Bower

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Freedom report

Two barsScore 4.7

Free tierA free tier is on its own pricing page
Open codeNo open-source code on record
Runs widely3 of 6 device platforms
DocumentedThinly documented

Bower is ranked #93 of 93 in package managers on Freedom251. It runs on Linux, macOS, Windows. There is a free plan.

Bower plans and pricing

All plans

Bower Free Free command-line utility; no paid plans or usage limits stated bower.io · 5 Oct 2026

Compared on package managers

Package publishing: No
Offline package cache: Yes

Best Bower alternatives

See all 20

Two bars npm Free tier No. 1$7/mo8.1 Two bars uv Free tier No. 2Free8.1 Two bars Yarn Free tier No. 3Free8.0 Two bars Gradle Free tier No. 4Free8.0 Two bars Cargo Free tier No. 5Free8.0 Two bars Composer Free tier No. 6Free7.8

The record

Purpose: Bower is a package manager for web front-end components, including HTML, CSS, JavaScript, fonts, and images.
Dependency management: It installs package versions and their dependencies and records project dependencies in bower.json.
Flat dependency graph: Bower downloads a shared dependency such as jQuery only once when multiple packages require it.
Install method: Bower is a command-line utility installed with npm and requires Node.js, npm, and Git.
Package sources: Packages can be installed from registry names, Git endpoints, GitHub shorthand, URLs, and local folders.
Install location: By default, Bower installs packages into the bower_components directory.
Package registration: Bower is deprecated for registering new packages, though GitHub repositories can still be installed as dependencies.
Workflow integrations: The official tools page lists integrations for Grunt, Gulp, Rails and Ruby, Java, IDEs, and other workflows.
Custom resolvers: Third-party JavaScript resolvers can add support for sources such as npm, Mercurial, private registries, Artifactory, and Nexus Repository.
Configuration: Bower supports JSON configuration through .bowerrc, including registry, proxy, SSL, storage, and lifecycle hook settings.
Processing limits: Bower installs packages but does not concatenate or minify code or otherwise process them.
Support: The About page points users to Stack Overflow, a mailing list, and the #bower chat channel for support.
Maintenance status: The official site says Bower is maintained while recommending Yarn and Vite for front-end projects.
Origin: Bower was created at Twitter and originally released as part of Twitter's open-source effort in 2012.
Price from: Free

Where it ranks on Freedom251

Best Package Managers in 2026#93 of 93
Best JavaScript Package Managers in 2026#18 of 18

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Sources

bower.io· checked 5 Oct 2026
bower.io/docs/api/· checked 5 Oct 2026
bower.io/docs/creating-packages/· checked 5 Oct 2026
bower.io/docs/tools/· checked 5 Oct 2026
bower.io/docs/pluggable-resolvers/· checked 5 Oct 2026
bower.io/docs/config/· checked 5 Oct 2026
bower.io/docs/about/· checked 5 Oct 2026