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/33621329811 (2026-09-03)

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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 2.2.2	1775ms🥈	1111ms🥉	171ms	357MB🥈
Rsbuild 2.2.2	1578ms🥇	994ms🥇	165ms	313MB🥇
Vite 8.2.2	5190ms	4479ms	124ms🥈	493MB
webpack 5.110.3	7249ms	4321ms	691ms	833MB
Farm 1.7.11	2049ms🥉	1105ms🥈	135ms🥉	554MB
Parcel 2.16.4	5537ms	2191ms	393ms	1124MB
Utoo 1.5.14	7009ms	1544ms	91ms🥇	423MB🥉

Build metrics:

Name	Build (no cache)	Build (with cache)	Memory (RSS)	Output size	Gzipped size
Rspack CLI 2.2.2	1028ms🥉	420ms🥇	252MB🥇	818.3kB🥉	221.4kB
Rsbuild 2.2.2	927ms🥈	568ms🥈	258MB🥈	819.8kB	213.9kB🥇
Vite 8.2.2	610ms🥇	585ms🥉	290MB🥉	796.3kB🥇	216.8kB🥈
webpack 5.110.3	5829ms	1720ms	675MB	818.2kB🥈	221.0kB🥉
Farm 1.7.11	2653ms	1531ms	392MB	1065.5kB	260.4kB
Parcel 2.16.4	4552ms	1042ms	1107MB	942.1kB	230.6kB
Utoo 1.5.14	7553ms	794ms	396MB	821.0kB	230.4kB

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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 2.2.2	948ms🥇	628ms🥈	91ms🥈	297MB🥈
Rsbuild 2.2.2	1029ms🥈	617ms🥇	109ms🥉	261MB🥇
Vite 8.2.2	4646ms	2528ms	130ms	727MB
webpack 5.110.3	11423ms	9633ms	2764ms	1541MB
Farm 1.7.11	1380ms🥉	900ms🥉	73ms🥇	515MB🥉
Parcel 2.16.4	11636ms	1983ms	567ms	1803MB

Build metrics:

Name	Build (no cache)	Build (with cache)	Memory (RSS)	Output size	Gzipped size
Rspack CLI 2.2.2	1610ms🥈	677ms🥇	542MB🥇	2678.6kB🥉	673.7kB🥉
Rsbuild 2.2.2	1753ms🥉	918ms🥈	556MB🥈	2620.7kB🥈	669.7kB🥇
Vite 8.2.2	1153ms🥇	1135ms🥉	659MB	2512.4kB🥇	684.6kB
webpack 5.110.3	12285ms	4043ms	1192MB	2681.6kB	673.1kB🥈
Farm 1.7.11	6007ms	1965ms	624MB🥉	3430.0kB	809.3kB
Parcel 2.16.4	11011ms	1781ms	2031MB	3374.6kB	758.7kB

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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 2.2.2	961ms🥈	565ms🥇	88ms🥇	365MB🥈
Rsbuild 2.2.2	695ms🥇	628ms🥈	98ms🥉	313MB🥇
Vite 8.2.2	4241ms🥉	2693ms🥉	93ms🥈	1182MB🥉
webpack 5.110.3	13219ms	9999ms	4898ms	2442MB

Build metrics:

Name	Build (no cache)	Build (with cache)	Memory (RSS)	Output size	Gzipped size
Rspack CLI 2.2.2	2963ms🥉	1026ms🥈	957MB🥇	5601.5kB🥉	1352.5kB🥉
Rsbuild 2.2.2	2286ms🥈	909ms🥇	967MB🥈	5463.6kB🥈	1343.5kB🥇
Vite 8.2.2	1235ms🥇	1299ms🥉	1204MB🥉	5203.0kB🥇	1398.3kB
webpack 5.110.3	15260ms	4642ms	1906MB	5609.1kB	1352.0kB🥈

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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 2.2.2	5709ms🥉	1815ms🥈	1208MB🥇	5130.8kB🥇	1474.1kB🥇
Rsbuild 2.2.2	6342ms	2187ms🥉	1346MB🥉	5131.2kB🥈	1474.4kB🥈
Vite 8.2.2	4356ms🥇	3429ms	1735MB	5135.8kB🥉	1484.0kB
webpack 5.110.3	29534ms	16155ms	1750MB	5143.9kB	1475.7kB🥉
esbuild 0.28.2	4638ms🥈	3991ms	N/A	6310.7kB	1826.6kB
Farm 1.7.11	17127ms	5313ms	2256MB	8630.6kB	2920.9kB
Parcel 2.16.4	28367ms	2435ms	2366MB	5417.7kB	1518.9kB
Utoo 1.5.14	30799ms	1102ms🥇	1219MB🥈	5313.0kB	1533.6kB

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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 2.2.2	1102ms	323ms🥈	418MB🥇	1757.4kB	535.1kB
Rsbuild 2.2.2	1236ms	355ms🥉	426MB🥈	1756.6kB	534.9kB🥉
Vite 8.2.2	894ms🥉	847ms	607MB	1756.0kB🥈	536.9kB
Rollup 4.63.1	6592ms	6401ms	1263MB	1687.4kB🥇	516.0kB🥇
Rolldown 1.2.6	767ms🥇	640ms	550MB	1756.3kB🥉	535.7kB
webpack 5.110.3	5261ms	1289ms	753MB	1758.6kB	534.5kB🥈
esbuild 0.28.2	807ms🥈	608ms	N/A	2070.4kB	608.1kB
Farm 1.7.11	3306ms	1187ms	788MB	2244.0kB	752.4kB
Utoo 1.5.14	4734ms	311ms🥇	492MB🥉	1892.0kB	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!