Build Tools Comparison
April 23, 2026 · View on GitHub
Benchmark comparing JavaScript bundlers and build tools (Rspack, Rsbuild, webpack, Vite, Rolldown, esbuild, Rollup, Parcel and Farm) for dev server startup time, build performance and bundle size for applications with different module sizes.
Metrics
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Startup (no cache) | Time from starting the dev server to page loaded |
| Startup (with cache) | Time from starting the dev server to page loaded with cache |
| HMR | Time to HMR after changing a module |
| Build (no cache) | Time taken to build the production bundles |
| Build (with cache) | Time taken to build the production bundles with cache |
| Memory (RSS) | Memory usage at the end of a cold start or production build |
| Output size | Total size of the output bundle, minified with the default minifier |
| Gzipped size | Gzipped size of the output bundle, represents actual network transfer size |
Notes
- Build target is set to
es2022(Chrome >= 93) for all tools. - Minification is enabled in production for all tools.
- Source map is enabled in development and disabled in production for all tools.
- Benchmarks run on GitHub Actions with variable hardware, which may cause inconsistent results.
Tooling details:
- webpack is configured to use SWC instead of Babel / Terser.
- Vite uses Rolldown and Oxc.
Results
Data from GitHub Actions: https://github.com/rstackjs/build-tools-performance/actions/runs/24771343987 (2026-04-22)
react-1k
A React app with 1,000 components and 1,500 modules from node_modules, using dynamic imports to simulate SPA.
CASE=react-1k pnpm benchmark
Development metrics:
| Name | Startup (no cache) | Startup (with cache) | HMR | Memory (RSS) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rspack CLI 2.0.0 | 1394ms🥇 | 930ms🥇 | 146ms🥉 | 350MB🥈 |
| Rsbuild 2.0.0 | 1562ms🥈 | 998ms🥈 | 166ms | 324MB🥇 |
| Vite 8.0.9 | 7111ms | 5206ms | 89ms🥇 | 509MB🥉 |
| webpack 5.106.2 | 7541ms | 4288ms | 755ms | 858MB |
| Farm 1.7.11 | 2122ms🥉 | 1003ms🥉 | 137ms🥈 | 550MB |
| Parcel 2.16.4 | 5050ms | 1257ms | 361ms | 1093MB |
Build metrics:
| Name | Build (no cache) | Build (with cache) | Memory (RSS) | Output size | Gzipped size |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rspack CLI 2.0.0 | 993ms🥉 | 514ms🥇 | 282MB🥇 | 846.2kB🥈 | 222.0kB |
| Rsbuild 2.0.0 | 862ms🥈 | 556ms🥈 | 289MB🥈 | 873.5kB | 215.3kB🥇 |
| Vite 8.0.9 | 624ms🥇 | 703ms🥉 | 302MB🥉 | 823.8kB🥇 | 218.0kB🥈 |
| webpack 5.106.2 | 6538ms | 1956ms | 697MB | 846.5kB🥉 | 221.9kB🥉 |
| Farm 1.7.11 | 2346ms | 1262ms | 397MB | 1089.7kB | 256.8kB |
| Parcel 2.16.4 | 4770ms | 1038ms | 1106MB | 966.2kB | 231.0kB |
react-5k
A React app with 5,000 components and 5,000 modules from node_modules, using dynamic imports to simulate SPA.
