However, with the package, there's no build requirements and the software is ready to go. Homebrew (and MacPorts) does an excellent job of managing all of this. The main difference between using Homebrew and using the installer package is the build time dependencies. Should I use Homebrew or the official installer? Why? It's an excellent read and I encourage you to review it. There's a similar question here on Ask Different - What are pros and cons for MacPorts, Fink and Homebrew? - that does a comparison of the different package managers. How can I switch my system from the usage of the /usr/local/bin Node installation to the /usr/local/Cellar one?.Should I use Homebrew or the official installer? Why? For me it seems like Homebrew has some advantages over an installer like an easier uninstalling process and a better possibility to update the installed software packages.The node installation from Homebrew is in /usr/local/Cellar. So clearly the official installation is in favour here (maybe because I installed it first? I don't know). When I run the command which node it outputs /usr/local/bin. So now it seems that I have two installations of Node on my system. I then switched to Homebrew and installed it via brew install node.

So first, I installed it via its official installer file. The official macOS installation guide offers different alternatives to do so. Let's say I want to install Node.js on my Mac. I wonder how programs should be installed on Mac? Via Homebrew or an official installer if there is one?

Install npm mac brew