Package Managers

Package managers are tools that automate the process of installing, upgrading, configuring, and removing computer programs for a computer in a consistent manner. In the JavaScript ecosystem, they manage project dependencies stored in node_modules.

Popular Package Managers

npm (Node Package Manager)

The default package manager for Node.js. It’s the largest software registry in the world and the industry standard.

# Initialize a project
npm init -y
# Install a package
npm install lodash

pnpm (Performant npm)

A fast, disk space efficient package manager. It uses a content-addressable storage to store all files from all packages on a disk, preventing duplicate downloads and saving gigabytes of space.

# Install a package
pnpm add lodash

yarn

Created by Facebook to solve performance and security issues with early versions of npm. It introduced the lockfile concept to ensure consistent installs across different machines.

# Install a package
yarn add lodash

bun

A fast all-in-one JavaScript runtime and toolkit. It includes a package manager that is significantly faster than npm, yarn, and pnpm by leveraging its own high-performance implementation.

# Install a package
bun add lodash