Deno

Deno is Node.js rebuilt by Node's creator with every lesson learned baked in: TypeScript-first, secure by default, built-in linter, formatter, and test runner. No node_modules. No package.json. Deno 2's npm compatibility finally removed the ecosystem barrier that kept most developers away.

Node.js is still the safe production choice with 100% npm compatibility and 15 years of battle-testing. Bun is faster raw — 8ms cold starts vs Deno's 40ms — but with less mature tooling. Deno sits in the middle: not the fastest, not the most compatible, but the most thoughtful runtime design.

Use Deno if you care about security (its permission model actually prevents supply-chain attacks from rogue npm packages), want TypeScript without config files, or are building for Deno Deploy's edge network.

The catch: 95% npm compatibility means 5% of packages still break, and those are often the obscure native modules your project depends on. The ecosystem is smaller — fewer tutorials, fewer Stack Overflow answers. And in the job market, "Deno experience" is still a rarity.