Why choose PNPM to manage your dependencies?

In the JavaScript ecosystem, dependency management is a major concern for developers.

Historically, NPM and Yarn have been the most popular package managers, but an alternative has emerged in recent years: PNPM.

This package manager, although less well-known, offers significant advantages in terms of performance, disk space, and reliability.

So, why should you choose PNPM for your JavaScript projects?

The benefits of PNPM

Efficient disk space management

One of the major issues with NPM and Yarn is the duplication of dependencies across each project.

Every package installation creates a large node_modules folder, consuming an enormous amount of disk space.

PNPM takes a different approach: it stores a single copy of each package version in a global store and creates symbolic links to it in the projects, which drastically reduces the disk space used.

Faster installations

Thanks to its storage system, PNPM only downloads a dependency once, regardless of how many projects use it.

It then simply links it into the node_modules of each project. This makes installations much faster compared to other package managers, which re-download packages with every new installation.

Better version conflict management

PNPM also uses a "strict mode" installation: each package can only access its own declared dependencies, which prevents conflicts and subtle errors caused by improperly resolved dependencies.

No more abuse of --legacy-peer-deps with NPM

Improved security and integrity

PNPM checks the integrity of downloaded files and prevents corrupted installations. Unlike NPM, it prevents the implicit installation of undeclared dependencies, which strengthens project reliability and reduces the risks associated with uncontrolled versions.

Conclusion

It is recommended to use PNPM by default on your projects, and you'll see the difference from the very first use!

In short, PNPM is faster, lighter, and more reliable: go for it!

If you'd like to get started right away, check out our article on how to install it!