Composer vs Rebar3
Composer
getcomposer.orgRebar3
rebar3.orgSide by side
| Figure | Composer | Rebar3 |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · Package Managers | 8.9 (#5) | 8.4 (#25) |
| Dependency resolution | Composer determines which package versions need to be installed and can update all dependencies in one command. | Yes |
| Lockfile support | Yes | Yes |
| Offline installation | Yes | Yes |
| Package formats | PHP packages; ZIP; TAR; VCS repositories | Hex packages; Git sources; Mercurial sources; local path dependencies |
| Platform support | Composer says it is designed to run on Windows, Linux, and macOS. | The documentation describes installation for Windows and says Rebar3 should run wherever Erlang runs, including Windows, macOS, Linux, and FreeBSD. |
| Private registry auth | Yes | Yes |
| Purpose | Composer is a tool for managing PHP project dependencies, installing and updating the libraries a project declares. | Rebar3 helps create, develop, compile, test, and release Erlang libraries, applications, and systems. |
| Support | The project says commercial support and consulting are available through its sponsorship page. | Users are directed to documentation, GitHub issues, Erlang Slack, and IRC for questions and help. |
| Supported platforms | PHP; Windows; Linux; macOS | Erlang/OTP environments; documented compatibility includes OTP 26–28 for Rebar3 3.25.1 |
| Workspace support | Yes | Yes |
Plans
In their own words
Composer
Composer manages dependencies for PHP projects, installing and updating the libraries each project declares. By default, it keeps those dependencies in a directory within the project, and it can also manage a global project. It resolves dependencies and supports lockfiles, workspaces, private registry authentication, and offline installation. Packagist is its default package source; custom Composer, version-control, and local-path repositories are also supported. Composer integrates with Fossil, Git, Mercurial, Perforce, and Subversion. It can be installed locally or as a system-wide executable on Windows, Linux, and macOS. The latest version requires PHP 7.2.5 or later; the 2.2.x LTS line supports PHP 5.3.2 and later. Its audit command checks installed packages for security advisories, abandoned packages, malware flags, and other dependency policies. Composer is free under the MIT license. Plugins and scripts can run with the user's permissions, so the project advises against running Composer as root with untrusted packages.