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	Total time from dev server start to page loaded	Equals to server start + page load
Server start	Time taken for the dev server to start	Includes initial build for loaded modules
Page load	Time to load the page after server is ready
Root HMR	Time to HMR after changing a root module
Leaf HMR	Time to HMR after changing a leaf 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/16210846550 (2025-07-10)

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

Build performance

Name	Dev cold start	Root HMR	Leaf HMR	Prod build
Rspack CLI 1.4.6	715ms (517 + 198)	132ms	128ms	592ms
Rspack CLI (Lazy) 1.4.6	323ms🥇 (283 + 40)	110ms🥉	108ms🥉	590ms
Rsbuild 1.4.6	595ms🥉 (438 + 157)	104ms🥈	104ms🥈	526ms🥉
Rsbuild (Lazy) 1.4.6	519ms🥈 (369 + 149)	96ms🥇	101ms🥇	524ms🥈
Vite (Rolldown + Oxc) 7.0.7	3298ms (93 + 3204)	150ms	145ms	353ms🥇
Vite (Rollup + SWC) 7.0.4	3379ms (110 + 3269)	161ms	140ms	1858ms
webpack (SWC) 5.100.0	3091ms (2494 + 597)	327ms	260ms	3272ms

Bundle sizes

Name	Total size	Gzipped size
Rspack CLI 1.4.6	839.0kB🥈	218.6kB
Rspack CLI (Lazy) 1.4.6	839.0kB🥉	218.6kB
Rsbuild 1.4.6	870.7kB	212.4kB🥇
Rsbuild (Lazy) 1.4.6	870.7kB	212.4kB🥈
Vite (Rolldown + Oxc) 7.0.7	839.8kB	230.8kB
Vite (Rollup + SWC) 7.0.4	801.1kB🥇	216.3kB🥉
webpack (SWC) 5.100.0	883.4kB	238.1kB

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

Build performance

Name	Dev cold start	Root HMR	Leaf HMR	Prod build
Rspack CLI 1.4.6	1450ms🥉 (1207 + 243)	222ms	149ms	1285ms🥈
Rspack CLI (Lazy) 1.4.6	401ms🥇 (346 + 55)	90ms🥇	92ms🥈	1353ms🥉
Rsbuild 1.4.6	1479ms (1251 + 228)	206ms	156ms	1383ms
Rsbuild (Lazy) 1.4.6	506ms🥈 (369 + 137)	100ms🥈	66ms🥇	1386ms
Vite (Rolldown + Oxc) 7.0.7	2664ms (120 + 2543)	134ms🥉	109ms	842ms🥇
Vite (Rollup + SWC) 7.0.4	2778ms (116 + 2661)	134ms	106ms🥉	4709ms
webpack (SWC) 5.100.0	7461ms (6839 + 622)	763ms	730ms	8901ms

Bundle sizes

Name	Total size	Gzipped size
Rspack CLI 1.4.6	2846.4kB🥉	677.2kB🥇
Rspack CLI (Lazy) 1.4.6	2846.4kB	677.2kB🥈
Rsbuild 1.4.6	2877.4kB	678.5kB🥉
Rsbuild (Lazy) 1.4.6	2877.4kB	678.5kB
Vite (Rolldown + Oxc) 7.0.7	2718.1kB🥈	751.9kB
Vite (Rollup + SWC) 7.0.4	2579.1kB🥇	688.5kB
webpack (SWC) 5.100.0	2872.1kB	710.2kB

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

Build performance

Name	Dev cold start	Root HMR	Leaf HMR	Prod build
Rspack CLI 1.4.6	2922ms🥉 (2608 + 313)	355ms	275ms	2554ms🥈
Rspack CLI (Lazy) 1.4.6	398ms🥇 (346 + 52)	120ms🥈	103ms🥇	2577ms🥉
Rsbuild 1.4.6	2979ms (2702 + 277)	360ms	258ms	2934ms
Rsbuild (Lazy) 1.4.6	695ms🥈 (516 + 178)	113ms🥇	109ms🥈	2915ms
Vite (Rolldown + Oxc) 7.0.7	4363ms (161 + 4202)	171ms🥉	141ms	1606ms🥇
Vite (Rollup + SWC) 7.0.4	4773ms (167 + 4606)	174ms	135ms🥉	9433ms
webpack (SWC) 5.100.0	13868ms (12842 + 1026)	3321ms	2326ms	17815ms

Bundle sizes

Name	Total size	Gzipped size
Rspack CLI 1.4.6	5996.4kB	1367.2kB🥇
Rspack CLI (Lazy) 1.4.6	5996.4kB	1367.2kB🥈
Rsbuild 1.4.6	6054.6kB	1367.4kB🥉
Rsbuild (Lazy) 1.4.6	6054.6kB	1367.4kB
Vite (Rolldown + Oxc) 7.0.7	5675.8kB🥈	1546.6kB
Vite (Rollup + SWC) 7.0.4	5369.0kB🥇	1409.2kB
webpack (SWC) 5.100.0	5994.5kB🥉	1464.3kB

ui-components

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

CASE=ui-components pnpm benchmark

Build performance

Name	Prod build
Rspack CLI 1.4.8	3128ms
Rsbuild 1.4.7	3046ms
Vite (Rollup + SWC) 7.0.4	10578ms
Vite (Rolldown + Oxc) 7.0.9	1341ms🥈
Rolldown 1.0.0-beta.27	1009ms🥇
webpack (SWC) 5.100.2	11683ms
esbuild 0.25.6	2013ms
Farm 1.7.10	1672ms🥉

Bundle sizes

Name	Total size	Gzipped size
Rspack CLI 1.4.8	2024.0kB🥈	616.4kB🥈
Rsbuild 1.4.7	2022.0kB🥇	615.9kB🥇
Vite (Rollup + SWC) 7.0.4	2037.4kB🥉	638.2kB
Vite (Rolldown + Oxc) 7.0.9	2054.8kB	636.5kB
Rolldown 1.0.0-beta.27	2069.3kB	637.0kB
webpack (SWC) 5.100.2	2054.2kB	627.8kB🥉
esbuild 0.25.6	2834.4kB	869.3kB
Farm 1.7.10	3760.2kB	1307.1kB

rome

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

CASE=rome pnpm benchmark

Build performance

Name	Prod build
Rspack CLI 1.4.6	770ms🥉
Rsbuild 1.4.6	830ms
Rolldown 1.0.0-beta.25	351ms🥈
webpack (SWC) 5.100.0	2954ms
esbuild 0.25.6	232ms🥇

Bundle sizes

Name	Total size	Gzipped size
Rspack CLI 1.4.6	1009.3kB🥈	270.9kB🥈
Rsbuild 1.4.6	1009.3kB🥉	270.9kB🥉
Rolldown 1.0.0-beta.25	1016.4kB	273.6kB
webpack (SWC) 5.100.0	1007.4kB🥇	270.7kB🥇
esbuild 0.25.6	1025.3kB	276.8kB

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!