What’s the Difference Between Pnpm and Npm?

The key difference is how they manage disk space. With npm, each project ends up downloading the same packages multiple times, which can waste storage. Pnpm, on the other hand, keeps a central cache and creates symlinks for packages in your node_modules folder. So, if multiple projects need the same package, it downloads it just once!

Great question! Both pnpm and npm use the same package registry, but they handle the packages differently. Npm installs dependencies in a more nested structure, which can sometimes lead to duplicate installations. In contrast, pnpm installs packages once and uses links which helps save space and avoids duplication. It's pretty neat!

As outlined in pnpm's docs, the main feature is the caching system. Pnpm caches all packages in a global store, so if you need to use a package you've already downloaded for another project, you can just access the cached version without having to download it again. This means it's efficient even when dealing with different versions of packages.