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npm-stat: download statistics for NPM packages Review

Worth it

Should I use npm-stat: download statistics for NPM packages?

download statistics for NPM packages - npm-stat.com

· 1 month ago

Free, no-signup npm download charts — a fine utility for quick popularity checks. Don't base decisions on raw counts; mirrors and bots inflate them.

Confidence

Medium. Based on 16 public sources; consistent but community feedback is thin.

Ratings

  • Value for money
  • Ease of use
  • Feature depth
  • Support qualityNo evidence in sources
  • Security posture

Pricing

$0

Free

ModelNot disclosed
Monthly feesNot disclosed
HardwareNot disclosed
Free tierYes

Best for

  • Open-source maintainers tracking package adoption
  • Quick side-by-side package comparisons
  • Researchers citing npm adoption trends

Not for

  • Anyone making build-vs-buy calls from raw download counts
  • Teams needing real-time or private-registry stats
  • Businesses wanting vendor SLAs or guaranteed support

Gotchas - check before you buy

high

Mirror sites cache packages automatically, inflating download numbers for unused packages

high

Tools exist that simulate downloads to fake package popularity

medium

Donation-funded solo project; no uptime SLA or support commitment

low

Data lags — not real-time, so recent trend shifts won't show

Pros and cons

Pros

  • Free and ad-free; runs on donations
  • Charts for any npm package, data straight from npm
  • Compare packages or authors over custom date ranges
  • Open source — code public on GitHub
  • Widely cited in academic research

Cons

  • Counts only cover the official npm registry, not mirrors or private registries
  • Stats are not provided in real-time
  • No public security page
  • Solo-maintainer project; no enterprise support

Sources & method

- 8 sources - No known vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed.

official x4review x2security x1news x1

Key stats

  • Value for money: 5/5

    Rating

  • $0

    Starting price

  • 8

    Sources

  • Analyzed

  • Value for money: 5/5. Free, ad-free, donation-funded
  • Ease of use: 4/5. Enter package names, get charts
  • Feature depth: 2/5. Charts only; no real-time data
  • Support quality. No evidence in sources
  • Security posture: 3/5. No public security page, no known issues
  • Free Price Donation-supported, ad-free
  • Yes Free tier Everything included
  • Paul Vorbach Maintainer Open source on GitHub
  • npm registry Data source Not real-time

Pricing

Free

$0

  • Download charts for any npm package
  • Ad-free, donation-supported

Security

No known vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed.

What users say

Practitioners warn that npm download counts are unreliable popularity signals because mirrors and bots inflate them.

“npm stats are pretty broken.”
Latenode community forum
“NPM download counts only include downloads to the official NPM registry, and not registries”
dev.to

Alternatives

Compare npm-stat: download statistics for NPM packages with each alternative.

  • npm trends

    Compare download curves across packages side by side

  • npm package pages

    Official weekly download counts per package, zero setup

  • Apify npm Package Stats actor

    Programmatic download counts plus package metadata via API

  • npm-stats package

    Query the npm registry API directly from code

Full analysis

Based on 16 public sources; consistent but community feedback is thin.

Free npm download charts, fine for quick looks. Counts are inflated by mirrors and bots — not decision-grade data.

Methodology

Based on 16 public sources; consistent but community feedback is thin.

Read how a report is made.

Sources

  1. npm-stat homepagenpm-stat.com
    official
  2. official
  3. security
  4. review
  5. review
  6. news
  7. official
  8. official

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