Build Tools Comparison

Benchmark comparing JavaScript bundlers and build tools (Rspack, Rsbuild, webpack, Vite, Rolldown, esbuild, Rollup, Parcel, Farm, Utoo and Bun) 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 steady	Dev server memory after 10 HMR updates and a fixed idle window, with and without cache
Memory peak	Sampled peak memory during dev or a production build, with and without cache
Output size	Total size of the output bundle, minified with the configured minifier
Gzipped size	Gzipped size of the output bundle, represents actual network transfer size

Notes

The react-dashboard case targets Chrome >= 111 for every included tool, matching Tailwind CSS 4. Older cases retain their existing target configurations.
Minification is enabled in production for all tools.
Source map is enabled in development and disabled in production for all tools.
Each development session starts in a fresh browser context, isolating HTTP cache and site storage. Cold/warm refers to build-tool caches; OS caches are not flushed.
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 (2026-11-01, benchmark commit 8d085d4d). Values are medians of three measured runs; timing includes two warmups, while memory skips warmups. Memory is process-tree physical footprint in MiB. See memory methodology. One Farm dev-memory attempt in react-5k exited early and succeeded on retry; the failed attempt is excluded.

react-dashboard

A synthetic enterprise operations dashboard with 40 lazy routes and 29 common libraries, including React, Tailwind CSS, TanStack Router, Zod, and Recharts.

See case details.

CASE=react-dashboard pnpm benchmark

Development metrics:

Name	Startup (no cache)	Startup (with cache)	HMR
Rspack CLI 2.3.0	2416ms🥇	1765ms🥇	534ms🥉
Rsbuild 2.3.0	2539ms🥈	2292ms🥈	611ms
Vite 8.3.5	3484ms🥉	2390ms🥉	348ms🥈
webpack 5.112.2	7326ms	5090ms	740ms
Utoo 1.5.34	6813ms	7911ms	323ms🥇

Build metrics:

Name	Build (no cache)	Build (with cache)	Output size	Gzipped size
Rspack CLI 2.3.0	3003ms🥈	1525ms🥈	4151.5kB🥉	638.5kB🥉
Rsbuild 2.3.0	3951ms🥉	1501ms🥇	4148.4kB🥈	636.0kB🥈
Vite 8.3.5	1799ms🥇	1810ms🥉	4160.2kB	646.7kB
webpack 5.112.2	14537ms	4346ms	4154.3kB	640.0kB
Utoo 1.5.34	19130ms	2509ms	4131.3kB🥇	616.8kB🥇

Dev memory (MiB):

Name	Steady (no cache)	Steady (with cache)	Peak (no cache)	Peak (with cache)
Rspack CLI 2.3.0	572.9🥈	883.7	597.8🥇	899.1🥉
Rsbuild 2.3.0	640.8🥉	916.6	666.1🥈	949.6
Vite 8.3.5	1027.0	338.0🥈	1064.4	338.0🥇
webpack 5.112.2	1083.2	865.0🥉	1101.6	945.8
Utoo 1.5.34	357.2🥇	258.8🥇	737.4🥉	434.9🥈

Build memory (MiB):

Name	Peak (no cache)	Peak (with cache)
Rspack CLI 2.3.0	750.5🥇	797.3🥈
Rsbuild 2.3.0	759.2🥈	846.0🥉
Vite 8.3.5	1048.7🥉	1047.0
webpack 5.112.2	1491.5	1323.8
Utoo 1.5.34	1283.1	304.2🥇

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
Rspack CLI 2.3.0	1158ms🥉	779ms	109ms🥉
Rsbuild 2.3.0	839ms🥈	671ms🥉	112ms
Vite 8.3.5	3227ms	2892ms	140ms
webpack 5.112.2	4670ms	2999ms	357ms
Farm 1.7.11	1403ms	669ms🥈	151ms
Parcel 2.16.4	3370ms	831ms	176ms
Utoo 1.5.34	3696ms	3001ms	91ms🥈
Bun 1.4.4	738ms🥇	564ms🥇	11ms🥇

Build metrics:

Name	Build (no cache)	Build (with cache)	Output size	Gzipped size
Rspack CLI 2.3.0	529ms	295ms🥉	847.4kB	229.3kB🥉
Rsbuild 2.3.0	457ms🥈	276ms🥈	845.2kB🥉	221.0kB🥇
Vite 8.3.5	480ms🥉	444ms	825.7kB🥈	226.2kB🥈
webpack 5.112.2	4749ms	1357ms	847.3kB	230.3kB
Farm 1.7.11	1533ms	817ms	1094.9kB	267.2kB
Parcel 2.16.4	3217ms	809ms	971.4kB	239.0kB
Utoo 1.5.34	3763ms	669ms	850.6kB	239.9kB
Bun 1.4.4	196ms🥇	195ms🥇	822.1kB🥇	240.5kB