CASE=react-5k pnpm benchmark
Development metrics:
| Name | Startup (no cache) | Startup (with cache) | HMR | Memory (RSS) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rspack CLI 2.0.0 | 745ms🥇 | 607ms🥉 | 106ms🥇 | 288MB🥈 |
| Rsbuild 2.0.0 | 750ms🥈 | 547ms🥇 | 126ms🥉 | 268MB🥇 |
| Vite 8.0.9 | 3318ms | 2108ms | 114ms🥈 | 754MB |
| webpack 5.106.2 | 8246ms | 8706ms | 1209ms | 1573MB |
| Farm 1.7.11 | 1102ms🥉 | 597ms🥈 | 142ms | 514MB🥉 |
| Parcel 2.16.4 | 8904ms | 1108ms | 433ms | 1795MB |
Build metrics:
| Name | Build (no cache) | Build (with cache) | Memory (RSS) | Output size | Gzipped size |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rspack CLI 2.0.0 | 1592ms🥉 | 855ms🥈 | 636MB🥈 | 2825.6kB🥈 | 680.1kB🥈 |
| Rsbuild 2.0.0 | 1511ms🥈 | 811ms🥇 | 648MB🥉 | 2852.2kB | 680.2kB🥉 |
| Vite 8.0.9 | 984ms🥇 | 1003ms🥉 | 692MB | 2630.9kB🥇 | 693.0kB |
| webpack 5.106.2 | 9457ms | 2569ms | 1238MB | 2826.0kB🥉 | 679.4kB🥇 |
| Farm 1.7.11 | 3911ms | 1676ms | 614MB🥇 | 3545.1kB | 798.5kB |
| Parcel 2.16.4 | 8583ms | 1511ms | 1973MB | 3489.6kB | 766.6kB |
react-10k
A React app with 10,000 components and 10,000 modules from node_modules, using dynamic imports to simulate SPA.
CASE=react-10k pnpm benchmark
Development metrics:
| Name | Startup (no cache) | Startup (with cache) | HMR | Memory (RSS) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rspack CLI 2.0.0 | 1862ms🥇 | 1284ms🥇 | 166ms🥈 | 355MB🥈 |
| Rsbuild 2.0.0 | 1906ms🥈 | 1623ms🥈 | 231ms🥉 | 324MB🥇 |
| Vite 8.0.9 | 11149ms🥉 | 6885ms🥉 | 130ms🥇 | 1158MB🥉 |
| webpack 5.106.2 | 33407ms | 30613ms | 7920ms | 2204MB |
Build metrics:
| Name | Build (no cache) | Build (with cache) | Memory (RSS) | Output size | Gzipped size |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rspack CLI 2.0.0 | 8310ms🥉 | 2387ms🥇 | 1141MB🥇 | 5934.1kB🥈 | 1368.6kB🥉 |
| Rsbuild 2.0.0 | 6464ms🥈 | 2639ms🥈 | 1153MB🥈 | 5984.5kB | 1367.5kB🥇 |
| Vite 8.0.9 | 3327ms🥇 | 3198ms🥉 | 1250MB🥉 | 5465.7kB🥇 | 1417.1kB |
| webpack 5.106.2 | 47639ms | 8575ms | 1836MB | 5934.5kB🥉 | 1367.9kB🥈 |
ui-components
A React app that imports UI components from several popular UI libraries.
Including @mui/material, @radix-ui/themes, antd, antd-mobile, @chakra-ui/react, @fluentui/react, @headlessui/react, @mantine/core, react-bootstrap, primereact, rsuite, @arco-design/web-react, @coreui/react, element-plus, ant-design-vue, naive-ui, primevue, vant, and vuetify.
CASE=ui-components pnpm benchmark
Build metrics:
| Name | Build (no cache) | Build (with cache) | Memory (RSS) | Output size | Gzipped size |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rspack CLI 2.0.0 | 6587ms🥈 | 2377ms🥇 | 1396MB🥇 | 5009.3kB🥇 | 1436.9kB🥇 |
| Rsbuild 2.0.0 | 8315ms | 3543ms🥉 | 1506MB🥈 | 5009.3kB🥈 | 1437.0kB🥈 |
| Vite 8.0.9 | 7463ms🥉 | 5279ms | 1672MB🥉 | 5018.3kB | 1444.3kB |
| webpack 5.106.2 | 37688ms | 22247ms | 2252MB | 5012.8kB🥉 | 1438.8kB🥉 |
| esbuild 0.28.0 | 5783ms🥇 | 4934ms | N/A | 6146.4kB | 1775.4kB |
| Farm 1.7.11 | 16791ms | 5267ms | 2193MB | 7962.8kB | 2689.5kB |
| Parcel 2.16.4 | 33749ms | 2924ms🥈 | 2393MB | 5273.3kB | 1479.2kB |
popular-libs
A browser app that imports a small number of live exports from 50 popular, modern frontend libraries to compare tree-shaking quality across bundlers.
