Need advice about which tool to choose?Ask the StackShare community!
Azure DevOps vs npm: What are the differences?
Introduction:
Azure DevOps and npm are both widely used tools in the software development ecosystem, but they serve different purposes and have distinct features. Here are the key differences between Azure DevOps and npm in a website-friendly Markdown format.
1. Integration: Azure DevOps is a comprehensive tool that integrates different aspects of the development lifecycle, including source control, build automation, testing, and deployment. On the other hand, npm primarily focuses on managing and sharing JavaScript packages and dependencies. Azure DevOps provides a more holistic approach to software development, while npm is more specialized in package management.
2. Collaboration: Azure DevOps offers features for collaboration among team members, such as Kanban boards, sprint planning, and code reviews. It facilitates communication and coordination within development teams. In contrast, npm does not have built-in collaboration tools but instead focuses on package distribution and version management. Azure DevOps is better suited for teams that require extensive collaboration features.
3. Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD): Azure DevOps has robust CI/CD capabilities, allowing developers to automate the build, test, and deployment processes. It supports various deployment targets, including Azure cloud services, on-premises servers, and third-party providers. npm, on the other hand, does not provide native CI/CD features but can be integrated with CI/CD tools like Jenkins or GitHub Actions for automated deployment pipelines.
4. Package Management: While Azure DevOps includes package management capabilities for artifacts and dependencies, npm is solely dedicated to managing JavaScript packages. npm's registry contains a vast collection of open-source packages that can be easily installed and updated using the npm command line interface. Azure DevOps, on the other hand, focuses on managing artifacts and dependencies within the context of the broader development lifecycle.
5. Extensibility: Azure DevOps allows for extensive customization and integration through its marketplace, where users can find extensions and integrations with other tools and services. This extensibility enables organizations to tailor Azure DevOps to their specific requirements and workflows. npm, on the other hand, has a more limited scope of extensibility, primarily focused on package management and related tasks. Organizations looking for a highly customizable and extensible tool may prefer Azure DevOps.
6. Pricing Model: Azure DevOps offers a range of pricing options, including free tiers for small teams and paid plans with additional features and capabilities. The pricing is based on the number of users, build minutes, and storage requirements. In contrast, npm follows a freemium model, where basic package management features are free to use, but additional features like private package hosting require a paid subscription. Organizations should consider their budget and feature requirements when choosing between Azure DevOps and npm.
In Summary, Azure DevOps and npm differ in their scope, focus, and features, with Azure DevOps offering a comprehensive suite of tools for software development, while npm specializes in JavaScript package management.
From a StackShare Community member: “I’m a freelance web developer (I mostly use Node.js) and for future projects I’m debating between npm or Yarn as my default package manager. I’m a minimalist so I hate installing software if I don’t need to- in this case that would be Yarn. For those who made the switch from npm to Yarn, what benefits have you noticed? For those who stuck with npm, are you happy you with it?"
We use Yarn because it allows us to more simply manage our node_modules. It also simplifies commands and increases speed when installing modules. Our teams module download time was cut in half after switching from NPM to Yarn. We now require all employees to use Yarn (to prevent errors with package-lock.json and yarn.lock).
I use npm since new version is pretty fast as well (Yarn may be still faster a bit but the difference isn't huge). No need for other dependency and mainly Yarn sometimes do not work. Sometimes when I want to install project dependencies I got error using Yarn but with npm everything is installed correctly.
p.s.
I am not sure about the performance of the latest version of npm, whether it is different from my understanding of it below. Because I use npm very rarely when I had the following knowledge.
------⏬
I use Yarn because, first, yarn is the first tool to lock the version. Second, although npm also supports the lock version, when you use npm to lock the version, and then use package-lock.json on other systems, package-lock.json Will be modified. You understand what I mean, when you deploy projects based on Git...
I use npm because I also mainly use React and TypeScript. Since several typings (from DefinitelyTyped) depend on the React typings, Yarn tends to mess up which leads to duplicate libraries present (different versions of the same type definition), which hinders the Typescript compiler. Npm always resolves to a single version per transitive dependency. At least that's my experience with both.
As far as I know Yarn is a super module of NPM. But it still needs npm to run.
Yarn was developed by Facebook's guys to fix some npm issues and performance.
If you use the last version of npm most of this problem does not exist anymore.
