npm-vs-yarn

Npm vs Yarn install speed testing.

What is Yarn

Yarn is a package manager for JavaScript. Please read blog post from Meta for detail information.

Prepare Environment

You can testing in Docker or what you prefer.

• node version: v20.10.0
• npm verison: 10.2.3
• yarn verison: 1.22.21

Testing without cache

Testing install speed without cache and without node_modules folder.

rm -rf ~/.npm/_cacache/
rm -rf node_modules
time npm install

time: 4.88s

Try npm ci command

rm -rf ~/.npm/_cacache/
rm -rf node_modules
time npm ci

time: 5.02s

yarn cache clean
rm -rf node_modules
time yarn install

time: 4.64s

Testing with cache

Testing install speed with cache and without node_modules folder.

rm -rf node_modules
time npm install

time: 2.20s

Try npm ci command

rm -rf node_modules
time npm ci

time: 2.18s

rm -rf node_modules
time yarn install

time: 1.68s

Testing install speed with cache and with node_modules folder.

time npm install

time: 0.79s

time npm ci

time: 2.46s

time yarn install

time: 0.10s

Conclusion

Date: 2023-11-26

Yarn is just a bit faster than npm. I guess speed may not be the deciding factor in whether to switch from npm to yarn.

	npm install	npm ci	yarn
install without cache (without node_modules)	4.88s	5.02s	4.64s
install with cache (without node_modules)	2.20s	2.18s	1.68s
install with cache (with node_modules)	0.79s	2.46s	0.43s
install without internet (with node_modules)	0.85s	2.40s	0.10s