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/16665265886 (2025-08-01)

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 1.4.11	761ms	114ms	602ms	838.9kB🥉	218.5kB
Rspack CLI (Lazy) 1.4.11	390ms🥇	102ms🥇	596ms	838.9kB	218.5kB
Rsbuild 1.4.12	561ms🥉	106ms🥈	523ms🥈	870.6kB	212.3kB🥇
Rsbuild (Lazy) 1.4.12	511ms🥈	106ms🥉	528ms🥉	870.6kB	212.3kB🥈
Vite (Rolldown + Oxc) 7.0.12	3427ms	148ms	392ms🥇	839.6kB	230.7kB
Vite (Rollup + SWC) 7.0.6	3442ms	131ms	1895ms	798.7kB🥇	215.7kB🥉
webpack (SWC) 5.101.0	3047ms	307ms	2523ms	836.0kB🥈	224.2kB

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 1.4.11	2700ms🥉	254ms	1967ms	2846.4kB	677.2kB🥇
Rspack CLI (Lazy) 1.4.11	538ms🥇	68ms🥇	1870ms🥉	2846.4kB	677.2kB🥈
Rsbuild 1.4.12	2831ms	229ms	1883ms	2877.3kB	678.4kB🥉
Rsbuild (Lazy) 1.4.12	618ms🥈	68ms🥈	1864ms🥈	2877.3kB	678.4kB
Vite (Rolldown + Oxc) 7.0.12	5243ms	106ms🥉	1499ms🥇	2718.0kB🥈	751.7kB
Vite (Rollup + SWC) 7.0.6	5878ms	122ms	6673ms	2576.7kB🥇	687.7kB
webpack (SWC) 5.101.0	10443ms	1774ms	9588ms	2824.7kB🥉	695.4kB

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 1.4.11	6875ms🥉	924ms	6129ms	5996.3kB	1367.1kB🥇
Rspack CLI (Lazy) 1.4.11	1548ms🥈	339ms	6042ms	5996.3kB	1367.1kB🥈
Rsbuild 1.4.12	9176ms	702ms	5093ms🥈	6054.6kB	1367.3kB🥉
Rsbuild (Lazy) 1.4.12	1517ms🥇	161ms🥉	6026ms🥉	6054.6kB	1367.3kB
Vite (Rolldown + Oxc) 7.0.12	13444ms	130ms🥈	3299ms🥇	5675.7kB🥈	1546.6kB
Vite (Rollup + SWC) 7.0.6	11575ms	122ms🥇	21748ms	5366.6kB🥇	1408.3kB
webpack (SWC) 5.101.0	35630ms	9240ms	26044ms	5947.1kB🥉	1449.3kB

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 1.4.11	4290ms	2027.9kB🥈	617.5kB🥈
Rsbuild 1.4.12	4155ms	2025.9kB🥇	617.0kB🥇
Vite (Rollup + SWC) 7.0.6	13491ms	2040.1kB	638.9kB
Vite (Rolldown + Oxc) 7.0.12	1902ms🥈	2051.3kB	635.3kB
Rolldown 1.0.0-beta.30	1609ms🥇	2065.8kB	635.9kB
webpack (SWC) 5.101.0	16774ms	2028.0kB🥉	618.8kB🥉
esbuild 0.25.8	2785ms🥉	2838.6kB	870.7kB
Farm 1.7.10	2940ms	3765.7kB	1312.6kB

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 1.4.11	1640ms	1009.3kB🥈	270.9kB🥈
Rsbuild 1.4.12	1389ms🥉	1009.3kB🥉	271.0kB🥉
Rolldown 1.0.0-beta.30	550ms🥈	1016.3kB	273.6kB
webpack (SWC) 5.101.0	5279ms	1007.4kB🥇	270.6kB🥇
esbuild 0.25.8	398ms🥇	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!