cookie vs js-cookie vs universal-cookie
JavaScript Cookie Management Libraries Comparison
1 Year
cookiejs-cookieuniversal-cookieSimilar Packages:
What's JavaScript Cookie Management Libraries?

JavaScript cookie management libraries provide developers with tools to handle cookies in web applications efficiently. Cookies are small pieces of data stored on the client-side, often used for session management, user preferences, and tracking. These libraries simplify the process of creating, reading, and deleting cookies while addressing issues such as cookie encoding, expiration, and cross-domain compatibility. Choosing the right library can enhance the user experience and ensure compliance with privacy regulations.

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cookie63,275,5031,38646.5 kB83 months agoMIT
js-cookie11,333,37022,16326.2 kB42 years agoMIT
universal-cookie1,613,32217352.9 kB144 months agoMIT
Feature Comparison: cookie vs js-cookie vs universal-cookie

API Simplicity

  • cookie:

    The 'cookie' library has a minimalistic API focused on parsing and serializing cookies, making it straightforward but lacking advanced features.

  • js-cookie:

    The 'js-cookie' library offers a simple and intuitive API for cookie management, allowing developers to easily create, read, and delete cookies with optional parameters for expiration and path.

  • universal-cookie:

    The 'universal-cookie' library provides a consistent API that works in both client and server environments, making it easy to manage cookies regardless of where the code is executed.

Environment Compatibility

  • cookie:

    Designed primarily for server-side usage, 'cookie' is lightweight and does not include any browser-specific features, making it suitable for environments like Node.js.

  • js-cookie:

    'js-cookie' is specifically designed for client-side JavaScript, providing features that leverage browser capabilities, such as cookie expiration and path management.

  • universal-cookie:

    'universal-cookie' is built for versatility, functioning in both client and server environments, which is beneficial for applications that require cookie management in different contexts.

Feature Set

  • cookie:

    The 'cookie' library focuses on basic cookie operations, providing essential functionality without additional features like expiration or path handling.

  • js-cookie:

    'js-cookie' includes features such as cookie expiration, path, and secure options, making it a more comprehensive solution for client-side cookie management.

  • universal-cookie:

    'universal-cookie' offers a robust feature set, including support for both HTTP and document cookies, making it suitable for complex applications that require extensive cookie handling.

Size and Performance

  • cookie:

    Being a minimal library, 'cookie' has a very small footprint, which can lead to better performance in environments where size matters.

  • js-cookie:

    'js-cookie' is lightweight but slightly larger than 'cookie' due to its additional features. However, it remains performant for most web applications.

  • universal-cookie:

    'universal-cookie' is larger than the other two libraries, but its performance is optimized for both client and server environments, providing a balance between functionality and efficiency.

Community and Support

  • cookie:

    The 'cookie' library is widely used in server-side applications and has a stable, mature codebase, but it may lack extensive community support compared to more popular libraries.

  • js-cookie:

    'js-cookie' has a strong community presence and is frequently updated, providing good documentation and support for developers.

  • universal-cookie:

    'universal-cookie' benefits from a growing community and is well-documented, making it easier for developers to find help and resources.

How to Choose: cookie vs js-cookie vs universal-cookie
  • cookie:

    Choose 'cookie' if you need a lightweight, no-frills library that focuses solely on parsing and serializing cookies without any additional features. It's ideal for server-side environments or minimal client-side usage where you want to keep dependencies low.

  • js-cookie:

    Choose 'js-cookie' for a user-friendly API that simplifies cookie management in client-side JavaScript. It offers a straightforward interface for creating, reading, and deleting cookies, along with support for options like expiration and path, making it suitable for most web applications.

  • universal-cookie:

    Choose 'universal-cookie' if you require a library that works seamlessly in both client-side and server-side environments (like Node.js). It provides a consistent API for managing cookies across different platforms and is particularly useful for applications that need to handle cookies in both contexts.

README for cookie

cookie

NPM Version NPM Downloads Build Status Coverage Status

Basic HTTP cookie parser and serializer for HTTP servers.

