Depends, really. If the target is a common OS then having people install Node.js itself plus grabbing your application as a zip file that has the code and a few different files to act as soft executable (myapp.bat, myapp.app, etc) can be significantly smaller. 50MB is not "nothing" when it comes to asking people to download it (because someone still has to download that application, and way fewer people than you think have as nice an internet connection as you). It also means people have to download a _new_ 50MB executable when the app updates, so from an "on disk size", it's nothing only if this is the only node application someone will ever run. Otherwise this becomes bloat very fast. Like bundling a full JVM with every individual application instead of going "or download this much, much smaller thing when you already have java installed". I don't need eight copies of the JRE, in the same way I don't need eight compiled apps if I already have node.js -- but that's a consideration for people who make applications and are thinking of packaged distribution. Just because you can, doesn't mean you should. Or even "should only".