Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

pnpm VS rollup.js

Compare pnpm VS rollup.js and see what are their differences

pnpm logo pnpm

Fast, disk space efficient npm installs

rollup.js logo rollup.js

Rollup is a module bundler for JavaScript which compiles small pieces of code into a larger piece such as application.
  • pnpm Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-03-23
  • rollup.js Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-02-09

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.

rollup.js features and specs

  • Tree Shaking
    Rollup.js performs treeshaking to eliminate dead code, resulting in smaller bundle sizes. It analyzes the dependency tree and includes only the parts of the code that are actually used.
  • Output Formats
    Supports multiple output formats including ES modules, CommonJS, AMD, UMD, and IIFE. This makes it versatile for different use cases.
  • Plugins
    Rollup.js has a rich ecosystem of plugins that extend its functionality, such as code transformation, minification, and support for various types of modules.
  • Code Splitting
    Supports code splitting, allowing you to break your code into smaller chunks that can be loaded on demand. This improves performance for larger projects.
  • Efficient Bundling
    Offers efficient bundling by removing duplicates and ensuring that each module gets included only once, which contributes to reduced bundle size.
  • Minimal Configuration
    Generally requires minimal configuration to get started, focusing on simplicity and ease of use.

Possible disadvantages of rollup.js

  • Learning Curve
    Although relatively simple to use, there is still a learning curve associated with understanding its configuration and the plugin system.
  • Initial Build Time
    The initial build time can be slower compared to some other bundlers, particularly for larger projects.
  • Limited Built-in Features
    Rollup.js focuses on being a minimalist tool, so it lacks some of the built-in features that other bundlers may have. Often, additional functionality needs to be added via plugins.
  • Plugin Compatibility
    Not all plugins work seamlessly with Rollup.js, and there may be occasional compatibility issues, especially with plugins originally designed for other bundlers.
  • Node.js Ecosystem
    While Rollup.js excels in bundling for browsers, it is not as commonly used for Node.js applications compared to other tools like Webpack.
  • Community Size
    The community size is smaller compared to other bundling tools like Webpack, which can sometimes make finding solutions to issues more challenging.

pnpm videos

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

rollup.js videos

No rollup.js videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

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Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to pnpm and rollup.js)
Front End Package Manager
Web Application Bundler
0 0%
100% 100
Package Manager
100 100%
0% 0
JS Build Tools
9 9%
91% 91

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare pnpm and rollup.js

pnpm Reviews

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rollup.js Reviews

Rollup v. Webpack v. Parcel
Rollup provides much simpler configuration over webpack 4 and has a host of pre-configured plugins that are a breeze to incorporate into your project. Rollup's also the fastest of the build tools period.
Source: x-team.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, rollup.js seems to be a lot more popular than pnpm. While we know about 60 links to rollup.js, we've tracked only 3 mentions of pnpm. 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.

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

rollup.js mentions (60)

  • Valentine’s Day Breakup: React Dumps Create React App
    Vite is a modern frontend build tool used to develop fast and super efficient web applications. It serves files instantly and ensures that changes are updated immediately after they are implemented. It makes use of Rollup for optimized builds and has support for when you want to build a Javascript library (instead of a full app). - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • Advanced Guide to Using Vite with React in 2025
    In 2025, mastering Vite for your React projects means leveraging powerful configurations, intelligent optimizations, and a robust plugin ecosystem. By understanding Vite’s modern architecture—native ES modules (ESM) during development and optimized Rollup bundling for production—you can significantly streamline your workflow, improve developer experience, and deliver fast, performant applications at scale. - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • Optimizing React Development with Vite🤩.
    6. Production-Ready Code Vite uses Rollup for production builds, which optimizes the code by bundling it efficiently, performing tree shaking, and minifying JavaScript. This results in smaller, optimized production builds that are ready for deployment. - Source: dev.to / 5 months ago
  • What is Evan You doing by creating VoidZero, and what are the issues with JS toolchains?
    Meanwhile, esbulid (developed in Go language, as introduced earlier) and rollup can also be used separately as packaging tools, and many third-party JS plugins are packaged using rollup. - Source: dev.to / 5 months ago
  • Node.js: A brief history of cjs, bundlers, and esm
    Npm packages dramatically sped up the productivity of developers by being able to leverage other developers' work. However, it had a major disadvantage: cjs was not compatible with web browsers. To solve this problem, the concept of bundlers was born. Browserify was the first bundler which essentially worked by traversing an entry point and "bundling" all the require()-ed code into a single .js file compatible... - Source: dev.to / 5 months ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing pnpm and rollup.js, 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.

Parcel - Blazing fast, zero configuration web application bundler

Bower - Bower is a package manager for the web.

Homebrew - The missing package manager for macOS