Build Tools Comparison

Benchmark comparing JavaScript bundlers and build tools (Rspack, Rsbuild, webpack, Vite, rolldown-vite, esbuild, 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.

Results

Data from GitHub Actions: https://github.com/rspack-contrib/build-tools-performance/actions/runs/16882999686 (2025-08-11)

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 1.5.0-beta.0	793ms	123ms	591ms	838.9kB🥉	218.5kB
Rspack CLI (Lazy) 1.5.0-beta.0	435ms🥇	89ms🥇	573ms	838.9kB	218.5kB
Rsbuild 1.5.0-beta.0	552ms🥈	102ms🥉	464ms🥈	870.6kB	212.4kB🥇
Rsbuild (Lazy) 1.5.0-beta.0	599ms🥉	95ms🥈	472ms🥉	870.6kB	212.4kB🥈
Vite (Rolldown + Oxc) 7.1.0	4123ms	158ms	385ms🥇	839.7kB	230.8kB
Vite (Rollup + SWC) 7.1.1	3532ms	152ms	1842ms	798.8kB🥇	215.7kB🥉
webpack (SWC) 5.101.0	3107ms	303ms	2467ms	836.0kB🥈	223.6kB

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 1.5.0-beta.0	1881ms🥉	202ms	1465ms🥈	2846.4kB	677.1kB🥇
Rspack CLI (Lazy) 1.5.0-beta.0	721ms🥇	93ms🥇	1622ms	2846.4kB	677.1kB🥈
Rsbuild 1.5.0-beta.0	1948ms	199ms	1638ms	2877.4kB	678.4kB🥉
Rsbuild (Lazy) 1.5.0-beta.0	773ms🥈	101ms🥉	1534ms🥉	2877.4kB	678.4kB
Vite (Rolldown + Oxc) 7.1.0	4227ms	120ms	1105ms🥇	2718.0kB🥈	751.7kB
Vite (Rollup + SWC) 7.1.1	4041ms	99ms🥈	5972ms	2576.7kB🥇	687.7kB
webpack (SWC) 5.101.0	11502ms	1067ms	7268ms	2824.8kB🥉	695.8kB

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 1.5.0-beta.0	4401ms	432ms	2971ms🥉	5996.2kB	1367.0kB🥇
Rspack CLI (Lazy) 1.5.0-beta.0	524ms🥇	103ms🥈	2734ms🥈	5996.2kB	1367.0kB🥈
Rsbuild 1.5.0-beta.0	3792ms🥉	417ms	3603ms	6054.4kB	1367.2kB🥉
Rsbuild (Lazy) 1.5.0-beta.0	741ms🥈	98ms🥇	3389ms	6054.4kB	1367.2kB
Vite (Rolldown + Oxc) 7.1.0	6101ms	148ms	2117ms🥇	5675.7kB🥈	1546.6kB
Vite (Rollup + SWC) 7.1.1	4828ms	140ms🥉	9669ms	5366.6kB🥇	1408.3kB
webpack (SWC) 5.101.0	16865ms	3651ms	13413ms	5947.1kB🥉	1450.0kB

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 1.5.0-beta.0	4871ms	2030.6kB🥈	618.3kB🥈
Rsbuild 1.5.0-beta.0	5450ms	2028.5kB🥇	617.8kB🥇
Vite (Rollup + SWC) 7.1.1	19229ms	2043.5kB	640.3kB
Vite (Rolldown + Oxc) 7.1.0	2668ms🥇	2053.0kB	635.6kB
Rolldown 1.0.0-beta.32	2885ms🥈	2067.6kB	636.1kB
webpack (SWC) 5.101.0	20034ms	2030.6kB🥉	619.5kB🥉
esbuild 0.25.8	3159ms🥉	2846.5kB	873.4kB
Farm 1.7.11	3711ms	3768.8kB	1312.5kB

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 1.5.0-beta.0	1156ms	1009.3kB🥈	270.9kB🥈
Rsbuild 1.5.0-beta.0	1048ms🥉	1009.3kB🥉	271.0kB🥉
Rolldown 1.0.0-beta.32	580ms🥈	1015.2kB	272.8kB
webpack (SWC) 5.101.0	4332ms	1007.4kB🥇	270.6kB🥇
esbuild 0.25.8	340ms🥇	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!