Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Brunch VS pnpm

Compare Brunch VS pnpm and see what are their differences

Brunch logo Brunch

Brunch builds, lints, compiles, concatenates and shrinks your HTML5 app in an ultra-simple way. No more Grunt / Gulp mess.

pnpm logo pnpm

Fast, disk space efficient npm installs
  • Brunch Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-09-16
  • pnpm Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-03-23

Brunch features and specs

  • Speed
    Brunch is known for its fast build times due to its minimal configurations and optimized build process.
  • Simplicity
    The framework emphasizes ease of use with its simple configuration and dependency management, making it easy for newcomers to get started quickly.
  • Modular Architecture
    Brunch supports a modular architecture that allows developers to pick and integrate only the tools and plugins they need, reducing bloat.
  • Flexibility
    Brunch offers flexibility in terms of choosing the technologies (like preprocessors, templating engines, etc.) that best suit your project requirements.
  • Active Community
    A relatively active community that contributes plugins and supports developers through forums and GitHub, providing resources and solutions.

Possible disadvantages of Brunch

  • Limited Popularity
    Brunch is less popular compared to other build tools like Webpack or Gulp, which means fewer tutorials, community support, and integrations.
  • Limited Advanced Features
    While great for small to medium projects, Brunch may lack some advanced features and fine-grained control that larger projects might require.
  • Plugin Compatibility
    Not all modern plugins and tools may be compatible or readily available for Brunch, potentially limiting its flexibility in specialized cases.
  • Performance with Larger Projects
    The performance benefits of Brunch might diminish with very large and complex projects, where it may not be as efficient as its competitors.
  • Steep Learning Curve for Advanced Use
    While simple for basic use, mastering advanced configurations and customizations in Brunch can be complex and require a deeper understanding.

pnpm features and specs

  • Efficient Disk Space Usage
    pnpm uses a unique symlink-based approach to store only a single copy of each package version, reducing disk space usage significantly.
  • Fast Installations
    Due to its disk-efficient storage, pnpm can perform installations much faster compared to npm and yarn, especially in projects with large node_modules.
  • Strict Dependency Resolution
    pnpm enforces stricter rules for dependency management, ensuring that different projects don't accidentally share dependencies, reducing the risk of dependency conflicts.
  • Isolation of Dependencies
    Each project gets a strict isolation of dependencies, as pnpm creates a node_modules structure with symbolic links, avoiding pollution from conflicting package versions.
  • Compatibility with npm
    pnpm is fully compatible with the npm registry and supports all common npm commands, making it easy to transition between npm and pnpm.

Possible disadvantages of pnpm

  • Learning Curve
    Developers familiar with npm might find some aspects of pnpm unfamiliar, requiring a learning curve to understand its structure and symlink-based storage.
  • Tooling Ecosystem
    Some tools and scripts that assume npm's or yarn's node_modules layout might not work out of the box with pnpm, requiring additional configuration or workarounds.
  • Less Mature Community
    Despite its growing popularity, pnpm has a smaller community compared to npm and yarn, which might lead to fewer third-party resources or community support.
  • Complexity of Symbolic Links
    The use of symbolic links can introduce complexity in some environments or during debugging, especially if the environment does not handle symlinks well.

Analysis of Brunch

Overall verdict

  • Brunch is a good choice if you're looking for a lightweight, simple build tool for web development. Its speed and straightforward setup are strong positives. However, for more complex projects that require advanced configurations, other tools like Webpack or Gulp might be more suitable.

Why this product is good

  • Brunch is a fast and simple web development build tool. It's known for its ease of use, speed, and out-of-the-box features that help developers streamline their workflow. It's file-watching and live reload capabilities allow for an efficient development process. Its simplicity and speed make it a go-to option for smaller projects or developers who prefer minimal configuration.

Recommended for

  • Developers seeking a simple and fast setup
  • Small to medium-sized web projects
  • Those who favor minimal configuration over extensive customization

Brunch videos

The BEST Brunch in Los Angeles Review!

More videos:

  • Review - California Grill Brunch Dining Review | Walt Disney World
  • Review - Sunday Brunch by Kierin NYC Fragrance / Cologne Review

pnpm videos

Why I stopped using NPM for PNPM And You should too! | #CodingPhase

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Brunch and pnpm)
JS Build Tools
82 82%
18% 18
Front End Package Manager
Web Application Bundler
100 100%
0% 0
Package Manager
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, pnpm should be more popular than Brunch. It has been mentiond 3 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Brunch mentions (1)

  • 5 Different Tools to Bundle Node.js Apps
    Brunch is a lightweight JavaScript bundler focusing on simplicity and speed. Although it is less popular than Webpack or Browsify, it has an effortless learning curve with fantastic features to help developers focus on feature implementation rather than configuration. Brunch has more than 6.8K GitHub stars. - Source: dev.to / almost 2 years ago

pnpm mentions (3)

  • Don't trust anyone, not even update
    Imagine npm but faster and it uses symlinks n stuff to reduce disk use and make node_modules not a huge nightmare Https://pnpm.js.org. Source: almost 4 years ago
  • Next.js TypeScript Template
    Pnpm is a cool alternative to yarn or npm as it is faster and can reuse downloaded packages to reduce the size of node_modules. - Source: dev.to / about 4 years ago
  • [Talk] Sharing Typescript Types between your Frontend and Backend
    Lerna is great, as is pnpm (https://pnpm.js.org/) which we use at work. PNPM is a little faster, as it's sharing all the reused dependencies from a central location with symlinks, so it makes installing faster. Source: about 4 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Brunch and pnpm, you can also consider the following products

npm - npm is a package manager for Node.

Webpack - Webpack is a module bundler. Its main purpose is to bundle JavaScript files for usage in a browser, yet it is also capable of transforming, bundling, or packaging just about any resource or asset.

Yarn - Yarn is a package manager for your code.

rollup.js - Rollup is a module bundler for JavaScript which compiles small pieces of code into a larger piece such as application.

Bower - Bower is a package manager for the web.

Grunt - The Grunt ecosystem is huge and it's growing every day.