Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Yarn VS Webpacker

Compare Yarn VS Webpacker and see what are their differences

Yarn logo Yarn

Yarn is a package manager for your code.

Webpacker logo Webpacker

Use Webpack to manage app-like JavaScript modules in Rails - rails/webpacker
  • Yarn Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-03
  • Webpacker Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-27

Yarn features and specs

  • Speed
    Yarn uses an efficient caching mechanism and parallel installation to improve package installation times, making it faster than many other package managers.
  • Reliability
    With its deterministic dependency resolution, Yarn ensures that a project will work on all systems exactly the same way, preventing the 'works on my machine' problem.
  • Security
    Yarn uses checksums to verify the integrity of every installed package before execution, ensuring higher security standards.
  • Offline Mode
    Yarn has an offline mode capability which allows developers to install dependencies offline if they've been installed remotely at least once before.
  • Workspaces
    Yarn Workspaces allow developers to manage multiple packages within a project, facilitating efficient mono-repo management.

Possible disadvantages of Yarn

  • Complexity
    Yarn introduces additional commands and configurations which may pose a learning curve for developers who are used to npm.
  • Disk Usage
    Yarn's offline cache can consume more disk space compared to npm, which could be an issue for projects with very large dependencies.
  • Compatibility
    Some older Node.js projects and dependencies may have compatibility issues with Yarn, requiring adjustments or the use of npm.
  • Network Incompatibility
    Yarn's fetching mechanism sometimes doesn't work properly behind certain corporate proxies or firewalls, leading to network issues.
  • Smaller Community
    Compared to npm, Yarn has a smaller user base, which can result in fewer community resources, tutorials, and third-party tools.

Webpacker features and specs

  • Modern JavaScript Features
    Webpacker allows Rails applications to utilize modern JavaScript features and tools, such as ES6 syntax, JSX, and TypeScript, thereby enhancing the developer experience and code quality.
  • Asset Bundling
    It efficiently bundles multiple JavaScript files into a single package, reducing load times and improving performance by minimizing the number of HTTP requests.
  • Integration with Rails
    As an official Rails library, Webpacker integrates seamlessly with the Rails framework, ensuring that front-end builds are consistent and easier to manage alongside Ruby on Rails projects.
  • Configurable
    Provides a highly configurable environment, allowing developers to customize their JavaScript and asset builds extensively to meet specific project needs.
  • Community Support
    Being part of the Rails ecosystem, Webpacker benefits from an extensive community support, with a wealth of third-party resources, documentation, and plugins available.

Possible disadvantages of Webpacker

  • Complexity
    Webpacker can introduce additional complexity, especially for developers not familiar with JavaScript tooling or the webpack configuration, which can lead to a steeper learning curve.
  • Performance Overhead
    The abstraction and tooling required by Webpacker can add performance overhead during development with slower compilation and building times compared to simpler asset management solutions.
  • Dependency Management
    Managing dependencies can become burdensome as Webpacker requires handling both the Ruby Gems and the JavaScript packages through yarn or npm, increasing maintenance efforts.
  • Migration Path
    As newer tools and techniques emerge, moving away from Webpacker could require significant refactoring efforts, especially for applications with extensive custom configurations.
  • Deprecated Status
    Webpacker is no longer the recommended default for new Rails applications starting from Rails 7, which now prefers using esbuild or importmaps, potentially affecting its long-term viability.

Analysis of Yarn

Overall verdict

  • Yes, Yarn is considered a good choice for developers managing dependencies in JavaScript projects due to its speed, stability, and flexible workflow.

Why this product is good

  • Yarn is a popular package manager for JavaScript that offers faster performance and reliability compared to other options like npm. It offers features like deterministic locking, offline mode, and enhanced security with checksums to verify package integrity.

