Initially released in early 2010, NPM (Node Package Manager). NPM was written by Isaac Z. Schlueter, and is now maintained by a team of developers. Although NPM has Node in the acronym, it can also be used to manage packages for the browser.

In the past few years, many package managers were created specifically for browser packages. One of the most prominent is Bower. These secondary package managers were created because NPM was perceived as a package manager best suited for, or perhaps only suited for, managing Node packages. This belief has subsided; however, Bower’s own website now suggests that it not be used.