Build Tools Comparison

Benchmark comparing JavaScript bundlers and build tools (Rspack, Rsbuild, webpack, Vite, Rolldown, esbuild, Rollup, Parcel, Farm and Utoo) 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/31916976843 (2026-08-18)

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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 2.1.10	1173ms🥈	706ms🥈	101ms🥇	372MB🥈
Rsbuild 2.1.13	1012ms🥇	687ms🥇	111ms🥈	321MB🥇
Vite 8.2.1	4669ms	3574ms	132ms	498MB
webpack 5.109.2	5176ms	3042ms	444ms	876MB
Farm 1.7.11	1607ms🥉	850ms🥉	114ms🥉	553MB
Parcel 2.16.4	3894ms	886ms	271ms	1148MB
Utoo 1.5.5	10324ms	966ms	122ms	414MB🥉

Build metrics:

Name	Build (no cache)	Build (with cache)	Memory (RSS)	Output size	Gzipped size
Rspack CLI 2.1.10	582ms🥉	283ms🥇	269MB🥇	842.8kB🥈	222.2kB
Rsbuild 2.1.13	494ms🥇	376ms🥈	278MB🥈	844.3kB	214.2kB🥇
Vite 8.2.1	515ms🥈	595ms	288MB🥉	820.8kB🥇	217.4kB🥈
webpack 5.109.2	4568ms	1417ms	680MB	843.5kB🥉	222.1kB🥉
Farm 1.7.11	1937ms	1086ms	390MB	1090.0kB	260.1kB
Parcel 2.16.4	3826ms	834ms	1144MB	966.6kB	231.3kB
Utoo 1.5.5	7364ms	399ms🥉	403MB	864.8kB	234.3kB

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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 2.1.10	903ms🥈	652ms🥉	102ms🥇	302MB🥈
Rsbuild 2.1.13	782ms🥇	602ms🥇	104ms🥈	272MB🥇
Vite 8.2.1	3369ms	1999ms	131ms	735MB
webpack 5.109.2	9835ms	8695ms	2355ms	1894MB
Farm 1.7.11	1441ms🥉	616ms🥈	129ms🥉	518MB🥉
Parcel 2.16.4	11892ms	2111ms	589ms	1810MB

Build metrics:

Name	Build (no cache)	Build (with cache)	Memory (RSS)	Output size	Gzipped size
Rspack CLI 2.1.10	1829ms🥉	935ms🥇	617MB🥈	2794.0kB🥉	679.8kB🥉
Rsbuild 2.1.13	1739ms🥈	1008ms🥈	636MB🥉	2736.1kB🥈	675.8kB🥇
Vite 8.2.1	1183ms🥇	1028ms🥉	660MB	2627.8kB🥇	692.1kB
webpack 5.109.2	12504ms	3447ms	1309MB	2797.9kB	679.2kB🥈
Farm 1.7.11	5096ms	2070ms	611MB🥇	3545.4kB	816.8kB
Parcel 2.16.4	10926ms	1588ms	2065MB	3490.0kB	766.9kB

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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 2.1.10	1562ms🥈	1104ms🥈	133ms🥈	374MB🥈
Rsbuild 2.1.13	1457ms🥇	1089ms🥇	180ms🥉	323MB🥇
Vite 8.2.1	9780ms🥉	5631ms🥉	112ms🥇	1176MB🥉
webpack 5.109.2	25706ms	26604ms	3668ms	1987MB

Build metrics:

Name	Build (no cache)	Build (with cache)	Memory (RSS)	Output size	Gzipped size
Rspack CLI 2.1.10	4057ms🥈	2242ms🥈	1100MB🥇	5861.1kB🥉	1367.3kB🥉
Rsbuild 2.1.13	4567ms🥉	2150ms🥇	1104MB🥈	5723.3kB🥈	1357.8kB🥇
Vite 8.2.1	2421ms🥇	2340ms🥉	1182MB🥉	5462.7kB🥇	1416.3kB
webpack 5.109.2	38824ms	8994ms	1928MB	5869.6kB	1367.0kB🥈

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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 2.1.10	4032ms🥉	1361ms🥈	1430MB🥈	5139.9kB🥉	1479.8kB🥇
Rsbuild 2.1.13	5384ms	2043ms	1548MB🥉	5140.5kB	1480.1kB🥈
Vite 8.2.1	2773ms🥇	2366ms	1744MB	5134.4kB🥇	1483.7kB
webpack 5.109.2	20169ms	10886ms	1947MB	5134.6kB🥈	1481.3kB🥉
esbuild 0.28.2	3387ms🥈	2811ms	N/A	6313.4kB	1827.0kB
Farm 1.7.11	13960ms	3600ms	2265MB	8120.8kB	2748.9kB
Parcel 2.16.4	21731ms	1702ms🥉	2223MB	5397.9kB	1519.9kB
Utoo 1.5.5	18402ms	647ms🥇	1245MB🥇	5324.1kB	1538.5kB

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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 2.1.10	1496ms	486ms🥉	437MB🥇	1822.2kB	569.0kB
Rsbuild 2.1.13	1777ms	481ms🥈	448MB🥈	1821.4kB	568.8kB🥈
Vite 8.2.1	1159ms🥉	1092ms	613MB	1818.4kB🥈	569.7kB
Rollup 4.62.4	8462ms	7817ms	1215MB	1657.7kB🥇	514.2kB🥇
Rolldown 1.2.4	883ms🥇	847ms	561MB	1819.2kB🥉	568.8kB🥉
webpack 5.109.2	7502ms	1680ms	1067MB	1824.3kB	569.6kB
esbuild 0.28.2	932ms🥈	793ms	N/A	2126.9kB	643.9kB
Farm 1.7.11	4519ms	1308ms	771MB	2309.4kB	782.7kB
Utoo 1.5.5	6324ms	371ms🥇	504MB🥉	1865.4kB	581.5kB

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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!