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Bundler vs npm: What are the differences?

Bundler vs npm

Bundler and npm are package managers used in web development. While they serve a similar purpose, there are key differences between the two.

  1. Package Management: Bundler is primarily used for managing Ruby gems, which are libraries or collections of code. It helps in resolving dependencies and ensuring that the correct versions of gems are installed. On the other hand, npm is the default package manager for Node.js, which is used for managing JavaScript packages. It allows developers to easily install, update, and remove packages from their projects.

  2. Dependency Resolution: Bundler uses a Gemfile.lock file to lock the versions of gems being used in a project. This ensures that the project always uses the same gem versions even if new versions are released. Npm, on the other hand, uses a package-lock.json or yarn.lock file to lock the exact versions of packages being used. This guarantees that other developers working on the project get the same package versions.

  3. Registry: Bundler uses RubyGems as its primary registry for hosting gems. It allows developers to publish and share their gems with the Ruby community. Npm, on the other hand, uses the npm registry, which is a huge public collection of JavaScript packages. It provides a centralized platform for developers to publish and share their JavaScript packages.

  4. Command Line Interface: Bundler has a simple and straightforward command line interface. The most commonly used commands include bundle install to install gems specified in the Gemfile, and bundle exec to run specific commands with the installed gems. Npm, on the other hand, provides a more extensive command line interface. It offers commands to install packages (npm install), update packages (npm update), and run scripts defined in the package.json file, among others.

  5. Scopes: Bundler does not have a built-in concept of scopes. It treats all gems in a project as one global namespace. In contrast, npm has a feature called scopes which allows organizing packages under a specific namespace. This can be useful when working on projects that involve multiple teams or organizations.

  6. Licenses: Bundler does not have built-in license management. It does not enforce any specific license requirements for the gems being used. Npm, on the other hand, includes a detailed and automated license management system. It provides information about the licenses used by each package and allows developers to set license requirements for their own projects.

In summary, the key differences between Bundler and npm lie in their focus on different programming languages (Ruby vs JavaScript), their approach to dependency resolution, the registries they use, their command line interfaces, support for scopes, and built-in license management.

Advice on Bundler and npm
Needs advice
on
npmnpm
and
YarnYarn

From a StackShare Community member: “I’m a freelance web developer (I mostly use Node.js) and for future projects I’m debating between npm or Yarn as my default package manager. I’m a minimalist so I hate installing software if I don’t need to- in this case that would be Yarn. For those who made the switch from npm to Yarn, what benefits have you noticed? For those who stuck with npm, are you happy you with it?"

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Replies (14)
Julian Sanchez
Lead Developer at Chore Champion · | 11 upvotes · 239.6K views
Recommends
on
YarnYarn
at

We use Yarn because it allows us to more simply manage our node_modules. It also simplifies commands and increases speed when installing modules. Our teams module download time was cut in half after switching from NPM to Yarn. We now require all employees to use Yarn (to prevent errors with package-lock.json and yarn.lock).

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Recommends
on
npmnpm

I use npm since new version is pretty fast as well (Yarn may be still faster a bit but the difference isn't huge). No need for other dependency and mainly Yarn sometimes do not work. Sometimes when I want to install project dependencies I got error using Yarn but with npm everything is installed correctly.

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Recommends
on
YarnYarn

p.s.

I am not sure about the performance of the latest version of npm, whether it is different from my understanding of it below. Because I use npm very rarely when I had the following knowledge.

------⏬

I use Yarn because, first, yarn is the first tool to lock the version. Second, although npm also supports the lock version, when you use npm to lock the version, and then use package-lock.json on other systems, package-lock.json Will be modified. You understand what I mean, when you deploy projects based on Git...

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Mark Nelissen
Recommends
on
npmnpmnpmnpm

I use npm because I also mainly use React and TypeScript. Since several typings (from DefinitelyTyped) depend on the React typings, Yarn tends to mess up which leads to duplicate libraries present (different versions of the same type definition), which hinders the Typescript compiler. Npm always resolves to a single version per transitive dependency. At least that's my experience with both.

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Recommends
on
YarnYarn

As far as I know Yarn is a super module of NPM. But it still needs npm to run.

Yarn was developed by Facebook's guys to fix some npm issues and performance.

If you use the last version of npm most of this problem does not exist anymore.

You can choose the option which makes you more confortable. I like using yarn because I'm used to it.

In the end the packages will be the same. Just try both and choose the one you feel more confortable. :)

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tataata
Frontend designer and developer · | 3 upvotes · 225.1K views
Recommends
on
YarnYarn

Yarn made it painless for the team to sync on versions of packages that we use on the project <3

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Shuuji TAKAHASHI
Recommends
on
YarnYarn

I use Yarn because it outputs nice progress messages with cute emoji and installs packages quickly if the package is cached. Also, Yarn creates yarn.lock file which makes the developer use the consistent environment.

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Recommends
on
npmnpm

I use npm because its the official package manager for Node. It's reliability, security and speed has increased over time so the battle is over!

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Izzur Zuhri
Recommends
on
npmnpm

I use npm because it has a lot of community support and the performance difference with alternative tool is not so significant for me.

