Differences between Npm and Pnpm

In JavaScript and Node.js development, package management is a significant concern that contributes to productivity in managing dependencies. Several package managers have appeared over the years, but at this, the most popular is npm or Node Package Manager. However, as the years passed and the ecosystem grew, developers began to look for more efficient solutions that gave birth to pnpm. This article aims to detail both npm and pnpm, specifying and describing all the features and differences to finally compare them.

What is Npm?

Npm is the package manager integrated with Node.js by default, which serves to establish libraries or modules in a project, set up other packages of the projects, and share packages among the developers. It was released in 2010 and quickly became the go-to package manager for JavaScript and is still today.

Key Features of Npm:

Several features of Npm are as follows:

Centralized Registry:

• Npm, with the help of invoking, connects to the npm registry, which is an enormous directory with open-source packages.

Simple CLI Commands:

• Npm follows an entertaining CLI for the installation and management of packages.

Dependency Management:

• It will install all the packages necessary for the direct dependencies and the ones in the transitive dependencies.

Scripts:

• Npm allows for the execution of scripts, which are code that we can develop for the package. A JSON file is used to automate one or more tasks, such as testing, building, or even deploying an application.

What is Pnpm?

The name pnpm stands for Performant npm, and it is an npm adherent that is fast and skilfully narrows the disk space, aiming to be a drop-in mirror. Hence, depending on pnpm lies in its different model of managing dependencies, which saves a lot of disk space and drastically cuts down installation time.

Key Features of Pnpm:

Several features of Pnpm are as follows:

Strict Dependency Resolution:

• The pnpm is stricter than Node.js and will eventually be forced to adapt to a module resolution algorithm that provides the packages not to interfere with each other, in terms of versioning.

Fast Installation:

• The ppm also focuses on package management in a different way, which results in significantly shorter installation times, particularly for mono repo environments.

Compatibility:

• The pnpm is compatible with npm and almost all of its features, pnpm can be used as a drop-in replacement with minimal changes.

Syntax for installing packages in Npm:

Syntax for installing packages in Pnpm:

Syntax for removing packages in Npm:

Syntax for removing packages in Pnpm:

Key differences between Npm and Pnpm:

There are several differences between Npm and Pnpm in Node.js. Some main differences are as follows: