.env vs. node-config

env-configs.md

.env vs. node-config

.env

Pros

• Very simple to setup.
• Automatically assigns configured values on top of process.env.
• Automatically supports overriding configured values via Environment Variables.
• Promotes best practices (FAQ):
  • Have only one config file.
  • Don't commit the file to version control.
• Supported by Create React App out of the box.

Cons

• Can't use dynamic values. e.g.:
  • Referencing other variables (can use dotenv-expand for that).
  • Importing constants from another file.
  • Setting a value by running a JavaScript expression like Date.now().
• All values are translated into strings.
  • That's just how process.env behaves when assigning values on it. e.g.:

    process.env.ENABLED = true;
    process.env.NUM = 3;
    console.log(process.env.ENABLED, process.env.NUM);
    // 'true' '3'

node-config

Pros

• Very flexible.
• Can use any data structure.
• Supports overriding configured values via Environment Variables (although requires a mapping config).
• Supports multi deployment/instance configs out of the box.

Cons

• Doesn't automatically map config values on process.env.
  • That's because it takes a different approach to configs.
• Environment Variables overrides require a non trivial mapping config (Custom Environment Variables).
• Doesn't support ES Modules syntax (although TypeScript is supported).

Conclusion

Prefer using .env as it's much simpler to setup and covers most use cases, especially for Frontend projects.
Use node-config only if you need complex or multi deployment/instance configs.