I saw that npm ci for installing packages in a project that I got into recently.

Up to now, I had used npm install for installing all dependencies of a project.

But I got to know that npm ci is much faster than npm install. In some cases, it's even twice faster.

I'll explan

• Why npm ci is faster than npm install
• What npm ci can't do
• Why you should use npm ci instead of npm install

Why npm ci is faster than npm install

npm ci installs all dependencies from package-lock.json . If there is no package-lock.json or there is a dependency problem, it throws an error.

npm install installs all dependencies from package-lock.json and if dependencies need to be updated, it does and if there is no package-lock.json, it creates package-lock.json.

What npm ci can't do

It installs dependencies from package-lock.json. That's it. You can't add or update packages using npm ci.

Why you should use npm ci instead of npm install

If you're working on a project, you may don't need to install all of the dependencies every time. But if you deploy the project, you need to install all dependencies. For that, use npm ci. It'll be faster than npm install.

Before deploying, you have to make sure that all dependencies in package-lock.json are updated. Otherwise, your project may not be working. And for saving time, make sure of one more thing: There is no node_modules because npm ci removes node_modules anyways before building. That would be a waste of time.

Install-Time Differences

npm install

Time: 77.562s

npm ci

Time: 46.599s