Assess options available for Node.js package managers

[harley-harris]

What? Compare and contrast the different package managers available in Node.js. This will benefit users as choosing the right package manager will keep the service more secure and easily updatable.

Why? Choosing the right package manager for the project is important for dependency management and project maintainability.

Acceptance Criteria? Create list of pros and cons of available node package managers and choose one to use for the project

[harley-harris]

npm vs pnpm vs Yarn:

npm

Pros:

• Default package manager with massive registry of packages
• Ease of use
• Compatibility

Cons

• Slow performance (massive node_modules folder with larger projects)
• Security Issues

pnpm

Pros:

• Disk space savings as dependencies are shared across projects from one location
• Speed

Cons:

• Complex configuration
• Conflicts with using shared dependencies

Yarn

Pros:

• Faster and more efficient than npm
• Uses caching system
• Improved error reporting

Cons:

• Complex configuration
• Is overall more complicated to use than npm

Overall for this project, I think npm is the best choice to use as a package manager. I am less likely to run into issues as the configuration is a lot simpler than Yarn or pnpm. As this project will not contain a massive amount of dependencies, I would get less benefits from using Yarn's caching system.