, while Yarn also has a large following, and pnpm's community is growing.
• Default Node.js Package Manager: npm comes bundled with Node.js by default.
• Deterministic Installs: All three ensure deterministic installs, meaning the same dependencies are installed across different environments.
• Supported by Vercel: Vercel supports all three package managers for deployments

Conclusion

• npm: Good for most projects due to widely adopted, but slower and takes up more disk space.
• pnpm: Best for monorepos and efficient with disk space due to its symlink-based approach.
• Yarn: Better performance than npm, but losing popularity in favor of pnpm due to its strictness and better performance.

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