nvm
Shares rank 5 of 7 version managers by recommenders
Switches Node.js versions per project; people say it just works on new machines. Common caveat: it noticeably slows shell startup, and many critics prefer alternatives like fnm.
Switches Node.js versions per project; people say it just works on new machines. Common caveat: it noticeably slows shell startup, and many critics prefer alternatives like fnm.
20 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 7
- criticize it
- 13
- approval share
- 35%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 7 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 0.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 4 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Quick, reliable per-project Node setup
“It takes a few minutes to install and do `uv sync`, or `nvm install`, or whatever, on a repository on a new computer, and it just works.”
Comment from 2 Jan 2026 in “Going immutable on macOS, using Nix-Darwin” “it's instantaneous on my system”
Comment from 10 Jan 2026 in “The Performance Revolution in JavaScript Tooling”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Slows shell startup noticeably
“Having new terminal sessions taking up hundreds of milliseconds because of nvm”
Comment from 11 Jan 2026 in “You probably don't need Oh My Zsh” “Stuff like NVM or Oh My ZSH will add a few seconds to your shell startup time.”
Comment from 26 Mar 2026 in “Shell Tricks That Make Life Easier (and Save Your Sanity)” “This converts the shell startup penalty into a node/npm startup penalty.”
Comment from 8 Jun 2026 in “Life is too short for a slow terminal” - Comment from 6 Oct 2026 in “Friendship ended with Deno, now Node is my best friend”
- Comment from 8 Jun 2026 in “Life is too short for a slow terminal”
- Comment from 8 Jun 2026 in “Life is too short for a slow terminal”
- Comment from 10 Jan 2026 in “You probably don't need Oh My Zsh”
Better alternatives like fnm exist
“nvm is not node. and there are better options for managing node versions”
Comment from 6 Oct 2026 in “Friendship ended with Deno, now Node is my best friend” “I used nvm a long time and was very happy to get rid of it”
Comment from 12 Mar 2026 in “Show HN: A context-aware permission guard for Claude Code” “I threw away jenv, nvm, fmn and rvm.”
Comment from 28 Nov 2025 in “Installing Java in 2025, and Version Managers” - Comment from 6 Oct 2026 in “Friendship ended with Deno, now Node is my best friend”
- Comment from 11 Jun 2026 in “Homebrew 6.0.0”
- Comment from 6 Oct 2026 in “Friendship ended with Deno, now Node is my best friend”
Invasive install edits shell config
“dodgy curl piped to bash scripts that users install without question”
Comment from 23 Jul 2026 in “LG to Ban Residential Proxies from Smart TV Apps” “it also will drop an nvm install in your home directory”
Comment from 18 Mar 2026 in “Unsloth Studio” “silently appended lines to my bashrc”
Comment from 6 Oct 2026 in “Friendship ended with Deno, now Node is my best friend” Search results lack a definition
“A better result would perhaps be a definition for nvm, since that's the likely reason someone would put it alone in a search form.”
Comment from 18 Jun 2026 in “Interesting Google AI Results” “How did I know it was going to be `nvm` before I clicked?”
Comment from 17 Jun 2026 in “Bringing down my ZSH load times from ~3.1s to ~230ms”
Other version managers people recommend
The four most recommended other version managers, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| mise | 137 | 22 | 86% | 12 | 1 yr4 owners | Approved |
| asdf version manager | 17 | 3 | 85% | 8 | — | Approved |
| rustup | 14 | 5 | 74% | 8 | — | Approved |
| SDKMAN | 12 | 1 | 92% | 2 | — | — |
| nvmThis page | 7 | 13 | 35% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
22 of the 23 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Agreed fnm is much better than nvm”
“nvm added like 3+ seconds to my new shell startup”
“nvm is not node. and there are better options for managing node versions”
“silently appended lines to my bashrc”
“nvm? fnm? what is this? 1998 ?”
“My (ancient) experience with NVM and NPM hasn't been stellar.”
“dodgy curl piped to bash scripts that users install without question”
“A better result would perhaps be a definition for nvm, since that's the likely reason someone would put it alone in a search form.”
“How did I know it was going to be `nvm` before I clicked?”
“I'd given up on nvm a while back”
“it effectively undoes the lazy loading”
“This converts the shell startup penalty into a node/npm startup penalty.”
“considering it's impact on shell startup time”
“Stuff like NVM or Oh My ZSH will add a few seconds to your shell startup time.”
“it also will drop an nvm install in your home directory”
“I used nvm a long time and was very happy to get rid of it”
“they keep python and node versions in environments local to your user, rather than the system”
“Having new terminal sessions taking up hundreds of milliseconds because of nvm”
“it's instantaneous on my system”
“nvm was the big source of bloat”
“It takes a few minutes to install and do `uv sync`, or `nvm install`, or whatever, on a repository on a new computer, and it just works.”
“I threw away jenv, nvm, fmn and rvm.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.