Build Tools Comparison

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)

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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 2.0.0	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

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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 2.0.0	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

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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 2.0.0	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🥈

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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 2.0.0	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

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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 2.0.0	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

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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

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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!