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PRIVATE REGISTRY COMPARISON
GitHub Packages puts npm publishing close to your repositories and GitHub Actions. PrivateNPM is a separate package service with publisher credentials, customer download keys and package-level recipient grants. The main decision is how closely package access should follow your GitHub workflow.
Reviewed by the PrivateNPM team. This is a vendor comparison; official sources and assumptions are linked below.
THE DECISION
GitHub Packages is a good candidate for teams whose publishers and consumers already work within GitHub. Evaluate PrivateNPM when distributing to external customers would otherwise require them to manage GitHub credentials and package permissions.
You want customers to install with a dedicated download key, independent of their GitHub account. You also want to manage npm, PyPI and file delivery through the same recipient model.
Your packages are consumed by GitHub-based collaborators and Actions jobs. The built-in GITHUB_TOKEN can simplify supported publishing and installation workflows when the repository has the necessary package access.
CAPABILITIES AND TRADEOFFS
| Requirement | PrivateNPM | GitHub Packages |
|---|---|---|
| npm namespace | Shared reserved scope or private registry namespace. | Scoped npm packages under a GitHub user or organization. |
| CI publishing | Trusted GitHub Actions or GitLab CI publishing with OIDC, or a publisher key. | GITHUB_TOKEN can publish packages associated with the workflow repository. |
| Installing packages | Separate read-only download keys with package grants. | Personal access token (classic), or GITHUB_TOKEN where the workflow has package access. |
| External customers | Recipient grants and customer portal access. | Plan package permissions and the customer's GitHub authentication workflow. |
PrivateNPM features Plan limits and pricing Competitor documentation
ESTIMATE YOUR MONTH
Enter decimal GB (1 TB = 1,000 GB), human publisher seats and hosted packages across formats. Amounts are USD per month before tax. Customers using download keys are not publisher seats.
PrivateNPM estimates use the published monthly billing catalog, whole GB of excess transfer and the default overage cap of one monthly plan price. The first overage month is waived; these are ongoing-month examples. Annual billing, trial rules and a changed spend cap affect the bill. Registry count, download-key count and other feature requirements are not modeled: check all plan limits.
WORKED EXAMPLES
Test an install from a different private repository and from a customer's laptop, rather than only from the publishing workflow. GitHub documents GITHUB_TOKEN use for permitted Actions workflows and personal access token (classic) authentication for other package access; permission setup changes the onboarding steps.
These are illustrative monthly workloads, not customer results or vendor benchmarks. Each PrivateNPM estimate selects the lowest-priced plan eligible for the shown storage, seat and package counts. Other plan limits still apply.
10 GB stored · 100 GB downloaded · 5 seats · 20 packages.
PrivateNPM: $29/month. Growth · monthly billing, default overage cap
GitHub Packages: evaluate this workload using the provider's pricing model and your additional requirements. No competitor bill is estimated.
100 GB stored · 1500 GB downloaded · 15 seats · 150 packages.
PrivateNPM: $198/month. Scale · monthly billing, default overage cap
GitHub Packages: evaluate this workload using the provider's pricing model and your additional requirements. No competitor bill is estimated.
500 GB stored · 5000 GB downloaded · 30 seats · 500 packages.
PrivateNPM: $499/month. Platform · monthly billing, default overage cap
GitHub Packages: evaluate this workload using the provider's pricing model and your additional requirements. No competitor bill is estimated.
MIGRATION CHECKLIST
Start with one package and one consumer. Keep the existing service available until you have verified publishing, allowed installs, denied access and rollback. Package bytes can be copied; identities, permissions and audit history require separate planning.
Use a publisher key to publish, then a read-only download key in a clean consumer project. Confirm that an allowed package installs, an ungranted package is denied and revocation blocks new downloads after the authorization cache expires. Already downloaded content cannot be revoked from a customer's disk.
Follow the publish-and-install quickstart, then configure the registry route and host-specific credential. For CI, use the trusted publishing guide. These are PrivateNPM walkthroughs; the checklist above is a migration plan, not a claim that every provider has been tested end to end.
Preserve an inventory of required versions, integrity values and dist-tags. Use package-manager commands to update lockfiles and inspect resolved URLs. Do not delete the source packages or revoke the old credentials until consumers have switched and you can restore the previous configuration.
Yes, when the workflow repository has the necessary package access. GitHub documents this as an alternative to a personal access token for supported Actions workflows; do not assume every private repository automatically has access.
No. PrivateNPM authenticates its own publisher and download keys. Create destination credentials and update the registry host and token together.
Reviewed 30 October 2026 by the PrivateNPM team using the official pages below. Pricing can change; confirm current terms before buying. This is a documentation-based comparison, not an independent performance benchmark or a hands-on test of every vendor.
READY WHEN YOU ARE
