Can Deno Now Run Most npm Packages and Outpace Node? New Updates Explained

On August 17, the creator of Deno, Ryan Dahl, together with original Node.js author Ryan Dahl and Deno’s strategic and operations lead Alon Bonder, published an official blog post announcing major updates.

Deno now allows easy import of Node.js npm packages and introduces a new HTTP web server, claiming to be the fastest JavaScript runtime ever built.

Deno’s momentum is strong, with 4.1 million GitHub downloads and 250,000 active monthly users, yet its biggest adoption hurdle remains the dominance of the Node.js and npm ecosystem.

Dahl and Bonder state that they aim to enable Deno to import npm packages, expecting 80‑90% of npm packages to run on Deno within the next three months.

Meanwhile, a new competitor, Bun, promises superior performance: its benchmarks show three times the HTTP request rate of Node.js and four times that of Deno. Bun is also npm‑compatible, supporting about 90% of Node APIs, and uses the JavaScriptCore engine for faster startup and execution.

Deno’s team reaffirms confidence in their stack—V8, Rust, and Deno’s own technologies—to deliver the fastest JavaScript web server.

Since its 1.0 release in 2020, Deno has aimed to fix design flaws in Node, offering native TypeScript, WebAssembly support, and ES module standards, while moving away from traditional package managers; external modules are imported directly.

The developer community has responded positively to npm compatibility, though some express concerns about migration and compatibility guarantees.

Deno continues to plan better Node and npm compatibility, while Bun’s emergence adds fresh energy to the competition among JavaScript runtimes.

These developments are promising news for JavaScript and TypeScript developers.