In this article, we will discuss the two highly famous package managers Yarn vs Npm and the basic difference between them.

Ever since the world of technology came into existence, it is believed that every project that a developer works on needs project management software.

It has numerous reasons behind it such as it helps to keep the project organized and the work is carried out in the most appropriate, reliable and easy way.

Therefore, we first need to understand the individual working behind both of them, in order to figure out the differences and which one to proceed further with.

Npm

Npm is renowned as one of the most preferred package manager to date. Holding the credit of having the largest software registry in the world, it was developed by Isaac Z Schlueter in Javascript. The various major components of Npm include an online database that consists of public-private packages and a command-line client. Npm website is used to search, browse and work on the packages.

How Npm works?

Npm has the capability of installing all the dependencies in one command, for a package using the package.json file. Also, it can well manage both the globally installed tools and the packages that have local dependencies. It allows every dependency to choose a set of specific valid versions and supports auto-updating the packages. It also has a lock file that does the work of storing the exact versions used during the project.

YARN vs NPM

Some common issues in Npm:

  • The vast package registry in Npm does not have a quality vetting process. As a result, the packages are not error-free and high quality.  It rather depends on the user feedback of the packages for deciding the package quality.
  • Another major issue that needs to be addressed is that of the speed. With heavier projects, the working of the project manager gets really undemanding sometimes.
  • Thirdly, the absence of a proper vetting process makes it less secure and more damage prone. Thus, it is difficult to rely on for secure projects.

Yarn

To recover the flaws in Npm and other package managers, Facebook launched an alternative package manager called as Yarn. It is said to have better features in every term and is widely accepted now. However, it is still in a child stage and will take time to develop throughout.

The major assets that Yarn has come up with over Npm are:

  • Faster speed
  • Finer security
  • Excessive resource utilization
  • Likable terminal output
  • License checker
  • Request Queuing

A lot of developers are switching up to Yarn for their project manager. Let us understand the concepts behind these upper hand features that has made Yarn a more preferable choice.

Faster Speed:  Yarn has this amazing trick of putting every package into cache memory that it downloads. Thus, that saves it the time of re-downloading them and makes the working faster. It also makes use of proxies to hand over the modules faster.

YARN vs NPM

Finer Security: It verifies every package installed by using checksums before the code of the package is executing. Thus, it leaves fewer chances of malware.

Excessive resource utilization: It has a better resource utilization process since it performs operations in parallel mode. It also indirectly makes the working faster and saves time.

Likable Terminal output: Below here in the picture, you can see that Yarn has a very pleasant terminal design that is enjoyable to work on.

YARN vs NPM

License checker: Yarn also has a License checker that verifies the modules and its license in order to ensure the fair working of the package.

YARN VS NPM: Difference at a glance

To finally draw out the major difference, Npm has the following things that Yarn does not have a substitute of.

  • Npm visnup
  • Npm xmas

Npm has some easter eggs it provides to its users and that can be accessed using the command npm visnup. One of this is Christmas easter egg that you can easily get on your terminal using the command npm xmas.

The output is somewhat like this:

xmas.PNG

Things that Yarn has and Npm doesn’t are:

Yarn licenses list

When you will run this command, you will get a list of licenses in alphabetical order of all the packages that have been installed by Yarn.

Yarn licenses generate-disclaimer

Using this command, you can fetch a list in the sorted form of all the licenses in the stdout.

Yarn why packagename

This command will give you the information about why you install the package whose name you will give in the command and what other packages depend on this package.

yarnwhy.PNG

Taking the technical road, if we compare the commands of both the package managers, we will come to the following table-

NpmYarn
npm installyarn
npm install taco –saveyarn add taco
npm inityarn init
npm linkyarn link
npm outdatedyarn outdated
npm publishyarn publish
npm runyarn run
npm cache cleanyarn cache clean
npm loginyarn login (and logout)
npm testyarn test
npm uninstall taco –saveyarn remove taco

Conclusion

Apparently, it is crystal clear that Yarn has been brought up as a better substitute of Npm by addressing the issues that developers faced in Npm.