pnpm cuts disk use in monorepos, but npm remains simpler for small projects

A developer analysis comparing npm and pnpm finds that pnpm's main advantage lies in monorepos, where multiple packages often share the same dependencies. Unlike npm, which can store duplicate copies of the same library across workspace packages, pnpm uses a global content-addressable store and symlinks so each version of a package exists only once on disk. In CI environments, this can reduce installation time when a warm cache is available, though cold-cache first runs still require full downloads. For small, single-package projects with few dependencies, the difference in speed and disk usage is negligible, and migrating to pnpm introduces friction with tooling that expects npm's lockfile format. The author concludes that the choice between the two tools should be driven by repository size and workspace complexity, not aesthetic preference.