What's the difference between tsc (TypeScript compiler) and ts-node?

Question

I'm very confused about the difference between tsc and ts-node. I'm learning TypeScript and I usually transpile server .ts files with tsc command.

Now, I'm approaching nestjs framework, and I see that it uses ts-node.

So what's the difference between the two? Which one should I use?

Answer 1

The main difference is that tsc transpile all the file according to your tsconfig.

Instead, ts-node will start from the entry file and transpile the file step by step through the tree based on the import/export.