It keeps the original React/Vue/state/data set and adds 30 more mainstream frontend packages with ESM-friendly entry points where practical, including axios, dayjs, clsx, tailwind-merge, class-variance-authority, i18next, react-i18next, vue-i18n, immer, swr, framer-motion, three, lucide-react, @headlessui/react, @headlessui/vue, @heroicons/react, @heroicons/vue, @radix-ui/react-slot, query-string, mitt, fuse.js, idb, dexie, ky, lit, xstate, preact, solid-js, swiper, and remeda.
CASE=popular-libs pnpm benchmark
Build metrics:
| Name | Build (no cache) | Build (with cache) | Memory (RSS) | Output size | Gzipped size |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rspack CLI 2.0.0 | 2579ms | 970ms🥇 | 438MB🥇 | 1781.4kB | 556.8kB🥉 |
| Rsbuild 2.0.0 | 3042ms | 2827ms | 444MB🥈 | 1780.5kB | 556.5kB🥈 |
| Vite 8.0.9 | 2002ms🥉 | 1667ms | 655MB | 1779.6kB🥉 | 558.5kB |
| Rollup 4.60.2 | 14048ms | 13186ms | 1273MB | 1612.8kB🥇 | 500.7kB🥇 |
| Rolldown 1.0.0-rc.16 | 1587ms🥇 | 1390ms🥉 | 588MB🥉 | 1777.6kB🥈 | 557.0kB |
| webpack 5.106.2 | 16044ms | 4050ms | 1336MB | 1789.3kB | 557.9kB |
| esbuild 0.28.0 | 1769ms🥈 | 1086ms🥈 | N/A | 2076.6kB | 628.5kB |
| Farm 1.7.11 | 6671ms | 2203ms | 766MB | 2247.9kB | 761.1kB |
rome
A complex TypeScript Node.js project that includes multiple packages from the rome toolchain.
CASE=rome pnpm benchmark
Build metrics:
| Name | Build (no cache) | Build (with cache) | Memory (RSS) | Output size | Gzipped size |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rspack CLI 2.0.0 | 1223ms🥉 | 324ms🥈 | 296MB🥉 | 1704.6kB | 358.1kB |
| Rsbuild 2.0.0 | 1314ms | 488ms | 245MB🥈 | 1008.1kB🥇 | 271.0kB🥇 |
| Rolldown 1.0.0-rc.16 | 431ms🥈 | 411ms🥉 | 223MB🥇 | 1012.2kB🥈 | 271.8kB🥈 |
| webpack 5.106.2 | 4655ms | 1358ms | 624MB | 1044.2kB | 275.7kB🥉 |
| esbuild 0.28.0 | 303ms🥇 | 279ms🥇 | N/A | 1025.2kB🥉 | 276.7kB |
Run locally
Run the benchmark.ts script to get the results (requires Node.js >= 22):
# Run the benchmark for the react-5k case
pnpm benchmark
# Run the benchmark for the react-10k case
CASE=react-10k pnpm benchmark
If you want to start the project with the specified tool, try:
pnpm i # install dependencies
# Cd to the case directory
cd cases/react-5k
cd cases/react-10k
cd cases/popular-libs
# Dev server
pnpm start:rspack # Start Rspack
pnpm start:rsbuild # Start Rsbuild
pnpm start:webpack # Start webpack
pnpm start:vite # Start Vite
pnpm start:farm # Start Farm
# Build
pnpm build:rspack # Build Rspack
pnpm build:rsbuild # Build Rsbuild
pnpm build:webpack # Build webpack
pnpm build:vite # Build Vite
pnpm build:farm # Build Farm
Options
Use CASE to switch the benchmark case:
CASE=react-1k pnpm benchmark
CASE=react-5k pnpm benchmark
CASE=react-10k pnpm benchmark
CASE=popular-libs pnpm benchmark
Use TOOLS to specify the build tools or bundlers:
# Run with all tools
TOOLS=all pnpm benchmark
# Run Rspack and Rsbuild
TOOLS=rspack,rsbuild pnpm benchmark
Use RUN_TIMES to specify the number of runs (defaults to 3):
RUN_TIMES=3 pnpm benchmark
Use WARMUP_TIMES to specify the number of warmup runs (defaults to 2):
WARMUP_TIMES=2 pnpm benchmark
Use FARM=true to run Farm:
FARM=true pnpm benchmark
Credits
Forked from farm-fe/performance-compare, thanks to the Farm team!