Recommended for

  • Developers looking for a faster alternative to npm
  • Projects that require deterministic package management
  • Teams that prioritize security and integrity of dependencies
  • Developers needing an efficient build system for complex projects

Yarn videos

Yarn Snob Reviews New Lion Brand Yarns [A Few Big Hits and Bigger Misses]

More videos:

  • Review - Yarn Review - Lionbrand Vs Caron | Which Do You Choose | Bag-O-Day Crochet Video
  • Review - My First Shipment from Ice Yarns - Comparison & Review | Yay For Yarn

Webpacker videos

RailsConf 2020 CE - Webpacker, It-Just-Works, But How? by Justin Gordon

More videos:

  • Review - Should you use React with Webpacker in your Rails project? Rails MVC vs Single Page App (SPA)!

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Yarn and Webpacker)
Front End Package Manager
Web Application Bundler
0 0%
100% 100
Developer Tools
87 87%
13% 13
JS Build Tools
83 83%
17% 17

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Yarn should be more popular than Webpacker. It has been mentiond 118 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.

Yarn mentions (118)

  • Top 5 Essential Build Tools for Modern Development
    Introduced by Facebook (now Meta) to address some of the performance and security concerns with early npm versions, Yarn quickly gained traction as a fast, reliable, and secure alternative for JavaScript package management. While npm has significantly improved since Yarn's inception, Yarn continues to be a popular choice, especially in large-scale projects and monorepos. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • Flash-install
    Inspired by the speed of Bun, the reliability of Yarn, and the efficiency of PNPM. - Source: dev.to / 5 months ago
  • Wow, pnpm, Youโ€™re Really Fast
    If youโ€™re a Node.js developer, then youโ€™re familiar with npm and Yarn. You might even have a strong opinion about using one over the other. For years, developers have been struggling with the bloatโ€Šโ€”โ€Šin disk storage and build timeโ€Šโ€”โ€Šwhen working with Node.js package managers, especially npm. - Source: dev.to / 11 months ago
  • Dockerizing a Next.js Application using a Standalone Build
    In my case, I like to use pnpm to reduce the disk size of the node_modules folder. Therefore, the example of the Next.js Docker image uses this package manager, but you can make slight adjustments to use npm or yarn if you prefer. - Source: dev.to / 12 months ago
  • Webpack Performance Tuning: Minimizing Build Times for Large Projects
    Now that we've discussed optimizations to reduce Webpack build times, let's shift our focus to package installation times. Currently, we are using Yarn 1.22, where the installation process takes approximately 10 minutes. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
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Webpacker mentions (17)

  • React + Ruby on Rails without any gems
    We will use Webpacker or JavaScript compiler and assets management. By following the webpacker installation guide, letโ€™s add Webpacker and React to our application. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Collecting JavaScript code coverage with Capybara in Ruby on Rails application
    For example, there is a Ruby on Rails application that uses Webpacker and has JavaScript files that are covered by the system tests. Capybara is used as the system testing tool. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Asset Pipeline JS Migration
    Using Webpacker in Rails provides several advantages over the traditional asset pipeline. First, Webpacker uses JavaScript modules, which allows for better code organization and improved code reusability. Second, it offers modern frontend build tools, such as Babel and PostCSS, for transforming and compiling assets. Third, it provides faster build times and faster runtime performance through code splitting and... - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • Thank you Webpacker, Goodbye Webpacker
    This article is replace Webpacker with Simpacker and webpack. - Source: dev.to / almost 3 years ago
  • How to setup ruby on rails + Angular
    In ruby โ€‹โ€‹on rails 7 what is the best way to properly install Angular because I can't find any documentation about it. The only tutorial that exists uses webpacker (https://github.com/rails/webpacker) but unfortunately it is no longer supported and no longer up to date in terms of security. Source: about 3 years ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Yarn and Webpacker, you can also consider the following products

Node.js - Node.js is a platform built on Chrome's JavaScript runtime for easily building fast, scalable network applications

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.

npm - npm is a package manager for Node.

Turbolinks - Turbolinks makes navigating your web application faster

Pingy CLI - Making Modern Websites Should Be Easier. Pingy is Here To Help.

VS Code - Build and debug modern web and cloud applications, by Microsoft