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ShowdownJS VS Composer

Compare ShowdownJS VS Composer and see what are their differences

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ShowdownJS logo ShowdownJS

A Markdown to HTML converter written in JavaScript

Composer logo Composer

Composer is a tool for dependency management in PHP.
  • ShowdownJS Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-08-04
  • Composer Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-19

ShowdownJS features and specs

  • Open Source
    ShowdownJS is open source and freely available under the MIT license, allowing for modification and distribution.
  • Wide Compatibility
    It can be used in both the browser and server-side environments, making it versatile for various projects.
  • Active Community
    The project has an active community and regular updates, which contribute to stability and ongoing support.
  • Extensive Documentation
    ShowdownJS provides comprehensive documentation, making it easier for developers to understand and implement.
  • Customizable
    It offers a wide range of extensions and options, allowing users to customize the behavior to suit their specific needs.

Possible disadvantages of ShowdownJS

  • Performance
    For very large documents, performance may not be as high compared to some other specialized Markdown parsers.
  • Learning Curve
    Although documentation is available, new users might need some time to fully understand how to leverage all features.
  • Dependency Management
    In projects where minimizing dependencies is important, adding another library might be a concern.
  • Feature Parity
    While ShowdownJS supports many Markdown features, some advanced or niche features might not be covered.

Composer features and specs

  • Dependency Management
    Composer allows for easy and efficient management of PHP dependencies, ensuring that the correct versions are used and conflicts are minimized.
  • Autoloading
    Composer supports autoloading, which means you don't have to manually include or require files, reducing boilerplate code.
  • Version Control
    It allows developers to specify and install the exact versions of the libraries they need, which helps in maintaining consistency across different environments.
  • Community Support
    Composer has a vast and active community, resulting in a plethora of libraries and packages readily available for use.
  • PSR Compliance
    Composer adheres to PHP-FIG PSR standards, promoting best practices and interoperability among PHP projects.
  • Custom Repositories
    Ability to use custom repositories allows for flexibility, enabling enterprises to create their own repository for internal use.

Possible disadvantages of Composer

  • Learning Curve
    Beginners may find Composer overwhelming due to its command-line interface and the complexity of managing dependencies.
  • Performance
    Installing or updating packages can sometimes be slow, particularly for projects with many dependencies.
  • Dependency Conflicts
    While Composer aims to minimize conflicts, complex projects can still face issues with dependency resolution that require manual intervention.
  • File Size
    Projects using Composer can lead to increased file sizes due to the inclusion of multiple libraries and their dependencies.
  • Security
    Including third-party packages can expose a project to potential security vulnerabilities if those packages are not well-maintained or audited.

Analysis of Composer

Overall verdict

  • Yes, Composer is considered an essential tool for PHP developers due to its efficiency, ease of use, and robust features that streamline the development process.

Why this product is good

  • Composer is a dependency manager for PHP, which simplifies the process of managing and installing libraries for projects. It ensures that the right versions of packages are used and handles dependencies automatically, saving time and reducing errors. It also has a large and active community, providing extensive support and a wealth of packages to choose from.

Recommended for

  • PHP developers looking to manage project dependencies effectively
  • Teams collaborating on PHP projects who need consistent environments
  • Developers maintaining projects with multiple external libraries
  • Anyone seeking to improve the organization and scalability of PHP applications

ShowdownJS videos

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Composer videos

AI vs Human Music Composer 2019 - Orb Composer Review

More videos:

  • Review - Review Composer Cloud from EastWest / Soundsonline.com
  • Review - Behringer Composer PRO-XL MDX2600 Review (AUDIO TEST)

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to ShowdownJS and Composer)
Competitive Intelligence
100 100%
0% 0
Development Tools
0 0%
100% 100
SEO
100 100%
0% 0
Javascript UI Libraries
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Composer seems to be a lot more popular than ShowdownJS. While we know about 143 links to Composer, we've tracked only 9 mentions of ShowdownJS. 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.

ShowdownJS mentions (9)

  • How do I display a markdown table on a website with go backend?
    So you're going to need a Markdown parser that produces HTML. But there's a question of where is the data coming from and where you you want to process it? If it's going to be all on the frontend like a text editor, use a JS library for it (a quick google search produces ShowdownJS). Source: over 2 years ago
  • Docusaurus first impression and stealing like an open sourcer
    Previously, I was required to implement the markdown support manually which meant that the use of public libraries was prohibited. My tool could only support limited styling elements such as header1, header2, links, bold and italics, but now I can finally let my tool have a full markdown support by using Showdown. - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • I made a full-stack portfolio site using Next.js and Tailwind!
    The first two ages are very heavy on content so I decided to use markdown and tailwind’s typography plugin for styling. I also used showdown to fetch the markdown and turn it into HTML. The code for the above can be found on the site’s GitHub repository. - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • Working on a no-code data notebook. You can quickly pull data from platforms like Stripe and do complex analysis without writing SQL, all within a Notion-style interface. Thoughts?
    I'm using https://github.com/showdownjs/showdown for the core rendering-markdown functionality, with a bunch of additional listeners etc on top of it to fit it into the notion-style UX! Hope that helps :). Source: over 2 years ago
  • Markdown-Tag: Add Markdown to any HTML using a <md> tag
    It looks like it uses showdown as the engine. Source: about 3 years ago
View more

Composer mentions (143)

  • Arguments a customer can understand not to use WordPress
    There is also no requirement to follow the PHP-FIG standards. The best thing that is build because of those standards is Composer. The most plugins I downloaded while writing use composer. The problem is that the plugins ship with their own vendor directory. While the standard is to have one vendor directory for the whole project. This results in different packages with the same or different version of it in the... - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • Insights from the PHP Foundation Executive Director
    “Extensions are now very close to being like packages; they basically look like Composer packages. It’s still open to discussion whether PIE will be part of Composer someday. It’s not decided yet, but I hope it will be,” Roman added. - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • PHP Core Security Audit Results
    Dependencies are managed by Composer (like npm, cargo, etc) for more than 10 years now. https://getcomposer.org. - Source: Hacker News / 2 months ago
  • WordPress and Components
    Composer and Packagist have become key tools for establishing the foundations of PHP-based applications. Packagist is essentially a directory containing PHP code out of which Composer, a PHP-dependency manager, retrieves packages. Their ease of use and exceptional features simplify the process of importing and managing own and third-party components into our PHP projects. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • 2025 Best PHP Micro Frameworks: Slim, Flight, Fat-Free, Lumen, and More!
    Simplicity: Getting started is a breeze—install via Composer, define some routes, and you’re off. Scaling up? Add middleware or libs like Twig or Eloquent as needed. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing ShowdownJS and Composer, you can also consider the following products

Snarkdown - The super fast, 1kb Markdown parser in JavaScript

jQuery - The Write Less, Do More, JavaScript Library.

Markdown-it - High-speed Markdown parser with 100% CommonMark support, extensions & syntax plugins.

React Native - A framework for building native apps with React

Marked.js - A full-featured markdown parser and compiler, written in JavaScript. Built for speed.

Babel - Babel is a compiler for writing next generation JavaScript.