Dev memory (MiB):

Name	Steady (no cache)	Steady (with cache)	Peak (no cache)	Peak (with cache)
Rspack CLI 2.3.0	244.5	269.3	256.7🥉	273.4
Rsbuild 2.3.0	215.9🥉	232.4🥉	222.7🥈	237.9🥉
Vite 8.3.5	410.7	293.7	410.9	293.8
webpack 5.112.2	687.0	717.8	838.9	818.0
Farm 1.7.11	358.7	307.0	367.0	308.8
Parcel 2.16.4	1014.9	731.1	1073.7	810.3
Utoo 1.5.34	140.2🥈	180.6🥈	422.6	181.3🥈
Bun 1.4.4	51.2🥇	51.1🥇	140.2🥇	140.2🥇

Build memory (MiB):

Name	Peak (no cache)	Peak (with cache)
Rspack CLI 2.3.0	186.6🥈	165.1
Rsbuild 2.3.0	191.5🥉	162.1🥉
Vite 8.3.5	239.3	238.1
webpack 5.112.2	570.8	444.3
Farm 1.7.11	277.8	253.9
Parcel 2.16.4	992.3	443.8
Utoo 1.5.34	352.0	140.0🥈
Bun 1.4.4	83.4🥇	97.1🥇

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
Rspack CLI 2.3.0	1423ms🥉	956ms🥇	79ms🥇
Rsbuild 2.3.0	1024ms🥇	964ms🥈	97ms🥈
Vite 8.3.5	5947ms	3443ms	137ms🥉
webpack 5.112.2	17305ms	10715ms	1388ms
Farm 1.7.11	1354ms🥈	1139ms🥉	149ms
Parcel 2.16.4	16690ms	2177ms	508ms

Build metrics:

Name	Build (no cache)	Build (with cache)	Output size	Gzipped size
Rspack CLI 2.3.0	1701ms🥈	802ms🥇	2707.7kB🥉	682.4kB🥉
Rsbuild 2.3.0	2069ms🥉	1136ms🥉	2637.8kB🥈	675.6kB🥇
Vite 8.3.5	1096ms🥇	963ms🥈	2541.8kB🥇	693.7kB
webpack 5.112.2	17491ms	4590ms	2710.7kB	682.1kB🥈
Farm 1.7.11	6564ms	3093ms	3459.4kB	805.1kB
Parcel 2.16.4	15925ms	2368ms	3403.9kB	767.7kB

Dev memory (MiB):

Name	Steady (no cache)	Steady (with cache)	Peak (no cache)	Peak (with cache)
Rspack CLI 2.3.0	192.0🥈	212.0🥈	194.7🥈	218.1🥈
Rsbuild 2.3.0	180.0🥇	191.8🥇	180.0🥇	191.9🥇
Vite 8.3.5	658.2	228.3🥉	671.2	228.4🥉
webpack 5.112.2	1896.5	1663.2	1918.0	1742.3
Farm 1.7.11	345.6🥉	317.9	351.2🥉	322.7
Parcel 2.16.4	1378.3	1102.9	1627.2	1211.7

Build memory (MiB):

Name	Peak (no cache)	Peak (with cache)
Rspack CLI 2.3.0	422.0🥇	420.0🥉
Rsbuild 2.3.0	440.1🥉	378.7🥇
Vite 8.3.5	612.9	616.0
webpack 5.112.2	1113.0	925.5
Farm 1.7.11	434.3🥈	381.0🥈
Parcel 2.16.4	1769.4	548.9

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
Rspack CLI 2.3.0	1278ms🥈	981ms🥈	97ms🥇
Rsbuild 2.3.0	1256ms🥇	948ms🥇	115ms🥈
Vite 8.3.5	6826ms🥉	5742ms🥉	134ms🥉
webpack 5.112.2	20597ms	16740ms	2293ms

Build metrics:

Name	Build (no cache)	Build (with cache)	Output size	Gzipped size
Rspack CLI 2.3.0	2915ms🥈	1574ms🥈	5630.6kB🥉	1361.1kB🥉
Rsbuild 2.3.0	3507ms🥉	1518ms🥇	5452.6kB🥈	1337.3kB🥇
Vite 8.3.5	1840ms🥇	1744ms🥉	5232.4kB🥇	1407.5kB
webpack 5.112.2	23310ms	6334ms	5638.2kB	1361.0kB🥈

Dev memory (MiB):

