Although composer was inspired by npm - they are not identical. Composer always just works for me. But with npm I always end up in some strange dependency hell.

Although composer was inspired by npm - they are not identical. Composer always just works for me. But with npm I always end up in some strange dependency hell. Add the fact that JS standard library is lacking in some basic functionality and you end up with a ludicrous amount of dependencies. In short, give composer a try if you are already building apps in PHP.