Comparison

npm-stat: download statistics for NPM packages vs GitHub

npm-stat: download statistics for NPM packages and GitHub both land on Worth it.

npm-stat: download statistics for NPM packages

Worth it

Confidence: Medium

Free, no-signup npm download charts . a fine utility for quick popularity checks.

Worth it

Confidence: High

Buy if your team writes code . it is the industry default with a genuinely free tier.

npm-stat: download statistics for NPM packages versus GitHub
Compare	npm-stat: download statistics for NPM packages	GitHub
Verdict	Worth it	Worth it
Best for	Open-source maintainers tracking package adoption	Software teams of any size
Who it's not for	Anyone making build-vs-buy calls from raw download counts	Non-technical teams that never touch code
Privacy	No known public vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed.^³	Strong built-in security tooling, but a May 2026 breach via a malicious VS Code extension and earlier incidents are documented.¹⁶
Support quality	No evidence in sources	No support-quality evidence in sources
Public sentiment	Practitioners warn that npm download counts are unreliable popularity signals because mirrors and bots inflate them.^⁴	Users treat GitHub as the developer standard, but many beginners find Git confusing and Copilot's new usage-based pricing is widely unpopular.¹⁰
Biggest gotcha	Mirror sites cache packages automatically, inflating download numbers for unused packages^⁴	Copilot AI credits are usage-based; users report surprise bills and lock-in. Model costs before enabling org-wide.