Install Node JS in Ubuntu with APT using Nodesource PPA

This is the easiest way to install any version of Node JS in Ubuntu 20.04. This method also installs NPM so you don’t have to install it separately.

Install Node JS using Nodesource PPA

First, we will install the PPA in order to get access to its packages. From your home directory, use curl to retrieve the installation script for your preferred version. Make sure to replace 18.x with your preferred version string.

curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_18.x -o /tmp/nodesource_setup.sh

sudo bash /tmp/nodesource_setup.sh

The PPA will be added to your configuration and your local package cache will be updated automatically. You can now install the Node.js package by running:

sudo apt install nodejs

Verify that you have installed the new version by running node with the -v version flag:

node -v

The NodeSource nodejs package contains both the node binary and npm, so you don’t need to install npm separately.