npm vs yarn vs pnpm vs bun: Welcher Paketmanager 2026?

Choosing the right JavaScript package manager can significantly impact your development workflow, CI/CD pipeline speed, and disk usage. The four major contenders in 2025 are npm, Yarn, pnpm, and Bun. Each has a different philosophy and set of trade-offs. This comprehensive guide compares all four across every dimension that matters: speed, disk efficiency, monorepo support, security, and developer experience.

What Is a JavaScript Package Manager?

A package manager automates the process of installing, updating, configuring, and removing third-party libraries (packages) in your project. It resolves dependency trees, manages versions via a lockfile, and provides scripts for building and testing your code.

Every modern JavaScript project depends on one. The differences between them may seem small at first, but they compound across large codebases, monorepos, and CI pipelines. Let us look at each one in depth.

npm: The Default Standard

History and Background

npm (Node Package Manager) was created by Isaac Z. Schlueter in 2010 and has been bundled with Node.js since version 0.6.3. It is the default package manager that every Node.js developer gets out of the box. The npm registry hosts over 2 million packages, making it the largest software registry in the world.

Key Features

Pros

Cons

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Add a package
npm install express

# Install dev dependency
npm install --save-dev typescript

# CI-optimized install
npm ci

# Run a script
npm run build

# Execute a package without installing
npx create-react-app my-app

Yarn: The Pioneer of Innovation

History and Background

Yarn was created by Facebook (now Meta) in 2016 to address npm's shortcomings at the time: non-deterministic installs, no lockfile by default, and slow performance. Yarn introduced the yarn.lock file and parallel downloads, which dramatically improved install speeds. Today, Yarn exists in two versions: Yarn Classic (1.x) and Yarn Berry (2.x+), which are fundamentally different tools.

Yarn Classic (1.x)

Yarn Classic works similarly to npm but with better performance and a more reliable lockfile. It uses a flat node_modules directory structure and supports workspaces for monorepos. While still widely used, Yarn Classic is in maintenance mode — the team recommends migrating to Yarn Berry.

Yarn Berry (2.x+) and Plug'n'Play

Yarn Berry is a complete rewrite that introduces Plug'n'Play (PnP), a radical approach that eliminates the node_modules directory entirely. Instead, it generates a .pnp.cjs file that maps package names to their locations in a compressed .yarn/cache folder. This results in:

Key Features

Pros

Cons

# Install dependencies
yarn install

# Add a package
yarn add express

# Add dev dependency
yarn add --dev typescript

# Run a script
yarn build

# Upgrade interactively
yarn upgrade-interactive

# Enable PnP (Yarn Berry)
yarn set version berry
yarn install

pnpm: The Disk Space Champion

History and Background

pnpm (performant npm) was created by Zoltan Kochan in 2017 to solve the disk space problem inherent in npm and Yarn Classic. Its key innovation is a content-addressable storage system: every version of every package is stored exactly once on disk, and projects link to those shared copies. If 10 projects use lodash@4.17.21, there is only one copy on your machine.

Content-Addressable Storage Explained

When you run pnpm install, pnpm does not copy packages into each project's node_modules. Instead, it creates a global store (usually at ~/.local/share/pnpm/store) where every unique file is stored by its content hash. Your project's node_modules contains hard links (or symlinks on Windows) pointing back to this store. This means:

Key Features

Pros

Cons

# Install pnpm
npm install -g pnpm
# Or use corepack (recommended)
corepack enable
corepack prepare pnpm@latest --activate

# Install dependencies
pnpm install

# Add a package
pnpm add express

# Add dev dependency
pnpm add -D typescript

# Run a script
pnpm run build

# Check disk usage savings
pnpm store status

Bun: The All-in-One Runtime

History and Background

Bun was created by Jarred Sumner and released its 1.0 version in September 2023. Unlike the other three, Bun is not just a package manager — it is an all-in-one JavaScript/TypeScript runtime that includes a package manager, bundler, test runner, and transpiler. Built from scratch in Zig (with JavaScriptCore instead of V8), Bun is designed for maximum performance.

Key Features

Pros

Cons

# Install Bun
curl -fsSL https://bun.sh/install | bash
# Or on Windows
powershell -c "irm bun.sh/install.ps1 | iex"

# Install dependencies
bun install

# Add a package
bun add express

# Add dev dependency
bun add --dev typescript

# Run a script
bun run build

# Run a TypeScript file directly
bun run server.ts

# Run tests
bun test

Side-by-Side Comparison

Install Speed Benchmarks

The following benchmarks are based on a typical medium-sized project (~500 dependencies) on a modern machine. Times are approximate and can vary based on network conditions, cache state, and hardware.

Note: Benchmarks are illustrative. Always test with your own project, as results vary significantly based on dependency tree shape, network speed, and operating system.

Migration Guides

Switching between package managers is usually straightforward. Here are the key steps for each migration path.

