These libraries provide utilities for formatting numbers, currencies, and performing mathematical operations in JavaScript. While some focus on lightweight formatting, others offer robust currency math or localization features. Modern development often favors native APIs, but these packages remain relevant for legacy support or specific functional needs like immutable currency objects.
These libraries solve number display and math problems in JavaScript, but they take different approaches. Some focus on simple string formatting, while others handle currency math with precision. Modern browsers also provide native tools that replace many of these needs. Let's compare how they tackle common engineering tasks.
Before writing code, check if the library is still safe to use. Several options here are no longer updated.
accounting is unmaintained.
// accounting: No recent updates
// npm install accounting
var accounting = require('accounting');
currency.js is actively maintained.
// currency.js: Active development
// npm install currency.js
import currency from 'currency.js';
format-number is stable but minimal.
// format-number: Stable minimalism
// npm install format-number
var formatNumber = require('format-number');
intl is a polyfill for legacy browsers.
Intl is preferred now.// intl: Polyfill package
// npm install intl
require('intl');
numbro is actively maintained.
numeral with fixes.// numbro: Active fork
// npm install numbro
import numbro from 'numbro';
numeral is unmaintained.
// numeral: Unmaintained
// npm install numeral
var numeral = require('numeral');
Each library has a different way to turn raw numbers into readable strings.
accounting uses specific format strings for money.
// accounting: Money format
accounting.formatMoney(1234567.89, "$ ", 2);
// Output: "$ 1,234,567.89"
currency.js chains format methods on objects.
// currency.js: Chain format
currency(1234567.89).format();
// Output: "$1,234,567.89"
format-number uses a configuration object.
// format-number: Config object
formatNumber(1234567.89, { round: 2, thousand: ',' });
// Output: "1,234,567.89"
intl relies on native API constructors.
// intl: Native constructor
new Intl.NumberFormat('en-US').format(1234567.89);
// Output: "1,234,567.89"
numbro uses format strings similar to Excel.
// numbro: Format string
numbro(1234567.89).format('$0,0.00');
// Output: "$1,234,567.89"
numeral uses the same format strings as numbro.
// numeral: Legacy format string
numeral(1234567.89).format('$0,0.00');
// Output: "$1,234,567.89"
Handling money requires more than just formatting. You need to avoid floating-point errors.
accounting does not handle math.
// accounting: No math support
var total = 10.50 + 20.30; // Manual math
accounting.formatMoney(total);
currency.js handles math internally.
// currency.js: Built-in math
currency(10.50).add(20.30).format();
// Output: "$30.80" (Precise)
format-number does not handle math.
// format-number: No math support
var total = 10.50 + 20.30; // Manual math
formatNumber(total);
intl does not handle math.
// intl: No math support
var total = 10.50 + 20.30; // Manual math
new Intl.NumberFormat('en-US').format(total);
numbro supports basic math operations.
// numbro: Basic math
numbro(10.50).add(20.30).format();
// Output: "30.80" (Floating point)
numeral supports basic math operations.
numbro but unmaintained.// numeral: Basic math
numeral(10.50).add(20.30).format();
// Output: "30.80" (Floating point)
Global apps need to show numbers correctly for different regions.
accounting has limited locale support.
// accounting: Manual locale
accounting.settings.currency.symbol = "€";
accounting.formatMoney(1000);
currency.js allows custom locale settings.
// currency.js: Custom options
currency(1000, { symbol: '€', precision: 2 }).format();
format-number has no built-in locales.
// format-number: Manual config
formatNumber(1000, { thousand: '.', decimal: ',' });
intl excels at localization.
// intl: Native locale support
new Intl.NumberFormat('de-DE').format(1000);
// Output: "1.000"
numbro supports many languages.
// numbro: Language load
numbro.language('de-DE');
numbro(1000).format();
numeral supports many languages.
numbro but outdated data.// numeral: Language load
numbro.language('de-DE');
numeral(1000).format();
| Feature | accounting | currency.js | format-number | intl | numbro | numeral |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Status | ❌ Unmaintained | ✅ Active | ⚠️ Stable | ✅ Native | ✅ Active | ❌ Unmaintained |
| Math | ❌ None | ✅ Precise | ❌ None | ❌ None | ⚠️ Float | ⚠️ Float |
| i18n | ⚠️ Manual | ⚠️ Custom | ❌ None | ✅ Best | ✅ Good | ✅ Good |
| Use Case | Legacy Money | Fintech/Carts | Simple Display | Global Apps | Formatting | Legacy Format |
currency.js is the top choice for financial logic.
intl (Native) is the top choice for display.
numbro is the fallback for complex formatting.
Intl lacks.numeral for long-term support.numeral and accounting should be avoided.
numbro or native APIs.Final Thought: For most modern apps, combine native Intl for display with currency.js for money math. This mix gives you precision without unnecessary dependencies.
Do not choose numeral for new projects as it is unmaintained and has known issues with localization and bundle size. It was popular historically but is now considered deprecated in favor of numbro or native APIs. Only use it if you are maintaining an existing system that cannot be refactored.
Choose accounting only for legacy projects that require simple currency formatting without heavy dependencies. It is unmaintained and lacks modern localization features, so avoid it for new development. Use it if you need a quick fix for an old codebase that already relies on its specific API.
Choose currency.js when you need immutable currency objects that handle math operations safely without floating-point errors. It is ideal for e-commerce carts, invoicing, or financial dashboards where precision matters. It combines formatting and calculation in one lightweight package.