You can choose the option which makes you more confortable. I like using yarn because I'm used to it.
In the end the packages will be the same. Just try both and choose the one you feel more confortable. :)
I am a minimalist too. I once had issues with installing Nuxt.js using NPM so I had to install Yarn but I also found that the Dev experience was much better
I use npm because its packaged with node installation and handles npm tokens in CI/CD tools for private packages/libraries.
I use npm because it has a lot of community support and the performance difference with alternative tool is not so significant for me.
Yarn made it painless for the team to sync on versions of packages that we use on the project <3
I use Yarn because it outputs nice progress messages with cute emoji and installs packages quickly if the package is cached. Also, Yarn creates yarn.lock
file which makes the developer use the consistent environment.
You should use whichever had the best DX (developer experience) for your team. If you are doing a massive front-end project, consider yarn if not only because it makes it a snap to go from zero to ready. What some people say about npm
being more stable or easier for smaller projects is highly true as well. (not to mention, you sometimes have to install yarn) But, note that official NodeJS Docker images ship with both npm and yarn. If you want to use yarn, put package-lock=false
and optionally save-exact=true
in your project's .npmrc
file. Compare whether you prefer the ergonomics of yarn global add
over npm install -g
or see fewer meaningless warnings for the specific set of dependencies you leverage.
I use npm because its the official package manager for Node. It's reliability, security and speed has increased over time so the battle is over!
We tend to stick to npm, yarn is only a fancy alternative, not 10x better. Using a self -hosted private repository (via sinopia/npm-mirror) make package locking (mostly) pointless.
I use Yarn because it process my dependencies way faster, predictable deps resolution order, upgrade-interactive is very handy + some Yarn specific features (workspaces, Plug’n’Play alternative installation strategy) ...
As we have to build the application for many different TV platforms we want to split the application logic from the device/platform specific code. Previously we had different repositories and it was very hard to keep the development process when changes were done in multiple repositories, as we had to synchronize code reviews as well as merging and then updating the dependencies of projects. This issues would be even more critical when building the project from scratch what we did at Joyn. Therefor to keep all code in one place, at the same time keeping in separated in different modules we decided to give a try to monorepo. First we tried out lerna which was fine at the beginning, but later along the way we had issues with adding new dependencies which came out of the blue and were not easy to fix. Next round of evolution was yarn workspaces, we are still using it and are pretty happy with dev experience it provides. And one more advantage we got when switched to yarn workspaces that we also switched from npm to yarn what improved the state of the lock file a lot, because with npm package-lock file was updated every time you run npm install
, frequent updates of package-lock file were causing very often merge conflicts. So right now we not just having faster dependencies installation time but also no conflicts coming from lock file.
This was no real choice - we switched the moment Yarn was available, and never looked back. Yarn is the only reasonable frontend package manager that's actually being developed. They even aim to heal the node_modules madness with v2! Npm is just copying its ideas on top of introducing massive bugs with every change.
Pros of Azure DevOps
- Complete and powerful56
- Huge extension ecosystem32
- Azure integration27
- Flexible and powerful26
- One Stop Shop For Build server, Project Mgt, CDCI26
- Everything I need. Simple and intuitive UI15
- Support Open Source13
- Integrations8
- GitHub Integration7
- Cost free for Stakeholders6
- One 4 all6
- Crap6
- Project Mgmt Features6
- Runs in the cloud5
- Agent On-Premise(Linux - Windows)3
- Aws integration2
- Link Test Cases to Stories2
- Jenkins Integration2
- GCP Integration1
Pros of npm
- Best package management system for javascript647
- Open-source382
- Great community327
- More packages than rubygems, pypi, or packagist148
- Nice people matter112
- As fast as yarn but really free of facebook6
- Audit feature6
- Good following4
- Super fast1
- Stability1
Sign up to add or upvote prosMake informed product decisions
Cons of Azure DevOps
- Still dependant on C# for agents8
- Half Baked5
- Many in devops disregard MS altogether5
- Not a requirements management tool4
- Jack of all trades, master of none4
- Capacity across cross functional teams not visibile4
- Poor Jenkins integration3
- Tedious for test plan/case creation2
- Switching accounts is impossible1
Cons of npm
- Problems with lockfiles5
- Bad at package versioning and being deterministic5
- Node-gyp takes forever3
- Super slow1