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Comparison

yargs vs clipanion

CLI tools and terminal utilitiesPackage data 25 Sept 2026
yargsv18.2.0, 20 Sept 2026

yargs the modern, pirate-themed, successor to optimist.

$ npm install yargs
clipanionv4.0.0-rc.4, 6 Sept 2024

Type-safe CLI library / framework with no runtime dependencies

$ npm install clipanion
MetricyargsclipanionDifference
Weekly downloads194,727,9793,617,160yargs 53.8x higher
12-month download growth+78%+53%yargs +26 pts
Gzip size---
Minified size---
Dependencies61yargs 5 more
Unpacked size231 kB229 kBclipanion 1% smaller
Latest release18.2.0, 20 Sept 20264.0.0-rc.4, 6 Sept 2024yargs 2.0 years more recent
Releases, last 12 months40yargs 4 more
First published23 Nov 201328 Mar 2019yargs 5.3 years earlier
GitHub stars11,5031,256yargs 9.2x higher
Open issues20034yargs 166 more
Open pull requests118yargs 3 more
Contributors311--
Commits, last 52 weeks210yargs higher
TypeScript typesBundledBundledSame
Module formatESM onlyESM + CommonJSDiffers
Runtimes---
LicenseMITMITSame

Green marks the smaller size or the more recent release. Bold marks the higher count, with no judgement implied. Sizes are for the whole package per Bundlephobia. Growth compares the average of the last 4 weeks with the first 4 weeks of the 52-week series.

yargs194.8m latest weekclipanion3.6m latest week
Week of 23 Sept 2025Week of 15 Sept 2026
Weekly npm downloads, 52 weeks. Y axis starts at zero. Values are not smoothed.

yargs

Major versions
  1. 1.0.023 Nov 2013
  2. 2.1.17 Feb 2015
  3. 3.0.012 Feb 2015
  4. 4.0.014 Feb 2016
  5. 5.0.016 Aug 2016
  6. 6.0.030 Sept 2016
  7. 7.0.026 Feb 2017
  8. 8.0.01 May 2017
  9. 9.0.03 Sept 2017
  10. 10.0.018 Oct 2017
  11. 11.0.022 Jan 2018
  12. 12.0.026 Jun 2018
  13. 13.1.012 Feb 2019
  14. 14.0.030 Jul 2019
  15. 15.0.010 Nov 2019
  16. 16.0.09 Sept 2020
  17. 17.0.02 May 2021
  18. 18.0.027 May 2025
Last 5 releases
  1. 18.2.020 Sept 2026
  2. 18.1.026 Jul 2026
  3. 17.7.319 Jun 2026
  4. 16.2.219 Jun 2026
  5. 18.0.027 May 2025
181 releases in total, 4 in the last 12 months

clipanion

Major versions
  1. 0.13.028 Mar 2019
  2. 2.0.010 Aug 2019
  3. 3.0.08 Jul 2021
Last 5 releases
  1. 3.2.15 Jun 2023
  2. 3.2.017 Feb 2023
  3. 3.1.027 Sept 2021
  4. 3.0.120 Jul 2021
  5. 3.0.08 Jul 2021
36 releases in total, 0 in the last 12 months
yargs

-

clipanion

-

yargs

-

clipanion

-

  • Need both ESM and CommonJS entry pointsclipanion (yargs: ESM only; clipanion: ESM + CommonJS)
  • Need to load it with require()clipanion
  • Need TypeScript types in the package itselfBoth
  • Node.js version requirementyargs: ^20.19.0 || ^22.12.0 || >=23; clipanion: none declared (engines field in package.json)
  • Need the more recent releaseyargs (18.2.0 on 20 Sept 2026 vs 4.0.0-rc.4 on 6 Sept 2024)
  • Higher weekly npm downloadsyargs (194.7m vs 3.6m)

Each line is generated from the data above.

clipanion: clipanion npm registry, clipanion npm downloads, clipanion GitHub. Data fetched 25 Sept 2026.

Indexability: Indexed: 0 US searches/month across both orderings ("yargs vs clipanion", "clipanion vs yargs").