shouldiuse.io

VERDICT

Should I use Verdaccio?

A lightweight Node.js private proxy registry - verdaccio.org

Worth it. Buy it if your team publishes private npm packages or needs a caching proxy — it is free and runs in minutes. Skip it if you want a managed service, polyglot artifacts, or vendor-backed enterprise support.

Confidence

Medium. Based on 20+ public sources; most repeat the project's own description, with two firsthand developer quotes and one named company.

Ratings

  • Value for money
  • Ease of use
  • Feature depth
  • Support quality
  • Security posture

Pricing

$0

Self-hosted

ModelNot disclosed
Monthly feesNot disclosed
HardwareNot disclosed
Free tierYes

Best for

  • teams publishing private packages
  • CI pipelines needing an npm caching proxy
  • Testing packages end-to-end before publishing
  • Self-hosters wanting zero-config setup

Not for

  • Enterprises needing managed hosting, SLAs, or vendor support
  • Polyglot shops needing pip, Maven, or Docker registries too
  • Teams wanting built-in security scanning and audit trails
  • Non-technical buyers — this is a self-run dev tool, not a SaaS

Gotchas - check before you buy

medium

Free forever, but support is community-only; no vendor to call when it breaks

medium

No funding for security research may mean slower vulnerability handling

low

Guess: migrating packages out later to Artifactory or CodeArtifact is manual work

Pros and cons

Pros

  • Zero configuration to run a private npm registry
  • No external database needed; ships its own tiny database
  • Caches npm packages, protecting builds from upstream unpublishing
  • Works with npm, yarn, and pnpm clients
  • Actively maintained with recent releases

Cons

  • No funding available for contributions or security research
  • Self-hosted only; you own hosting, backups, and uptime
  • only; no polyglot artifact support
  • Lightweight means fewer enterprise features than paid rivals

Sources & method

Analyzed 9/20/2026 - 8 sources - No known vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed.

official x3review x3security x1news x1

Key stats

  • Value for money: 5/5

    Rating

  • $0

    Starting price

  • 8

    Sources

  • Analyzed

  • Value for money: 5/5. Completely free, no tiers or limits
  • Ease of use: 4/5. Zero-config claim backed by multiple sources
  • Feature depth: 3/5. Lightweight by design; less than Artifactory-class tools
  • Support quality: 3/5. Community support only; active but unfunded project
  • Security posture: 3/5. OpenSSF scorecard tracked, but no funding for security research
  • $0 Price Free, open source, self-hosted
  • Yes Free tier Entire product is free
  • 18k GitHub stars 1k forks
  • v6.10.3 Latest release Published 9 days before review

Pricing

Self-hosted

$0

  • Unlimited private packages
  • Proxies and caches npm
  • No database required

Security

No known vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed.

What users say

Developers call it indispensable for private package testing and for shielding builds from upstream npm changes.

“It was pretty indispensable to be able to try out such automation without spamming real npm with 100s of sometimes broken packages.”
Hacker News
“The proxy has also been a handy feature for us to mitigate the risk of broken builds due to now unpublished packages from the official npm”
Hacker News

Alternatives

Compare Verdaccio with each alternative.

  • JFrog Artifactory

    Enterprise polyglot registry with scanning; heavier and paid

  • GitHub Packages

    Hosted private npm packages; simple if already on GitHub

  • AWS CodeArtifact

    Managed npm registry in AWS; no servers to run

  • GitLab Package Registry

    Built into GitLab CI; fine for small teams

Companies that use it

  • Meta (Facebook)⁸
Full analysis

Based on 20+ public sources; most repeat the project's own description, with two firsthand developer quotes and one named company.

Free zero-config private npm registry. Great for Node teams caching and publishing privately; not for enterprises needing vendor support.

Methodology

Based on 20+ public sources; most repeat the project's own description, with two firsthand developer quotes and one named company.

Sources

  1. Verdaccio official siteverdaccio.org
    official
  2. Verdaccio GitHub repositorygithub.com
    official
  3. Verdaccio on npmnpmjs.com
    official
  4. Hacker News discussionnews.ycombinator.com
    review
  5. How to Create a Private NPM Registry with Verdaccioe-verse.com
    review
  6. Private registry platform comparisonparse.gl
    review
  7. Deps.dev package security datadeps.dev
    security
  8. Meta-Owned-IT-Assets listgithub.com
    news

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