Benchmarks of JavaScript Package Managers

This benchmark compares the performance of npm, pnpm and Yarn (both regular and PnP variant).

Here's a quick explanation of how these tests could apply to the real world:

clean install: How long it takes to run a totally fresh install: no lockfile present, no packages in the cache, no node_modules folder.
with cache, with lockfile, with node_modules: After the first install is done, the install command is run again.
with cache, with lockfile: When a repo is fetched by a developer and installation is first run.
with cache: Same as the one above, but the package manager doesn't have a lockfile to work from.
with lockfile: When an installation runs on a CI server.
with cache, with node_modules: The lockfile is deleted and the install command is run again.
with node_modules, with lockfile: The package cache is deleted and the install command is run again.
with node_modules: The package cache and the lockfile is deleted and the install command is run again.
update: Updating your dependencies by changing the version in the package.json and running the install command again.

Lots of Files

The app's package.json here

action	cache	lockfile	node_modules	npm	pnpm	Yarn	Yarn PnP
install				51s	14.4s	39.1s	29.1s
install	✔	✔	✔	5.4s	1.3s	707ms	n/a
install	✔	✔		10.9s	3.9s	11s	1.8s
install	✔			33.4s	6.5s	26.5s	17.2s
install		✔		28.3s	11.8s	23.3s	14.2s
install	✔		✔	4.6s	1.7s	22.1s	n/a
install		✔	✔	6.5s	1.3s	713ms	n/a
install			✔	6.1s	5.4s	41.1s	n/a
update	n/a	n/a	n/a	5.1s	10.7s	35.4s	28.3s