Comparison with Alternatives
There are many ways to run several processes during local development — from simply opening a handful of terminal tabs, to full container orchestration. This page compares dev-process-manager with the most common alternatives so you can pick the right tool for your situation.
The alternatives covered here:
- Multiple terminal tabs — starting each process by hand in its own tab.
- concurrently / npm-run-all — run several npm scripts/commands in one terminal.
- Procfile tools — foreman / node-foreman / Overmind, which run the processes listed in a
Procfile. - PM2 — a full-featured process manager aimed at production.
- Docker Compose — run your stack as containers.
At a glance
Legend: ✅ Built-in · ⚠️ Partial / with caveats · ❌ Not supported
| Capability | dev-process-manager | Multiple terminal tabs | concurrently / npm-run-all | Procfile (foreman / Overmind) | PM2 | Docker Compose |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Primary focus | Local development | Local development | Local development | Local development | Production | Containers (dev & prod) |
| Start whole stack with one command | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Aggregated, prefixed logs | ✅ | ❌ (one tab each) | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ (pm2 logs) | ✅ (compose logs) |
| Ordered startup (wait for port/file) | ✅ (waitOn) | ⚠️ (start them in order yourself) | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ (depends_on + healthcheck) |
| Automatic crash recovery | ✅ (exponential backoff) | ❌ (restart by hand) | ⚠️ (restartTries) | ⚠️ (varies by tool) | ✅ (robust) | ✅ (restart policy) |
| Groups / aliases / selective control | ✅ | ⚠️ (per tab) | ❌ | ⚠️ (by process name) | ⚠️ (by name / namespace) | ⚠️ (services / profiles) |
| Typed config as code | ✅ (dev-pm.config.ts) | ❌ | ⚠️ (CLI args / JSON) | ⚠️ (Procfile) | ⚠️ (ecosystem.config.js) | ⚠️ (YAML) |
| Attach / detach & tail logs later | ✅ (daemon) | ✅ (native terminals) | ❌ (foreground only) | ⚠️ (Overmind via tmux) | ✅ (daemonized) | ✅ (-d + compose logs) |
| Requires containers / images | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Setup weight | Light | None (but tedious) | Very light | Light | Medium | Heavier |
How the alternatives differ
Multiple terminal tabs
The zero-tooling baseline. It works, but it does not scale: you start and stop each process by hand, logs are scattered across tabs, there is nothing to wait for a database before booting the API, and a crash means finding the right tab and restarting it yourself. dev-process-manager keeps the "just run my commands" simplicity while removing that manual bookkeeping.
concurrently / npm-run-all
Great for running a few npm scripts together with prefixed, colorized output in a single
terminal. They are intentionally minimal: there is no dependency ordering (every
command starts at once), only basic restart handling, and no notion of groups or a
daemon. dev-process-manager is a better fit once startup order
(waitOn) or reliable crash recovery start to matter.
Procfile tools (foreman / node-foreman / Overmind)
Procfile-based runners are simple, language-agnostic, and aggregate logs. What they
lack is dependency-aware startup — they cannot wait for a
TCP port or a build artifact before starting a process — and their crash-recovery and
selective-control stories vary by implementation. dev-process-manager adds first-class
waitOn, groups/aliases, and automatic backoff on top of the same one-command
experience.
PM2
PM2 is excellent, but it is aimed at production: clustering, load balancing, zero-downtime reloads, memory-limit restarts and deployment tooling. That power is overkill for local development, and PM2 has no built-in "wait until Postgres is up" ordering. dev-process-manager deliberately stays small and dev-focused. For production you likely want PM2, Docker/Kubernetes, or systemd — see below.
Docker Compose
Compose is the most capable of the alternatives: it has real dependency ordering
(depends_on with healthchecks), restart policies and strong isolation/parity with
production. The trade-off is weight — you need Docker, images and (re)builds, and running
your app inside containers can slow the local edit-run loop compared with running
processes directly on your machine. dev-process-manager is the lighter choice when you
want to run processes natively without containerizing your dev environment.
Choosing the right tool
- Just a couple of scripts, no ordering needed?
concurrentlyornpm-run-allare perfectly fine. - A multi-process app where startup order, crash recovery and per-process control matter, run natively on your machine? This is exactly what dev-process-manager is for.
- You need production-grade supervision (clustering, zero-downtime reloads, deploys)? Reach for PM2, Docker/Kubernetes or systemd.
- You want full environment isolation and production parity locally? Use Docker Compose.
dev-process-manager targets local development and is intentionally not a production process supervisor. See Use Cases → When not to use it.