How to use multiple Node/NPM versions on macOS

Do I need to have multiple versions of Node?

How do I install multiple versions of Node?

My Node best practices for versioning

1. Always specify used versions of Node and the package manager.
   • use at least the minimal supported version based on LTS (e.g.: >=24.0.0)
   • define a version entry for Node
   • define a version entry for the package manager
2. In the best case, use a Node version from nvm as this will guarantee you independence from system or other local package managers like Homebrew. This is important since system versions change over time out of your control, which may lead to unwanted behavior. See the message above if you missed it.
3. In the best case, use pnpm as a package manager as at the moment of writing this article it is the most reliable and fastest package manager for Node that will save you time and also disk space due to deduplication of packages.

• Define pnpm-lock.yaml file for your project
• Decide on a single package manager with your team. Mixing different Node.js package managers (npm, yarn, pnpm, etc.) can be later difficult to fix without introducing breaking changes to package versions due to package incompatibility.

4. Always try to define .npmrc file. This configuration file helps you define further specific requirements for your project.
   • Add @scope to the package.json
   • Add engine-strict = true - this will make sure that your project uses an exact Node version across all developers.
   • Optional: add registry = https://registry.npmjs.org/

5. Always try to define .npmignore files.
6. For production code, try to stick to Node.js LTS versions. This is important as those versions are usually more stable and will be supported for a longer period of time.

Why would you need to use multiple versions of Node?

How to check which version of Node my project requires?