head to head · open source
lerna vs nx
lerna has 36,041 GitHub stars, 2,269 forks, 287 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. nx has 29,443 stars, 2,973 forks, 490 open issues and last shipped yesterday. lerna leads on adoption by 22% (36,041 vs 29,443 stars). lerna is written in TypeScript under MIT; nx is written in TypeScript under MIT. lerna has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, nx 10%. nx was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (monorepo), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| lerna | nx | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 36K | ★ 29K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-10-31 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.3K | ⑂ 3.0K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick lerna if
- You weight community size — 36K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick nx if
- You want the nx feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and nx fits your workflow better
About lerna
Important note: this project changed stewardship to Nx! Your favorite tool is alive and well: Lerna is a fast, modern build system for managing and publishing multiple JavaScript/TypeScript packages from the same repository. A few links to help you get started: lerna.js.org: Documentation, Guides, Interactive Tutorials Getting Started Features Official Nx and Lerna YouTube Channel Blog Posts About Lerna and Nx Engage with the Core Team and the Community Follow Lerna on Twitter Community Discord, forum channel Want to help? If you want to file a bug or submit a PR, read up on our guidelines for contributing Core…
read the full lerna overview →
About nx
Smart Monorepos · Fast Builds Docs • Changelog • Blog • Courses • YouTube Nx is a monorepo solution for TypeScript and polyglot codebases. Built with Rust for performance, extensible via TypeScript. Caches what didn't change, runs only what's affected, and comes with an integrated CI solution. Start simple, scale as you grow. Quick Start Visit the Nx quickstart docs to get started. Why Nx? Incremental by design Run npx nx init in any npm/pnpm/yarn workspace. Nx picks up your existing package.json scripts, caches their outputs, and runs only what's affected. No changes to your setup required…
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Frequently asked questions
Is lerna or nx more popular?
lerna has 36,041 GitHub stars and nx has 29,443. lerna has the larger community by that measure.
Are lerna and nx free?
Both are open source. lerna is licensed under MIT and nx under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between lerna and nx?
lerna is written in TypeScript and nx in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, lerna or nx?
Choose lerna if you want the larger community (36,041 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose nx if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.