@babel/runtime is a library that contains the Babel runtime helpers and polyfills. It is designed to optimize the output of Babel by providing reusable helper functions and polyfills that can be shared across different modules. This helps reduce the size of the code generated by Babel, making applications more efficient and faster to load. By using @babel/runtime, developers can avoid code duplication and ensure that their applications are more maintainable.

While @babel/runtime offers significant advantages, there are several alternatives that developers may consider:

• @babel/polyfill was a package that included a set of polyfills for the latest JavaScript features. However, it has been deprecated in favor of using core-js and regenerator-runtime directly. It was useful for ensuring that older browsers could run modern JavaScript code by providing necessary polyfills.
• babel-polyfill was the original package for including polyfills in Babel projects. Similar to @babel/polyfill, it has been deprecated and replaced with core-js and regenerator-runtime. It provided a way to include polyfills for new JavaScript features and was commonly used in older projects.
• babel-runtime is a package that provides Babel's runtime helpers but does not include polyfills. It is useful for projects that need the helper functions without the additional polyfills that @babel/runtime provides. This package can be a good choice for projects that are already handling polyfills separately.
• core-js is a modular standard library for JavaScript that includes polyfills for many ECMAScript features. It is highly configurable and allows developers to include only the polyfills they need, making it a popular choice for modern JavaScript applications.
• regenerator-runtime is a runtime for generator functions and async/await syntax. It is often used alongside core-js to provide the necessary support for asynchronous programming in environments that do not natively support these features.

For a comprehensive comparison of these packages, you can visit: Comparing @babel/polyfill vs @babel/runtime vs babel-polyfill vs babel-runtime vs core-js vs regenerator-runtime.