diff --git a/docs/contributing/packages.rst b/docs/contributing/packages.rst
index 484b0d1..74613e2 100644
--- a/docs/contributing/packages.rst
+++ b/docs/contributing/packages.rst
@@ -40,9 +40,7 @@ Apt packages
 ============
 
 Base operating system packages, including Python itself, are installed
-via ``apt`` from the base Ubuntu repositories. The one exception to this
-is nodejs, which is installed from the `nodesource <https://github.com/nodesource/distributions>`_
-apt repository. The Ubuntu provided version of nodejs is usually too old.
+via ``apt`` from the base Ubuntu repositories.
 
 We generally do not pin versions of packages provided by apt, instead
 just using the latest versions provided by Ubuntu.
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/docs/topic/installer-actions.rst b/docs/topic/installer-actions.rst
index b57ae0e..caad82a 100644
--- a/docs/topic/installer-actions.rst
+++ b/docs/topic/installer-actions.rst
@@ -4,21 +4,19 @@
 What does the installer do?
 ===========================
 
-This document details what exactly the installer does to the machine it is 
+This document details what exactly the installer does to the machine it is
 run on.
 
 ``apt`` Packages installed
 ==========================
 
 The packages ``python3`` and ``python3-venv`` are installed from the apt repositories.
-Since we need an recent & supported version of ``nodejs``, we install it from 
-`nodesource <https://github.com/nodesource/distributions>`_.
 
 Hub environment
 ===============
 
 JupyterHub is run from a python3 virtual environment located in ``/opt/tljh/hub``. It
-uses the system's installed python and is owned by root. It also contains a binary install 
+uses the system's installed python and is owned by root. It also contains a binary install
 of `traefik <http://traefik.io/>`_. This virtual environment is completely managed by TLJH.
 
 .. note::
@@ -34,7 +32,7 @@ User environment
 
 By default, a ``miniconda`` environment is installed in ``/opt/tljh/user``. This contains
 the notebook interface used to launch all users, and the various packages available to all
-users. The environment is owned by the ``root`` user. JupyterHub admins may use 
+users. The environment is owned by the ``root`` user. JupyterHub admins may use
 to ``sudo -E conda install`` or ``sudo -E pip install`` packages into this environment.
 
 This conda environment is added to ``$PATH`` for all users started with JupyterHub. If you
@@ -49,7 +47,7 @@ This should let you run various ``conda`` and ``pip`` commands. If  you run into
 
 .. code-block:: bash
 
-   sudo env PATH=${PATH} <command> 
+   sudo env PATH=${PATH} <command>
 
 By default, ``sudo`` does not respect any custom environments you have activated. The ``env PATH=${PATH}``
 'fixes' that.
diff --git a/tests/test_installer.py b/tests/test_installer.py
index 7d594d6..ca13cc5 100644
--- a/tests/test_installer.py
+++ b/tests/test_installer.py
@@ -8,11 +8,6 @@ from tljh import installer
 from tljh.yaml import yaml
 
 
-def test_ensure_node():
-    installer.ensure_node()
-    assert os.path.exists('/usr/bin/node')
-
-
 def test_ensure_config_yaml(tljh_dir):
     pm = installer.setup_plugins()
     installer.ensure_config_yaml(pm)
diff --git a/tljh/installer.py b/tljh/installer.py
index 5852963..8c89ccf 100644
--- a/tljh/installer.py
+++ b/tljh/installer.py
@@ -42,67 +42,6 @@ HERE = os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(__file__))
 
 logger = logging.getLogger("tljh")
 
-def ensure_node():
-    """
-    Ensure nodejs from nodesource is installed
-    """
-    key = b"""
------BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
-Version: GnuPG v1
-Comment: GPGTools - https://gpgtools.org
-
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-=CLGF
------END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
-    """.strip()
-    apt.trust_gpg_key(key)
-    apt.add_source('nodesource', 'https://deb.nodesource.com/node_10.x', 'main')
-    apt.install_packages(['nodejs'])
 
 def remove_chp():
     """
@@ -476,7 +415,6 @@ def main():
     ensure_user_environment(args.user_requirements_txt_url)
 
     logger.info("Setting up JupyterHub...")
-    ensure_node()
     ensure_jupyterhub_package(HUB_ENV_PREFIX)
 
     # Stop the http server with the progress page before traefik starts