Installation

$ npm install cookie

API

const cookie = require("cookie");
// import * as cookie from 'cookie';

cookie.parse(str, options)

Parse a HTTP Cookie header string and returning an object of all cookie name-value pairs. The str argument is the string representing a Cookie header value and options is an optional object containing additional parsing options.

const cookies = cookie.parse("foo=bar; equation=E%3Dmc%5E2");
// { foo: 'bar', equation: 'E=mc^2' }

Options

cookie.parse accepts these properties in the options object.

decode

Specifies a function that will be used to decode a cookie-value. Since the value of a cookie has a limited character set (and must be a simple string), this function can be used to decode a previously-encoded cookie value into a JavaScript string.

The default function is the global decodeURIComponent, wrapped in a try..catch. If an error is thrown it will return the cookie's original value. If you provide your own encode/decode scheme you must ensure errors are appropriately handled.

cookie.serialize(name, value, options)

Serialize a cookie name-value pair into a Set-Cookie header string. The name argument is the name for the cookie, the value argument is the value to set the cookie to, and the options argument is an optional object containing additional serialization options.

const setCookie = cookie.serialize("foo", "bar");
// foo=bar

Options

cookie.serialize accepts these properties in the options object.

encode

Specifies a function that will be used to encode a cookie-value. Since value of a cookie has a limited character set (and must be a simple string), this function can be used to encode a value into a string suited for a cookie's value, and should mirror decode when parsing.

The default function is the global encodeURIComponent.

maxAge

Specifies the number (in seconds) to be the value for the Max-Age Set-Cookie attribute.

The cookie storage model specification states that if both expires and maxAge are set, then maxAge takes precedence, but it is possible not all clients by obey this, so if both are set, they should point to the same date and time.

expires

Specifies the Date object to be the value for the Expires Set-Cookie attribute. When no expiration is set clients consider this a "non-persistent cookie" and delete it the current session is over.

The cookie storage model specification states that if both expires and maxAge are set, then maxAge takes precedence, but it is possible not all clients by obey this, so if both are set, they should point to the same date and time.

domain

Specifies the value for the Domain Set-Cookie attribute. When no domain is set clients consider the cookie to apply to the current domain only.

path

Specifies the value for the Path Set-Cookie attribute. When no path is set, the path is considered the "default path".

httpOnly

Enables the HttpOnly Set-Cookie attribute. When enabled, clients will not allow client-side JavaScript to see the cookie in document.cookie.

secure

Enables the Secure Set-Cookie attribute. When enabled, clients will only send the cookie back if the browser has a HTTPS connection.

partitioned

Enables the Partitioned Set-Cookie attribute. When enabled, clients will only send the cookie back when the current domain and top-level domain matches.

This is an attribute that has not yet been fully standardized, and may change in the future. This also means clients may ignore this attribute until they understand it. More information about can be found in the proposal.

priority

Specifies the value for the Priority Set-Cookie attribute.

  • 'low' will set the Priority attribute to Low.
  • 'medium' will set the Priority attribute to Medium, the default priority when not set.
  • 'high' will set the Priority attribute to High.

More information about priority levels can be found in the specification.

sameSite

Specifies the value for the SameSite Set-Cookie attribute.

  • true will set the SameSite attribute to Strict for strict same site enforcement.
  • 'lax' will set the SameSite attribute to Lax for lax same site enforcement.
  • 'none' will set the SameSite attribute to None for an explicit cross-site cookie.
  • 'strict' will set the SameSite attribute to Strict for strict same site enforcement.

More information about enforcement levels can be found in the specification.

Example

The following example uses this module in conjunction with the Node.js core HTTP server to prompt a user for their name and display it back on future visits.

var cookie = require("cookie");
var escapeHtml = require("escape-html");
var http = require("http");
var url = require("url");

function onRequest(req, res) {
  // Parse the query string
  var query = url.parse(req.url, true, true).query;

  if (query && query.name) {
    // Set a new cookie with the name
    res.setHeader(
      "Set-Cookie",
      cookie.serialize("name", String(query.name), {
        httpOnly: true,
        maxAge: 60 * 60 * 24 * 7, // 1 week
      }),
    );

    // Redirect back after setting cookie
    res.statusCode = 302;
    res.setHeader("Location", req.headers.referer || "/");
    res.end();
    return;
  }

  // Parse the cookies on the request
  var cookies = cookie.parse(req.headers.cookie || "");

