More alternatives

There is no strict requirement when using a package manager. Theoretically, it does not matter where the code comes from. You could, for instance, download the packages directly, extract them, and refer to them via their local path.

Alternatively, a system such as Deno could be interesting. On the surface, Deno is quite similar to Node.js. However, there are a few crucial differences under the hood. The most striking one is that there is no package manager for Deno. Instead, packages are just URLs that are resolved once needed. This way, the package installation is just a download – which happens to run when needed.

Deno in a nutshell

Deno was created by Ryan Dahl – the creator of Node.js. As such, Deno shares many features with Node.js but deviates in some aspects. Deno aims to be a lot more compatible with JavaScript running in the browser than Node.js. Deno also tries to be secure by default. When running a script with Deno, the provided...