Assembly Line

Open-source JavaScript runtimes and version managers in 2026

13 open-source projects, ranked by GitHub stars and how recently each was worked on. Node.js leads with 123k stars, ahead of Deno. 11 had code pushed in the last three months. Most common licenses: MIT (7), See repository (2) and MPL-2.0 (2).

Open-source JavaScript runtimes and version managers

Frameworks and platforms to build on 2

  1. 1
    Node.js nodejs

    Node.js JavaScript runtime ✨🐢🚀✨

    Framework or platform Production-ready You run JavaScript or TypeScript outside the browser and want the most widely supported runtime and library ecosystem.

    ★ 123k See repository JavaScript Active, pushed today
  2. 2
    Deno denoland

    A modern runtime for JavaScript and TypeScript.

    Framework or platform Production-ready You want TypeScript without build setup, a sandboxed permission model, or all-in-one tooling for scripts and services.

    ★ 109k MIT Rust Active, pushed 7 days ago

Building blocks for your own system 2

  1. 1
    QuickBEAM elixir-volt

    JavaScript runtime for the BEAM — Web APIs backed by OTP, native DOM, and a built-in TypeScript toolchain.

    Building block Experimental Your Elixir app needs to run JavaScript, such as server-side rendering of a Svelte or Vue bundle, without calling out to Node.js.

    ★ 427 MIT C Active, pushed 29 days ago
  2. 2
    YantraJS yantrajs

    JavaScript Engine for .NET

    Building block Usable You need to embed modern JavaScript in a .NET application and want a pure managed engine.

    ★ 262 Apache-2.0 JavaScript Active, pushed 15 days ago

Developer tools 9

  1. 1
    Bun oven-sh

    Incredibly fast JavaScript runtime, bundler, test runner, and package manager – all in one

    Developer tool Production-ready You start a new JavaScript or TypeScript project and want fast installs, fast startup and fewer separate tools, and you can test Node compatibility for your dependencies.

    ★ 97k See repository Rust Active, pushed today
  2. 2
    Node Version Manager nvm-sh

    Node Version Manager - POSIX-compliant bash script to manage multiple active node.js versions.

    Developer tool Production-ready You work on macOS or Linux across projects pinned to different Node.js versions and only need to manage Node itself.

    ★ 96k MIT Shell Active, pushed yesterday
  3. 3
    mise jdx

    dev tools, env vars, task runner

    Developer tool Production-ready Your team juggles nvm, pyenv, asdf, direnv and make-style scripts and wants one config file that works the same in the shell, the editor and CI.

    ★ 36k MIT Rust Active, pushed today
  4. 4
    fnm Schniz

    🚀 Fast and simple Node.js version manager, built in Rust

    Developer tool Production-ready You switch between Node.js versions across projects and want something faster than nvm that also works on Windows.

    ★ 27k GPL-3.0 Rust Active, pushed 10 days ago
  5. 5
    tsx privatenumber

    ⚡️ TypeScript Execute | The easiest way to run TypeScript in Node.js

    Developer tool Production-ready You want to run TypeScript scripts or a dev server in Node.js without a separate compile step or config.

    ★ 12k MIT TypeScript Active, pushed 41 days ago
  6. 6
    Nub nubjs

    The fast all-in-one Node.js toolkit

    Developer tool Experimental You want Bun-like speed and convenience but need to stay on the real Node.js runtime.

    ★ 4.4k MIT Rust Active, pushed today
  7. 7
    Andromeda tryandromeda

    JS runtime lolz

    Developer tool Experimental You are interested in alternative JavaScript engines and want to experiment, not run production code.

    ★ 857 MPL-2.0 Rust Active, pushed 8 days ago
  8. 8
    ts-node TypeStrong

    TypeScript execution and REPL for node.js

    Developer tool Usable Only when an existing project depends on it; new projects use tsx or Node.js's built-in type stripping.

    ★ 13k MIT TypeScript Quiet, pushed 2 years ago
  9. 9
    Spiderfire redfire75369

    JavaScript Runtime built with Mozilla's SpiderMonkey Engine

    Developer tool Experimental You want to study how a SpiderMonkey-based runtime is put together.

    ★ 440 MPL-2.0 Rust Quiet, pushed 15 months ago

Open-source licenses

  • Permissive: 8. Use it anywhere, including in closed products. You keep the copyright notice; Apache-2.0 also grants patent rights.
  • Weak copyleft: 2. Changes to the licensed files must be shared, but you can link them into a closed program.
  • Strong copyleft: 1. If you distribute the program or anything built on it, you must release the whole source under the same license.

Languages

Rust 7, JavaScript 2, TypeScript 2, Shell 1 and C 1.

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