Yarn vs npm side by side

Getting started with Yarn

npm install yarn --global
# or you can install yarn via brew on macOS
brew install yarn

yarn init

Install dependencies

npm install vs yarn install

Yarn gets the job done much faster
Yarn caches dependencies locally, hence they're available offline!

Dependency version management

npm install --save express@4.0.0 vs yarn add express@4.0.0

generates

"express": "^4.0.0" vs "express": "4.0.0"

^ is dangerous, it allows your dependency to be updated (the feature, and patch release updates) next time you run npm install
Yarn generates the yarn.lock file when installing dependencies, to ensure dependencies consistency. Which is similar to the npm-shrinkwrap.json file generated by npm shrinkwrap, but instead of running the shrinkwrap command every time, yarn keeps it updated automatically.
right, no need for --save when doing yarn add

Remove dependency

npm uninstall express --save vs yarn remove express

Install dev dependency

npm install gulp --save-dev vs yarn add gulp --dev

Yarn tips and tricks

# to list all yarn global caches
yarn cache ls
# to install bower dependencies, yes, you can
yarn install
# to find out why certain dependency exists
yarn why gulp

genkio / blog