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Tor Hagemann
Principal Software Engineer at Socotra · | 3 upvotes · 125.3K views
Recommends
on
npmnpmYarnYarn

You should use whichever had the best DX (developer experience) for your team. If you are doing a massive front-end project, consider yarn if not only because it makes it a snap to go from zero to ready. What some people say about npm being more stable or easier for smaller projects is highly true as well. (not to mention, you sometimes have to install yarn) But, note that official NodeJS Docker images ship with both npm and yarn. If you want to use yarn, put package-lock=false and optionally save-exact=true in your project's .npmrc file. Compare whether you prefer the ergonomics of yarn global add over npm install -g or see fewer meaningless warnings for the specific set of dependencies you leverage.

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Denys Slipetskyy
Recommends
on
YarnYarn
at

I use Yarn because it process my dependencies way faster, predictable deps resolution order, upgrade-interactive is very handy + some Yarn specific features (workspaces, Plug’n’Play alternative installation strategy) ...

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Francois Leurent
Recommends
on
npmnpm
at

We tend to stick to npm, yarn is only a fancy alternative, not 10x better. Using a self -hosted private repository (via sinopia/npm-mirror) make package locking (mostly) pointless.

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Recommends
on
YarnYarn

I am a minimalist too. I once had issues with installing Nuxt.js using NPM so I had to install Yarn but I also found that the Dev experience was much better

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Digital All
Recommends
on
npmnpm

I use npm because its packaged with node installation and handles npm tokens in CI/CD tools for private packages/libraries.

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Decisions about Bundler and npm
Oleksandr Fedotov
Senior Software Engineer at joyn · | 3 upvotes · 265.4K views

As we have to build the application for many different TV platforms we want to split the application logic from the device/platform specific code. Previously we had different repositories and it was very hard to keep the development process when changes were done in multiple repositories, as we had to synchronize code reviews as well as merging and then updating the dependencies of projects. This issues would be even more critical when building the project from scratch what we did at Joyn. Therefor to keep all code in one place, at the same time keeping in separated in different modules we decided to give a try to monorepo. First we tried out lerna which was fine at the beginning, but later along the way we had issues with adding new dependencies which came out of the blue and were not easy to fix. Next round of evolution was yarn workspaces, we are still using it and are pretty happy with dev experience it provides. And one more advantage we got when switched to yarn workspaces that we also switched from npm to yarn what improved the state of the lock file a lot, because with npm package-lock file was updated every time you run npm install, frequent updates of package-lock file were causing very often merge conflicts. So right now we not just having faster dependencies installation time but also no conflicts coming from lock file.

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Petr Bambušek
Head of Frontend at Mews · | 2 upvotes · 276.1K views
Chose
YarnYarn
over
npmnpm
at
()

This was no real choice - we switched the moment Yarn was available, and never looked back. Yarn is the only reasonable frontend package manager that's actually being developed. They even aim to heal the node_modules madness with v2! Npm is just copying its ideas on top of introducing massive bugs with every change.

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Pros of Bundler
Pros of npm
    Be the first to leave a pro
    • 647
      Best package management system for javascript
    • 382
      Open-source
    • 327
      Great community
    • 148
      More packages than rubygems, pypi, or packagist
    • 112
      Nice people matter
    • 6
      As fast as yarn but really free of facebook
    • 6
      Audit feature
    • 4
      Good following
    • 1
      Super fast
    • 1
      Stability

    Sign up to add or upvote prosMake informed product decisions

    Cons of Bundler
    Cons of npm
      Be the first to leave a con
      • 5
        Problems with lockfiles
      • 5
        Bad at package versioning and being deterministic
      • 3
        Node-gyp takes forever
      • 1
        Super slow

      Sign up to add or upvote consMake informed product decisions

      - No public GitHub repository available -

      What is Bundler?

      It provides a consistent environment for Ruby projects by tracking and installing the exact gems and versions that are needed. It is an exit from dependency hell, and ensures that the gems you need are present in development, staging, and production.

      What is npm?

      npm is the command-line interface to the npm ecosystem. It is battle-tested, surprisingly flexible, and used by hundreds of thousands of JavaScript developers every day.

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      What are some alternatives to Bundler and npm?
      Metro Bundler
      🚅 Fast: We aim for sub-second reload cycles, fast startup and quick bundling speeds. ⚖️ Scalable: Works with thousands of modules in a single application. ⚛️ Integrated: Supports every React Native project out of the box.
      Conduit
      Conduit is a lightweight open source service mesh designed for performance, power, and ease of use when running applications on Kubernetes. Conduit is incredibly fast, lightweight, fundamentally secure, and easy to get started with.
      Webpack
      A bundler for javascript and friends. Packs many modules into a few bundled assets. Code Splitting allows to load parts for the application on demand. Through "loaders" modules can be CommonJs, AMD, ES6 modules, CSS, Images, JSON, Coffeescript, LESS, ... and your custom stuff.
      Rake
      It is a software task management and build automation tool. It allows the user to specify tasks and describe dependencies as well as to group tasks in a namespace.
      Yarn
      Yarn caches every package it downloads so it never needs to again. It also parallelizes operations to maximize resource utilization so install times are faster than ever.
      See all alternatives