15 JavaScript Package Managers Compared
15.1 Overview
15.1.1 What They All Do
All four tools manage your JavaScript dependencies - they install, update, and remove packages from the npm registry (the central repository of JavaScript packages).
15.1.2 Visual Comparison
Project Dependencies Tree:
your-app
├── react (16MB)
│ └── prop-types (1MB)
├── lodash (5MB)
└── axios (2MB)
└── follow-redirects (500KB)15.1.2.1 How Each Manager Stores Packages:
NPM (Node Package Manager)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
node_modules/
├── react/ [16MB]
├── prop-types/ [1MB]
├── lodash/ [5MB]
├── axios/ [2MB]
└── follow-redirects/ [500KB]
Total: ~24.5MB per project
Multiple projects = Duplicated storagePNPM (Performant NPM)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
~/.pnpm-store/ [Global Cache]
├── react@18.0.0/
├── lodash@4.17.21/
└── ...
node_modules/ [Symlinks]
├── react/ ──────► ~/.pnpm-store/react
├── lodash/ ──────► ~/.pnpm-store/lodash
└── ...
Total: ~24.5MB ONCE (shared across all projects)YARN (Classic & Berry)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Similar to npm but with:
- Better caching
- Workspaces support
- Yarn 2+ (Berry): Plug'n'Play (PnP)
.yarn/cache/ [Compressed cache]
├── react-npm-18.0.0.zip
└── lodash-npm-4.17.21.zipBUN
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
~/.bun/install/cache/ [Global Cache]
node_modules/
└── [Symlinks to cache]
+ Built-in runtime (like Node.js)
+ Written in Zig (ultra-fast)15.1.3 Key Differences Table
| Feature | npm | pnpm | yarn | bun |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Speed | Baseline | 2-3x faster | 2x faster | 5-10x faster |
| Disk Space | Most | Least | Moderate | Least |
| Default in Node.js | ✅ Yes | ❌ No | ❌ No | ❌ No |
| Compatibility | 100% | 99% | 95% | 90% |
| Maturity | Most mature | Mature | Very mature | Newest |
| Install | Built-in | npm i -g pnpm |
npm i -g yarn |
Separate install |
15.1.4 Speed Comparison (Installing React App)
Time to install create-react-app dependencies:
npm ████████████████████████ ~45s
yarn ████████████████ ~30s
pnpm ████████████ ~20s
bun ████ ~8s15.1.5 When to Use Each
15.1.5.1 npm - The Default Choice
✅ Use when:
- You're just starting (it comes with Node.js)
- Following tutorials (most use npm)
- Maximum compatibility needed
- Working in teams unfamiliar with alternatives
⚠️ Slower and uses more disk space15.1.5.2 pnpm - The Efficient Choice
✅ Use when:
- Working on multiple projects
- Disk space is a concern
- Want speed without sacrificing compatibility
- Like the symlink approach
💡 Best balance of speed, space, and compatibility15.1.5.3 yarn - The Team-Friendly Choice
✅ Use when:
- Working in established teams (many use Yarn)
- Need workspaces (monorepos)
- Want deterministic installs
- Company standard requires it
📝 yarn.lock is different from package-lock.json15.1.5.4 bun - The Cutting-Edge Choice
✅ Use when:
- Personal projects
- Want maximum speed
- Exploring modern tools
- Also want a fast JS runtime
⚠️ Newer, less mature, occasional compatibility issues15.1.6 Installation Commands Comparison
# Installing a package
npm install lodash
pnpm add lodash
yarn add lodash
bun add lodash
# Dev dependencies
npm install --save-dev eslint
pnpm add -D eslint
yarn add --dev eslint
bun add -d eslint
# Global installation
npm install -g typescript
pnpm add -g typescript
yarn global add typescript
bun add -g typescript