  // Get the visitor name set in the cookie
  var name = cookies.name;

  res.setHeader("Content-Type", "text/html; charset=UTF-8");

  if (name) {
    res.write("<p>Welcome back, <b>" + escapeHtml(name) + "</b>!</p>");
  } else {
    res.write("<p>Hello, new visitor!</p>");
  }

  res.write('<form method="GET">');
  res.write(
    '<input placeholder="enter your name" name="name"> <input type="submit" value="Set Name">',
  );
  res.end("</form>");
}

http.createServer(onRequest).listen(3000);

Testing

npm test

Benchmark

npm run bench
     name                   hz     min     max    mean     p75     p99    p995    p999     rme  samples
   · simple       8,566,313.09  0.0000  0.3694  0.0001  0.0001  0.0002  0.0002  0.0003  ±0.64%  4283157   fastest
   · decode       3,834,348.85  0.0001  0.2465  0.0003  0.0003  0.0003  0.0004  0.0006  ±0.38%  1917175
   · unquote      8,315,355.96  0.0000  0.3824  0.0001  0.0001  0.0002  0.0002  0.0003  ±0.72%  4157880
   · duplicates   1,944,765.97  0.0004  0.2959  0.0005  0.0005  0.0006  0.0006  0.0008  ±0.24%   972384
   · 10 cookies     675,345.67  0.0012  0.4328  0.0015  0.0015  0.0019  0.0020  0.0058  ±0.75%   337673
   · 100 cookies     61,040.71  0.0152  0.4092  0.0164  0.0160  0.0196  0.0228  0.2260  ±0.71%    30521   slowest
   ✓ parse top-sites (15) 22945ms
     name                                  hz     min     max    mean     p75     p99    p995    p999     rme   samples
   · parse accounts.google.com   7,164,349.17  0.0000  0.0929  0.0001  0.0002  0.0002  0.0002  0.0003  ±0.09%   3582184
   · parse apple.com             7,817,686.84  0.0000  0.6048  0.0001  0.0001  0.0002  0.0002  0.0003  ±1.05%   3908844
   · parse cloudflare.com        7,189,841.70  0.0000  0.0390  0.0001  0.0002  0.0002  0.0002  0.0003  ±0.06%   3594921
   · parse docs.google.com       7,051,765.61  0.0000  0.0296  0.0001  0.0002  0.0002  0.0002  0.0003  ±0.06%   3525883
   · parse drive.google.com      7,349,104.77  0.0000  0.0368  0.0001  0.0001  0.0002  0.0002  0.0003  ±0.05%   3674553
   · parse en.wikipedia.org      1,929,909.49  0.0004  0.3598  0.0005  0.0005  0.0007  0.0007  0.0012  ±0.16%    964955
   · parse linkedin.com          2,225,658.01  0.0003  0.0595  0.0004  0.0005  0.0005  0.0005  0.0006  ±0.06%   1112830
   · parse maps.google.com       4,423,511.68  0.0001  0.0942  0.0002  0.0003  0.0003  0.0003  0.0005  ±0.08%   2211756
   · parse microsoft.com         3,387,601.88  0.0002  0.0725  0.0003  0.0003  0.0004  0.0004  0.0005  ±0.09%   1693801
   · parse play.google.com       7,375,980.86  0.0000  0.1994  0.0001  0.0001  0.0002  0.0002  0.0003  ±0.12%   3687991
   · parse support.google.com    4,912,267.94  0.0001  2.8958  0.0002  0.0002  0.0003  0.0003  0.0005  ±1.28%   2456134
   · parse www.google.com        3,443,035.87  0.0002  0.2783  0.0003  0.0003  0.0004  0.0004  0.0007  ±0.51%   1721518
   · parse youtu.be              1,910,492.87  0.0004  0.3490  0.0005  0.0005  0.0007  0.0007  0.0011  ±0.46%    955247
   · parse youtube.com           1,895,082.62  0.0004  0.7454  0.0005  0.0005  0.0006  0.0007  0.0013  ±0.64%    947542   slowest
   · parse example.com          21,582,835.27  0.0000  0.1095  0.0000  0.0000  0.0001  0.0001  0.0001  ±0.13%  10791418

References

License

MIT