create-index vs pkg

create-index

Creates ES6 ./index.js file in target directories that imports and exports all sibling files and directories. (by gajus)

Build Tools es-modules

Source Code

Docs

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pkg

Package your Node.js project into an executable (by vercel)

Build Tools NodeJS Binaries Compiler CLI

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create-index		pkg
	Project
1	Mentions	91
278	Stars	24,099
-	Growth	-
0.0	Activity	6.3
about 1 year ago	Latest Commit	4 months ago
JavaScript	Language	JavaScript
GNU General Public License v3.0 or later	License	MIT License

The number of mentions indicates the total number of mentions that we've tracked plus the number of user suggested alternatives.
Stars - the number of stars that a project has on GitHub. Growth - month over month growth in stars.
Activity is a relative number indicating how actively a project is being developed. Recent commits have higher weight than older ones.
For example, an activity of 9.0 indicates that a project is amongst the top 10% of the most actively developed projects that we are tracking.

create-index

Posts with mentions or reviews of create-index. We have used some of these posts to build our list of alternatives and similar projects.

Folder Structure of a React Project
1 project | dev.to | 22 Jul 2022

An interesting tool for automating index creation is create-index. I haven't tested yet, but I will give it a try.

pkg

Posts with mentions or reviews of pkg. We have used some of these posts to build our list of alternatives and similar projects. The last one was on 2024-03-30.

We are under DDoS attack and we do nothing
2 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 30 Mar 2024

I don't remember the details, and cannot find my notes on vercel/pkg. But looking at https://github.com/vercel/pkg right now I see the project has been deprecated in favour of single-executable-applications
Tailwind CSS v4.0.0 Alpha
7 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 6 Mar 2024

> Standalone CLI — we haven’t worked on a standalone CLI for the new engine yet, but will absolutely have it before the v4.0 release.
This part is the most exciting to me. Given the rest of the release announcement, I'm assuming this means that it'll be built in Rust rather than embed Node. While I'm not a Rust zealot of anything, I'm very partial to not embedding Node. Particularly when it depends on using Vercel's now-abandoned pkg[1] tool.`
[1] https://github.com/vercel/pkg
Things I've learned about building CLI tools in Python
16 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 24 Oct 2023

The npm package called "pkg" seems to be the standard for packaging NodeJS applications
https://www.npmjs.com/package/pkg
Unfortunately you also need to bundle all your code into a single file for it to work, but you can use any bundler (webpack, parcel, etc) you want at least
Deno 1.35: A fast and convenient way to build web servers
4 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 5 Jul 2023

Nodejs support for "single executable applications" is getting there - this issue below is preventing wider adoption at the moment:
"The single executable application feature currently only supports running a single embedded script using the CommonJS module system."
https://nodejs.org/api/single-executable-applications.html
Should be an awesome game changer for node.js when the feature gets rounded out.
Also check out vercel's `pkg`: https://github.com/vercel/pkg/issues/1291
Can I include Node inside my project?
2 projects | /r/node | 29 Jun 2023

Yes, you can. Check out pkg for a fun option, which can package up your project and Node.js into a single executable.
[Question] How does Node-RED compile a flow?
1 project | /r/nodered | 21 Jun 2023

Further, you could experiment with the pkg tool that allows you to package up Node JS, your source, and your dependencies into one single executable for easy distribution.
Bun v0.6.0 – Bun's new JavaScript bundler and minifier
9 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 16 May 2023
How to restrict the access to an on premise node server?
2 projects | /r/node | 26 Apr 2023
Tips for reducing Docker image size
3 projects | /r/docker | 23 Apr 2023

package the app using https://github.com/vercel/pkg and use a smaller base image like alpine, busybox or even scratch (if possible)
Making standalone exe
1 project | /r/node | 9 Apr 2023

Check this thread: https://github.com/vercel/pkg/issues/1685

What are some alternatives?

When comparing create-index and pkg you can also consider the following projects:

parcel - The zero configuration build tool for the web. 📦🚀

nexe - 🎉 create a single executable out of your node.js apps

ygor - Task toolkit. For when `npm run` isn't enough and everything else is too much.

ncc - Compile a Node.js project into a single file. Supports TypeScript, binary addons, dynamic requires.

gulp - A toolkit to automate & enhance your workflow

reverse-engineering - List of awesome reverse engineering resources

Rollup - Next-generation ES module bundler

webpack - A bundler for javascript and friends. Packs many modules into a few bundled assets. Code Splitting allows for loading parts of the application on demand. Through "loaders", modules can be CommonJs, AMD, ES6 modules, CSS, Images, JSON, Coffeescript, LESS, ... and your custom stuff.

FuseBox - A blazing fast js bundler/loader with a comprehensive API :fire:

bytenode - A minimalist bytecode compiler for Node.js

oclif - CLI for generating, building, and releasing oclif CLIs. Built by Salesforce.