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Best of both worlds: Comparing pnpm and uv Package Managers

a year ago 5
Development

Package management is at the heart of modern development workflows. For JavaScript/Node.js, pnpm has become a favorite for its speed and disk efficiency. For Python, uv is a new, blazing-fast package manager. But how do they compare, especially if you work across both ecosystems?

This post provides a side-by-side comparison of pnpm and uv—from installation to managing packages Python projects.

Contents

Introduction

  • pnpm: A fast, disk space-efficient package manager for Node.js. It uses a content-addressable filesystem to save space and speed up installs.
  • uv: A next-generation Python package manager written in Rust, designed for speed.

Installation

pnpm

Standalone Script (POSIX)

curl -fsSL https://get.pnpm.io/install.sh | sh

Homebrew

brew install pnpm

npm (if Node.js is already installed)

npm install -g pnpm

Corepack (Node.js >= 16.13)

corepack enable pnpm

Full docs

uv

Standalone Script (POSIX)

curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

Homebrew

brew install uv

PyPI (Python required)

pipx install uv
# or
pip install uv

Cargo (Rust required)

cargo install --git https://github.com/astral-sh/uv uv

Full docs

Installing Node.js & Python

pnpm

  • pnpm can install Node.js via its own command:
pnpm env use --global <node_version>
  • Or use Node.js installed by other means (nvm, asdf, system package manager).

uv

  • uv can install Python versions for you:
uv python install 3.13
  • uv manages Python environments and can create isolated environments for projects.

Installing Packages

pnpm (Node.js)

pnpm add <package>
  • Installs Node.js packages, supports monorepos, and workspaces.

uv (Python)

uv pip install <package>
  • uv pip is a drop-in replacement for pip, but much faster.

Summary Table

Feature pnpm 🧶 uv ⚡
Language Support 🌐 Node.js 🟢 Python 🐍
Install via Script 📜 ✅ Yes ✅ Yes
Install via Homebrew 🍺 ✅ Yes ✅ Yes
Install via PyPI 🐍 ❌ No ✅ Yes
Install via Cargo 🦀 ❌ No ✅ Yes
Node.js Version Mgmt 🟢 ✅ Yes (pnpm env use) ❌ No
Python Version Mgmt 🐍 ❌ No ✅ Yes (uv python install)
Add Package 📦 pnpm add <pkg> uv pip install <pkg>
Monorepo/Workspaces 🏗️ ✅ Yes ✅ Yes
Self-update ⬆️ pnpm self-update uv self update

Conclusion

Both pnpm and uv are pushing the boundaries of package management in their respective ecosystems. If you work primarily with Node.js, pnpm is a proven, robust choice. If you work with Python, uv offers a compelling, unified workflow with impressive speed.

Try both and see which fits your workflow best!

One bonus: both pnpm and uv use similar command verbs (like add, install, and update), making it easier to switch between Node.js and Python projects if you work across both ecosystems.