Migrating from npm to pnpm

pnpm is designed as a drop-in replacement for npm, making migration simple:

# Step 1: Install pnpm
corepack enable
corepack prepare pnpm@latest --activate

# Step 2: Remove npm artifacts
rm -rf node_modules package-lock.json

# Step 3: Install with pnpm
pnpm install

# Step 4: Update scripts in package.json
# Replace "npm run" with "pnpm run" in CI configs

# Step 5: Add packageManager field
# "packageManager": "pnpm@9.x.x"

Migrating from npm to Yarn Berry

Migrating to Yarn Berry requires a few more steps, especially if you want PnP:

# Step 1: Enable Yarn via corepack
corepack enable
yarn set version berry

# Step 2: Remove npm artifacts
rm -rf node_modules package-lock.json

# Step 3: Install with Yarn
yarn install

# Step 4: Configure PnP (optional but recommended)
# Add to .yarnrc.yml:
# nodeLinker: pnp

# Step 5: Add SDK for your editor
yarn dlx @yarnpkg/sdks vscode

# Step 6: Add to .gitignore
# .yarn/*
# !.yarn/cache
# !.yarn/patches
# !.yarn/plugins
# !.yarn/releases
# !.yarn/sdks
# !.yarn/versions

Migrating from npm to Bun

Bun reads your existing package.json and can use npm's registry directly:

# Step 1: Install Bun
curl -fsSL https://bun.sh/install | bash
# Windows: powershell -c "irm bun.sh/install.ps1 | iex"

# Step 2: Remove npm artifacts
rm -rf node_modules package-lock.json

# Step 3: Install with Bun
bun install

# Step 4: Update scripts
# Replace "node" with "bun" in scripts
# Replace "npm run" with "bun run"
# Replace "npx" with "bunx"

# Step 5: Test everything
bun test
bun run build

General Migration Tips

When to Use Which: Recommendations

Use npm When...

Use Yarn Berry When...

Use pnpm When...

Use Bun When...

For most teams in 2025, pnpm offers the best balance of speed, disk efficiency, and compatibility. If you are starting fresh and want cutting-edge performance, Bun is worth evaluating. If you already use npm and things work fine, there is no urgent need to switch — npm has improved significantly in recent versions.

Using Corepack to Manage Package Managers

Corepack is a tool bundled with Node.js (since v16.9.0) that lets you manage Yarn and pnpm versions without installing them globally. It ensures everyone on your team uses the exact same version of the package manager.

Here is how to use Corepack:

# Enable corepack (bundled with Node.js 16.9+)
corepack enable

# Use a specific Yarn version
corepack prepare yarn@4.1.0 --activate

# Use a specific pnpm version
corepack prepare pnpm@9.0.0 --activate

# Verify the active version
yarn --version
pnpm --version

Add the packageManager field to your package.json to enforce a specific version:

{
  "name": "my-project",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "packageManager": "pnpm@9.1.0",
  "engines": {
    "node": ">=18.0.0"
  }
}

Frequently Asked Questions

Is pnpm faster than npm?

Yes, pnpm is significantly faster than npm in most scenarios. On cold installs, pnpm is typically 2-3x faster than npm. On warm installs (when the global store already has the packages), pnpm can be 4-5x faster because it only needs to create hard links rather than copy files. The speed advantage is even more pronounced on machines with many projects sharing the same dependencies.

Can I use Bun as a drop-in replacement for Node.js?

For most applications, yes. Bun implements the majority of Node.js APIs including fs, path, http, crypto, and others. However, some native Node.js modules (using node-gyp/N-API) may not work, and there are edge cases in the Node.js API surface that Bun has not yet implemented. Always test thoroughly before switching a production application from Node.js to Bun.

What is a phantom dependency and why does it matter?

A phantom dependency is a package your code imports that is not listed in your package.json but happens to exist in node_modules because it is a dependency of one of your declared dependencies. This works by accident with npm's flat node_modules structure. It becomes a problem when the indirect dependency is updated or removed, breaking your code unexpectedly. pnpm and Yarn PnP prevent phantom dependencies by default, making your dependency tree explicit and reliable.

Should I commit the lockfile to git?

Absolutely yes. The lockfile (package-lock.json, yarn.lock, pnpm-lock.yaml, or bun.lockb) ensures that every developer and CI server installs exactly the same dependency versions. Without it, you may get "works on my machine" bugs caused by different dependency resolutions. Always commit your lockfile and never add it to .gitignore.

Can I use pnpm or Yarn in a project that was set up with npm?

Yes. Both pnpm and Yarn can read your existing package.json. To migrate, delete node_modules and the old lockfile (package-lock.json), then run the install command for your new package manager (pnpm install or yarn install). The new tool will generate its own lockfile. Test your application thoroughly after migrating to ensure everything works correctly.

Why is Bun's lockfile binary instead of text?

Bun uses a binary lockfile (bun.lockb) for performance — binary files are faster to read and write than text-based formats like JSON or YAML. The trade-off is that you cannot easily read or diff it in pull requests. You can generate a human-readable version with bun install --yarn to output a yarn.lock-style text file, or use bun.lockb --hash to verify integrity. As of Bun 1.1+, you can also use bun install --save-text-lockfile to generate a text-based bun.lock file.