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Frontend Masters

<h2>What is Nub?</h2>
<p>Nub is a new JavaScript toolkit that sits on top of Node.js rather than replacing it. In a single native binary, it bundles a package manager, script runner, Node version manager, and TypeScript runtime. The pitch is straightforward: get meaningfully faster tooling without abandoning Node.js compatibility or migrating to a different runtime like Deno or Bun.</p>
<h2>The benchmark claims</h2>
<p>The Nub team published benchmarks showing a warm reinstall of 1,100+ packages completing in 346ms. For comparison, they report Bun at 1.9s, pnpm at 3.45s, and npm at 12.9s. They also claim up to 24× faster script running than pnpm and 19× faster package execution than npx.</p>
<p>Those are striking numbers. Worth noting: these benchmarks are self-reported by the Nub team, not independently verified. Take them as directional rather than definitive.</p>
<h2>How it compares to the alternatives</h2>
<ul>
<li><strong>npm</strong> is the default and has the widest compatibility, but it’s consistently the slowest of the major options.</li>
<li><strong>Yarn</strong> improved on npm’s speed and introduced lockfiles, but has largely been overtaken by pnpm in performance discussions.</li>
<li><strong>pnpm</strong> uses a content-addressable store and symlinks to avoid duplicating packages, which makes it fast and disk-efficient. It’s a mature project with a large ecosystem.</li>
<li><strong>Bun</strong> is a full runtime replacement - faster JavaScript execution, built-in bundler, and a fast package manager. The tradeoff is that it’s not Node.js, which matters for projects with native modules or specific Node.js dependencies.</li>
<li><strong>Nub</strong> targets the gap between pnpm and Bun: faster than pnpm, but without requiring a runtime switch.</li>
</ul>
<h2>The key differentiator</h2>
<p>Nub’s main argument is that you shouldn’t have to choose between speed and Node.js compatibility. If your project can’t move to Bun - because of native addons, team constraints, or just inertia - Nub claims to offer most of the speed gains while staying fully in the Node.js ecosystem.</p>
<h2>Caveats</h2>
<p>Nub is a new project. The ecosystem is smaller, community support is limited, and the benchmarks haven’t been independently reproduced. pnpm and Bun have years of production use behind them. Whether Nub’s speed claims hold up across different project sizes and dependency trees is still an open question.</p>
<p>If you’re already happy with pnpm, there’s no urgent reason to switch. But if you’re looking for faster tooling and can’t or won’t move to Bun, Nub is worth watching.</p>


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Nub is a new JavaScript toolkit that layers on top of Node.js, bundling a package manager, script runner, Node version manager, and TypeScript runtime in a single native binary. Its team claims a warm reinstall of 1,100+ packages in 346ms, compared to 1.9s for Bun and 3.45s for pnpm — though these benchmarks are self-reported and unverified. Nub positions itself between pnpm and Bun: faster than pnpm while maintaining full Node.js compatibility, making it relevant for projects that can't migrate to a different runtime. As a new project, it lacks the production track record and ecosystem maturity of pnpm or Bun.

Nub: a new Node.js toolkit claiming faster installs and script running than Bun and pnpm

<p>Here we go again…</p>
<p>(but seriously, it’s nice to have yet another alternative, hope it succeeds).</p>


<p>Node.js, Npm, are all open source, better support existing project as open source contributor, rather than making something and claiming that is better.</p>


<p>Would be good to know how they achieved this and how they did test.</p>


<p>Did not expect nub, looking forward to follow.</p>
