Difference Between bower vs npm
The following article provides an outline for bower vs npm. Written in JavaScript, bower helps to maintain any packages on the web or rightly called as the internet. It is built by Twitter as a front end application to solve the issues in any open source or closed source projects. It manages the components built in HTML, CSS or JavaScript applications. It is one of the popular tools in the market. Node Package Manager or npm, as the name suggests is a package manager for JavaScript environment. Modules are placed so that nodes can find them and it supports the configuration in many cases.
Head to Head Comparison Between bower vs npm (Infographics)
Below are the top 7 differences between bower and npm:
Key Difference Between bower vs npm
Let us discuss some of the major key differences between bower and npm:
- While considering both, we can call them dependency management tools. Both serve the same purpose but in a different manner. While working with npm, it is important to install node js in the system. In other words, npm works only if node js is installed in the system. Bower does not require the installation of node js in the system as bower is built to manage the front end tools like HTML, CSS and thus manages the dependency in the system.
- In bower, many files are used for its working. It can be image files or word files or any programs running in the system. But bower is known for managing many files and it works together as a component in the system. Thus it is known to manage any kind of file format as long as they are in the front end helping in the working of the system. While, on the other hand, npm is not programmed to run many files at a time and uses some packages to manage the front end development. The packages can be grunt or gulp or jshint.
- The initial usage of npm was limited to managing node.js modules and not the front end tools. All the modules were identified by nodes and it worked well with the help of JavaScript to manage the configuration. But when combined with Webpack or any other bundlers, it supports front end tools as well. bower is developed to manage the front end tools and it does the purpose without any support from other tools.
- While comparing the size of both, we can easily say that bower is smaller in size as it does not require any installation of node js and works independently with less packages in the application. The packages used are to support the application to work while handling the front end applications. But, npm is a very large application with its support to repositories and numerous packages within the system. It has JavaScript, Node and many functions. The functions like sort help to get information about the inbuilt application whether it is front end or back end in the system.
- As handling CSS is part of bower, it includes the styles in the application. But in npm, there are no styles and hence it requires certain packages to include styles in the application. We can use sass for styling the scripts in npm as well instead of using packages.
bower vs npm Comparison Table
Let’s discuss the top comparison between bower vs npm:
| bower | npm |
| bower is developed and optimized to work for the front end tools in the system without any external support. | npm is developed and optimized to work with and manage the node js tools in the system. |
| A flat dependency tree is required in the application. Also selection of dependency and its resolution depends on the user as the application will not take care of the dependencies. It does not use nested dependencies in the application. | The dependency of npm is flat as well as nested. Nested dependencies allow the application to have other dependencies that have others and so on. This is why the application is big in size. Sometimes the modules require different dependencies to support and to work well in the application. |
| Dependency conflicts are not a bower way of working. Front end applications are relatively simple when compared with back end and the dependency has only one version for the package used. This helps to minimize the page load and to manage the dependency of the packages by itself. | Dependency conflicts happen in the application and with the help of nested dependencies, the conflicts are managed easily. This is the way of working at npm and it has a successful approach of dealing with conflicts. In some versions, the dependencies are installed globally. |
| The property of bower is working with minimal load. Stability cannot be offered in the system as there can be instances of application crashing down without packages and proper working dependencies. | Stability is a property of npm with more number of packages and dependencies. It makes sure that the application works well without any problem of load and storage. The load is more when the application works. |
| Duplication does not work in bower and there can be errors when one dependency is used instead of another. The application does not support it. | The dependencies can be easily interchanged for one or the other. This makes the system to work efficiently always but it is costly in the application. |
| The scripts written inside bower are considered for global variables and those scripts are not changed by the application. We can use any scripts of our choice. | The scripts written by us to npm are changed for good. For example, if we use old scripts they are modified for the usage of the application. In fact, the codes are remodelled as node js codes. Modular code is a necessity in npm. |
| No specified tool is used in bower to manage the front end tools. | Specified tools are used in npm to manage front end applications and this is an advantage over bower. |
Conclusion
Though there are some similarities and differences, there are projects that use both together in their system for their proper working. Hence, bower is used for front end applications in the system while npm is used for back end applications and for the use of packages in the system.
Recommended Articles
This is a guide to bower vs npm. Here we discuss the bower vs npm key differences with infographics and comparison table. You may also have a look at the following articles to learn more –
