Build Tools Comparison

Benchmark comparing JavaScript bundlers and build tools (Rspack, Rsbuild, webpack, Vite, rolldown-vite, esbuild, Parcel and Farm) for dev server startup time, build performance and bundle size for applications with different module sizes.

Metrics

Name	Description	Notes
Dev cold start	Time from starting the dev server to page loaded	-
HMR	Time to HMR after changing a module	-
Prod build	Time taken to build the production bundles
Total size	Total size of the bundle	Minified by the default minifier
Gzipped size	Gzipped size of the 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.

Results

Data from GitHub Actions: https://github.com/rspack-contrib/build-tools-performance/actions/runs/18938818240 (2025-10-30)

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

Name	Dev cold start	HMR	Prod build	Total size	Gzipped size
Rspack CLI 1.6.0	920ms🥇	173ms	910ms🥉	846.2kB	220.8kB🥉
Rsbuild 1.6.0	1414ms🥈	154ms	848ms🥈	877.9kB	214.5kB🥇
Vite (Rolldown + Oxc) 7.1.20	4995ms	127ms🥈	750ms🥇	830.5kB🥈	226.1kB
Vite (Rollup + SWC) 7.1.12	7571ms	101ms🥇	2517ms	806.4kB🥇	217.5kB🥈
webpack (SWC) 5.102.1	5541ms	427ms	4281ms	843.3kB🥉	226.2kB
Farm 1.7.11	1452ms🥉	146ms	2035ms	1085.3kB	258.3kB
Parcel 2.16.0	4409ms	130ms🥉	4316ms	962.0kB	229.8kB

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

Name	Dev cold start	HMR	Prod build	Total size	Gzipped size
Rspack CLI 1.6.0	447ms🥇	75ms🥇	1182ms🥈	2853.7kB	679.5kB🥇
Rsbuild 1.6.0	468ms🥈	94ms🥈	1503ms🥉	2884.7kB	680.5kB🥈
Vite (Rolldown + Oxc) 7.1.20	3017ms	115ms	981ms🥇	2660.3kB🥈	725.4kB
Vite (Rollup + SWC) 7.1.12	3816ms	99ms🥉	5591ms	2584.4kB🥇	689.8kB🥉
webpack (SWC) 5.102.1	8492ms	748ms	6762ms	2832.1kB🥉	696.9kB
Farm 1.7.11	892ms🥉	142ms	4954ms	3540.7kB	806.8kB
Parcel 2.16.0	9458ms	205ms	10991ms	3485.4kB	765.3kB

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

Name	Dev cold start	HMR	Prod build	Total size	Gzipped size
Rspack CLI 1.6.0	397ms🥇	82ms🥉	2629ms🥈	6003.5kB	1369.4kB🥇
Rsbuild 1.6.0	688ms🥈	110ms	3373ms🥉	6061.8kB	1369.4kB🥈
Vite (Rolldown + Oxc) 7.1.20	5488ms🥉	35ms🥇	1362ms🥇	5529.1kB🥈	1483.5kB
Vite (Rollup + SWC) 7.1.12	5491ms	71ms🥈	10306ms	5374.2kB🥇	1410.5kB🥉
webpack (SWC) 5.102.1	16019ms	3201ms	12902ms	5954.4kB🥉	1451.9kB

ui-components

A React app that imports UI components from several popular UI libraries.

Including @mui/material, antd, @chakra-ui/react, @fluentui/react, @headlessui/react, @mantine/core, react-bootstrap, element-plus, vant, and vuetify.

CASE=ui-components pnpm benchmark

Name	Prod build	Total size	Gzipped size
Rspack CLI 1.6.0	2032ms🥉	2051.2kB🥈	627.8kB🥈
Rsbuild 1.6.0	3583ms	2049.2kB🥇	627.2kB🥇
Vite (Rollup + SWC) 7.1.12	10170ms	2071.0kB	649.9kB
Vite (Rolldown + Oxc) 7.1.20	1704ms🥇	2051.5kB	631.6kB
Rolldown 1.0.0-beta.45	2035ms	2066.7kB	632.3kB
webpack (SWC) 5.102.1	13139ms	2051.3kB🥉	629.0kB🥉
esbuild 0.25.11	1817ms🥈	2886.4kB	885.2kB
Farm 1.7.11	6862ms	3812.5kB	1326.7kB
Parcel 2.16.0	12624ms	2090.0kB	635.8kB

rome

A complex TypeScript Node.js project that includes multiple packages from the rome toolchain.

CASE=rome pnpm benchmark

Name	Prod build	Total size	Gzipped size
Rspack CLI 1.6.0	699ms🥉	1008.1kB🥉	270.9kB🥈
Rsbuild 1.6.0	1390ms	1008.0kB🥈	270.9kB🥉
Rolldown 1.0.0-beta.45	569ms🥈	1012.2kB	271.8kB
webpack (SWC) 5.102.1	3276ms	1006.2kB🥇	270.5kB🥇
esbuild 0.25.11	292ms🥇	1025.3kB	276.7kB

Run locally

Run the benchmark.mjs 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

# Dev server
pnpm start:rspack # Start Rspack
pnpm start:rsbuild # Start Rsbuild
pnpm start:webpack # Start webpack
pnpm start:vite # Start Vite
pnpm start:rolldown-vite # Start Vite (Rolldown)
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:rolldown-vite # Build Vite (Rolldown)
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

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!