Composer vs Shards
Composer
getcomposer.orgShards
crystal-lang.orgSide by side
| Figure | Composer | Shards |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| Android | — | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · Package Managers | 8.9 (#5) | 8.1 (#34) |
| License | Composer and the content on its site are released under the MIT license. | The Crystal site states that the language is licensed under Apache License 2.0. |
| Purpose | Composer is a tool for managing PHP project dependencies, installing and updating the libraries a project declares. | Shards is Crystal’s dependency manager for managing dependencies for Crystal projects and libraries. |
| Support | The project says commercial support and consulting are available through its sponsorship page. | The project directs users to its community forum and Discord for help. |
| Supported platforms | PHP; Windows; Linux; macOS | The install page lists Linux, macOS, and Windows, and lists Android installation through community-maintained Termux packages. |
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.