pnpm stand for “Performant npm” — highlighting its goal of being a faster and more efficient alternative to npm. It essentially has a global content of packages installed, so you don’t have to keep installing for every project. It helps you do the linking.
npm vs pnpm
Both npm and pnpm are package managers for Node.js, but pnpm was designed to be faster and more disk-efficient while remaining compatible with the npm ecosystem.
| Feature | npm | pnpm |
|---|---|---|
| Package storage | Installs a full copy of every dependency in each project’s node_modules. | Uses a global content-addressable store and hard links files into node_modules, saving disk space. |
| Speed | Slower for large installs because it copies dependencies into every project. | Faster installs due to linking instead of copying. |
| Dependency resolution | Flatter node_modules (in recent versions), can sometimes hide version conflicts. | Strict, non-flat node_modules by default, ensuring clear dependency boundaries. |
| Compatibility | Default and widely supported. | Fully compatible with npm registry and CLI commands. |
| Lockfile | package-lock.json | pnpm-lock.yaml |
| Unique features | Simple and battle-tested. | Disk space savings, strict dependency isolation, faster CI/CD installs. |