How to find better NPM packages?

Question

I know it's common to find npm packages based on number of downloads from npmtrends. But how can I discover better alternatives, like better-sqlite3 vs sqlite3, when the newer package is yet to take over the old one?

katsura · Accepted Answer

I usually look at the keywords at the bottom of the readme on project's npm page and click on the one that interests me (or I search for "keywords:sqlite3", for example). From there, it requires a lot of reading and looking at the project health (number of issues, commits, documentation, etc).