# PkgPulse — Complete Reference

> PkgPulse is a free, open data platform for comparing npm packages. It provides health scores, bundle sizes, download trends, security vulnerability checks, and side-by-side comparisons for JavaScript/TypeScript packages.

PkgPulse helps developers make informed decisions when choosing between npm packages by aggregating data from the npm registry, Bundlephobia, and other sources into a unified analysis.

## How It Works

PkgPulse fetches real-time data from multiple sources:
1. **npm Registry** — package metadata, version history, license, maintainers
2. **npm Downloads API** — weekly download counts and historical trends
3. **Bundlephobia** — minified and gzipped bundle sizes, dependency count
4. **Security Advisories** — known vulnerabilities by severity

This data is combined into a composite **Health Score** (0-100) with five sub-dimensions:
- **Maintenance Score** — release frequency, issue responsiveness
- **Popularity Score** — download volume, community adoption
- **Quality Score** — documentation, code patterns
- **Security Score** — vulnerability count and severity
- **Stability Score** — API consistency, breaking change frequency

## Page Types

### Homepage (/)
Interactive search interface. Enter 2+ package names to see side-by-side comparison cards. Features popular comparison links and example searches.

### Comparison Pages (/compare/[slug])
Pre-generated pages for 70+ common package matchups. Each page includes:
- Package cards with health scores, downloads, bundle sizes, vulnerability counts
- Download trend sparklines
- Health score breakdowns (5 sub-dimensions)
- Enriched article content analyzing the comparison
- FAQ section
- Related comparison links

Format: `/compare/package1-vs-package2` (alphabetically sorted)

### Guides (/guides)
Data-driven articles about npm packages and the JavaScript ecosystem. MDX-powered with structured data.

## All Comparison Categories

### Frontend Frameworks
- react vs vue, react vs svelte, angular vs react, preact vs react
- solid-js vs svelte, lit vs svelte, qwik vs react

### Meta-Frameworks
- next vs nuxt, next vs remix, astro vs next
- gatsby vs next, next vs sveltekit, nuxt vs remix

### Backend Frameworks
- express vs fastify, express vs koa, express vs hono
- fastify vs hono, express vs nest, fastify vs koa

### Build Tools
- vite vs webpack, esbuild vs vite, rollup vs webpack
- esbuild vs rollup, turbopack vs vite, parcel vs webpack

### Testing
- jest vs vitest, jest vs mocha, cypress vs playwright
- playwright vs puppeteer, ava vs jest, jasmine vs jest

### State Management
- mobx vs redux, recoil vs zustand, jotai vs zustand
- redux vs zustand, mobx vs zustand, pinia vs vuex

### CSS & Styling
- sass vs tailwindcss, emotion vs styled-components
- bootstrap vs tailwindcss, bulma vs tailwindcss

### Date & Time
- date-fns vs dayjs, dayjs vs moment, date-fns vs luxon

### HTTP Clients
- axios vs node-fetch, got vs node-fetch, axios vs got, axios vs ky

### Database & ORM
- drizzle-orm vs prisma, knex vs prisma, sequelize vs typeorm

### Validation
- ajv vs zod, joi vs zod, yup vs zod

### Utilities
- lodash vs ramda, lodash vs underscore, immer vs immutable

### Logging
- bunyan vs winston, pino vs winston

### Monorepo
- lerna vs turborepo, lerna vs nx

### Package Managers
- npm vs pnpm, pnpm vs yarn

## Data Schema

Each package analysis returns this data structure:

```
PackageAnalysis:
  name: string (npm package name)
  version: string (latest version)
  description: string
  downloads: number (weekly)
  bundleSize:
    size: number (bytes, minified)
    gzip: number (bytes, gzipped)
    dependencyCount: number
  health:
    overallScore: number (0-100)
    maintenanceScore: number (0-100)
    popularityScore: number (0-100)
    qualityScore: number (0-100)
    securityScore: number (0-100)
    stabilityScore: number (0-100)
  vulnerabilities: array of {severity, title}
  lastUpdated: ISO date string
  license: string
```

## Structured Data

All pages include Schema.org JSON-LD:
- Homepage: WebSite + Organization
- Comparison pages: WebPage + ItemList (SoftwareApplication) + BreadcrumbList + FAQPage
- Guides posts: Article + BreadcrumbList

## Links

- Website: https://www.pkgpulse.com
- Sitemap: https://www.pkgpulse.com/sitemap.xml
- Guides: https://www.pkgpulse.com/guides