Name	Steady (no cache)	Steady (with cache)	Peak (no cache)	Peak (with cache)
Rspack CLI 2.3.0	238.8🥈	265.7🥈	245.2🥈	274.9🥈
Rsbuild 2.3.0	219.8🥇	232.0🥇	223.5🥇	233.3🥇
Vite 8.3.5	1060.5🥉	285.2🥉	1082.6🥉	285.2🥉
webpack 5.112.2	2469.0	2346.3	2713.4	2490.4

Build memory (MiB):

Name	Peak (no cache)	Peak (with cache)
Rspack CLI 2.3.0	781.2🥇	753.6🥈
Rsbuild 2.3.0	789.2🥈	663.3🥇
Vite 8.3.5	1159.0🥉	1189.7🥉
webpack 5.112.2	1956.3	1503.8

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)	Output size	Gzipped size
Rspack CLI 2.3.0	7020ms	1811ms🥈	4940.5kB🥉	1435.4kB🥈
Rsbuild 2.3.0	5456ms🥉	1713ms🥇	4940.2kB🥈	1434.9kB🥇
Vite 8.3.5	4769ms🥈	3392ms	4936.6kB🥇	1440.4kB
webpack 5.112.2	22606ms	11182ms	4953.8kB	1436.6kB🥉
esbuild 0.28.2	4191ms🥇	3153ms	6151.4kB	1790.0kB
Farm 1.7.11	20039ms	5451ms	8574.1kB	2901.0kB
Parcel 2.16.4	32411ms	2865ms	5335.1kB	1511.2kB
Utoo 1.5.34	22336ms	2525ms🥉	4984.3kB	1448.8kB

Build memory (MiB):

Name	Peak (no cache)	Peak (with cache)
Rspack CLI 2.3.0	1069.3🥇	1243.6🥉
Rsbuild 2.3.0	1186.4🥉	1284.1
Vite 8.3.5	1772.0	1771.4
webpack 5.112.2	1715.5	1443.0
esbuild 0.28.2	1408.1	1413.6
Farm 1.7.11	1695.3	1393.0
Parcel 2.16.4	3257.9	707.4🥈
Utoo 1.5.34	1152.5🥈	253.4🥇

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)	Output size	Gzipped size
Rspack CLI 2.3.0	1403ms	446ms🥇	1817.8kB	553.5kB🥉
Rsbuild 2.3.0	1320ms	569ms🥈	1817.5kB🥉	553.4kB🥈
Vite 8.3.5	1186ms🥉	863ms	1813.6kB🥈	554.6kB
Rollup 4.65.1	7488ms	10028ms	1764.2kB🥇	542.6kB🥇
Rolldown 1.2.15	790ms🥇	675ms	1835.9kB	555.8kB
webpack 5.112.2	5340ms	1087ms	1836.4kB	561.4kB
esbuild 0.28.2	957ms🥈	905ms	2135.2kB	627.8kB
Farm 1.7.11	4653ms	1545ms	2313.2kB	776.1kB
Utoo 1.5.34	6329ms	668ms🥉	1846.1kB	562.7kB

Build memory (MiB):

Name	Peak (no cache)	Peak (with cache)
Rspack CLI 2.3.0	361.0🥇	525.8
Rsbuild 2.3.0	366.3🥈	529.4
Vite 8.3.5	543.2	541.3
Rollup 4.65.1	1282.1	1279.6
Rolldown 1.2.15	519.2	522.3
webpack 5.112.2	749.1	411.9🥈
esbuild 0.28.2	476.3	429.7🥉
Farm 1.7.11	564.6	509.2
Utoo 1.5.34	457.8🥉	130.0🥇

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!

Memory methodology

Sample the command process tree every ~50 ms, excluding the browser and benchmark driver. Use macOS physical footprint (requires Xcode Command Line Tools) or Linux RSS; these metrics are not comparable across platforms.
Measure timing and memory in separate passes, each with cold/warm caches and natural GC.
Dev steady: load /, perform 10 root/leaf HMR updates, then idle for 5 seconds and take the median over 2 seconds. Peak: the largest sampled process-tree total during dev startup through this window, or during a build.
Report MiB as the median across runs. Raw samples and summaries are saved in results/ and uploaded as CI artifacts.

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
.agents/skills/benchmark-readme-sync		.agents/skills/benchmark-readme-sync
.github		.github
.vscode		.vscode
assets		assets
cases		cases
scripts		scripts
shared		shared
.gitignore		.gitignore
.prettierrc		.prettierrc
LICENSE		LICENSE
README.md		README.md
package.json		package.json
pnpm-lock.yaml		pnpm-lock.yaml
pnpm-workspace.yaml		pnpm-workspace.yaml
tsconfig.json		tsconfig.json

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