UNPKG
Depends
Confidence: Medium
Use it free for demos, prototypes, and quick script tags . it's dead simple and costs nothing.
Comparison
UNPKG vs jsDelivr
UNPKG lands on Depends, and jsDelivr lands on Worth it.
jsDelivr
Worth it
Confidence: High
Free and well-regarded for serving open-source files from npm and GitHub . pin exact versions.
| Compare | UNPKG | jsDelivr |
|---|---|---|
| Verdict | Depends | Worth it |
| Best for | Quick demos and prototypes | Open-source library authors |
| Who it's not for | Production sites . outages have broken thousands | Commercial apps needing SLAs or support contracts |
| Privacy | No breach of unpkg itself found, but it is repeatedly abused as phishing infrastructure; one open-redirect report.⁶ | No CVEs against the service itself in sources; a 2023 incident served already-removed malicious npm packages used in phishing. |
| Support quality | No SLA; outages left users stranded | No support-quality evidence in sources |
| Public sentiment | Users love the simplicity but repeatedly hit outages and warn against depending on it for anything important. | Users on Reddit and G2 call it one of the best free JS CDNs for offloading scripts, but complain when outages and 404s break their sites. |
| Biggest gotcha | Zero SLA or support . when it breaks, your site breaks with it⁵ | Free means no SLA: its outages and 404s become your site's incidents. Pin exact versions. |
Pick UNPKG when
- Quick demos and prototypes
- Open-source docs and playgrounds
- Browser-only apps with no build step
- One-off script tags for libraries
When UNPKG is not a fit
- Production sites . outages have broken thousands
- Anything needing uptime SLAs or support
- Security-sensitive orgs worried about supply-chain abuse
- High-traffic apps needing guaranteed edge performance
Pick jsDelivr when
- Open-source library authors
- Front-end devs loading npm/GitHub files
- Demos, docs, and prototypes
- Offloading static JS from small servers
When jsDelivr is not a fit
- Commercial apps needing SLAs or support contracts
- First-party production assets with uptime guarantees
- Teams that can't accept third-party dependency on critical paths
- Enterprises wanting vendor accountability and contracts
Sources
- UNPKG official siteunpkg.comofficial
- unpkg/unpkg on GitHubgithub.comofficial
review
- UNPKG.com completely unusable . Nylas forumsforums.nylas.comreview
security
- 24 npm packages abuse unpkg mirrors . Hacker Newsthehackernews.comsecurity
- Open redirect report OBB-3870005openbugbounty.orgsecurity
- jsDelivr vs unpkg vs cdnjs benchmarkblog.blazingcdn.comreview
- Migrate from unpkg to jsDelivrjsdelivr.comreview
- unpkg usage statistics . w3techsw3techs.comreview
review
- jsdelivr/jsdelivr . GitHub repogithub.comofficial
- jsDelivr homepagejsdelivr.comofficial
- Our Network . jsDelivrjsdelivr.comofficial
- JSDelivr . Wikipediaen.wikipedia.orgnews