Choose format-number if you need a minimalistic function to format numbers with separators and decimals without extra features. It is suitable for simple displays where localization is handled elsewhere or is not required. Avoid it for complex currency logic or internationalization needs.
Choose the intl npm package only if you must support very old browsers that lack native Intl support. For all modern projects, use the built-in browser Intl API instead of this polyfill package. Relying on this package in new apps adds unnecessary weight and maintenance overhead.
Choose numbro if you need the feature set of numeral but require active maintenance and bug fixes. It is a community-driven fork that supports formatting, parsing, and basic math operations. It is a safer bet than numeral for long-term projects requiring extensive number formatting.
A javascript library for formatting and manipulating numbers.
#CDNJS
develop branch. All pull requests must include the appropriate tests.Fork the library
Run npm install to install dependencies
Create a new branch from develop
Add your tests to the files in /tests
To test your tests, run grunt
When all your tests are passing, run grunt dist to compile and minify all files
Submit a pull request to the develop branch.
Formats now exist in their own files and act more or less as plugins. Check out the bytes format for an example of how to create one.
When naming locale files use the ISO 639-1 language codes supplemented by ISO 3166-1 country codes when necessary.
See the english unit tests for an example.
Bug fix: Multi letter currency symbols and spacing
Added: Formatting of numbers with leading zeros
New format: Basic Point
Option: Added scalePercentBy100 (default: true) option to turn on/off scaling percentages
Bug fix: Incorrect abbreviations for values rounded up #187
Bug fix: Signed currency is inconsistent #89
Bug fix: Updated module definitions
Bug fix: Fixed regression for webpack/browserify/rollup
2.0.0 brings a lot of breaking changes and a reorganization of the repo, but also simplifies the api as well as the creating of custom formats.
Breaking change / Feature: All formats are now separate files. This makes it easy to create custom formats, and will also allow for custom builds with only certain formats. (Note: The built numeral.js still contains all formats in the repo).
Breaking change / Feature: All formats and locales are now loaded using numeral.register(type, name, {})
Breaking change: All language now renamed to locale and standardized to all lowercase filenames
Breaking change: The locale function no longer loads locales, it only sets the current locale
Breaking change: The unformat function has been removed numeral().unformat(string) and now happens on numeral init numeral(string)
Breaking change / Feature: Bytes are now formatted as: b (base 1000) and ib (base 1024)
Breaking change: numeral(NaN) is now treated the same as numeral(null) and no longer throws an error
Feature: Exponential format using e+ or e-
Bug fix: Update to floating point helpers (Note: Numeral does not fix JS floating point errors, but look to our tests to see that it covers quite a few cases.)
Bug fix: numeral converts strings to numbers
Bug fix: Null values return same as 0
Contained breaking changes, recommended to use 1.5.6
Bug fix: Switch bytes back to b and change iecBinary to ib, and calculate both using 1024 for backwards compatibility
Contained breaking changes, recommended to use 1.5.6
Tests: Changed all tests to use Mocha and Chai
Tests: Added browser tests for Chrome, Firefox, and IE using saucelabs
Added reset function to reset numeral to default options
Added nullFormat option
Update reduce polyfill
Added Binary bytes
Bug fix: Fixes problem with many optional decimals
Added currency symbol to optionally appear before negative sign / open paren
Added float precision math support
Added specification of abbreviation in thousands, millions, billions
Bug fix: Unformat should pass through if given a number
Added a mechanism to control rounding behaviour
Added languageData() for getting and setting language props at runtime
Bug fix: Make sure values aren't changed during formatting
Add defaultFormat(). numeral().format() uses the default to format if no string is provided
.unformat() returns 0 when passed no string
Added languages.js that contains all languages
Bug fix: Fix bug while unformatting ordinals
Add format option to always show signed value
Added ability to instantiate numeral with a string value of a number
Bug fix: Fix bug while unformatting ordinals
Bug fix: Throw error if language is not defined
Bug fix: Fix typo for trillion
Bug fix: remove ' from unformatting regex that was causing an error with fr-ch.js
Add zeroFormat() function that accepts a string for custom formating of zeros
Add valueOf() function
Chain functionality to language function
Make all minified files have the same .min.js filename ending
Bug fix: Bytes not formatting correctly
Add optional format for all decimals
Remove AMD module id. (This is encouraged by require.js to make the module more portable, and keep it from creating a global)
AMD define() compatibility.
Bug fix: Formatting some numbers results in the wrong value. Issue #21
Bug fix: Minor fix to unformatting parser
Add support for spaces before/after $, a, o, b in a format string
Bug fix: Fix unformat for languages that use '.' in ordinals
Bug fix: Fix round up floating numbers with no precision correctly.
Bug fix: Fix currency signs at the end in unformat
Add support for optional decimal places
Add support for appending currency symbol
Add support for humanized filesizes
Bug Fix: Fix unformatting for languages that use '.' as thousands delimiter
Changed language definition property 'money' to 'currency'
Bug fix: Fix unformatting non-negative abbreviations
Add language support
Update testing for to include languages
Add Tests
Bug fix: Fix difference returning negative values
Bug fix: Non negative numbers were displaying as negative when using parentheses
Add ordinal formatting using 'o' in the format
Add clone functionality
Added abbreviations for thousands and millions using 'a' in the format
Initial release
Numeral.js, while less complex, was inspired by and heavily borrowed from Moment.js
Numeral.js is freely distributable under the terms of the MIT license.
Copyright (c) 2012 Adam Draper
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.