Build Tools Comparison

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

Metrics

Name	Description	Notes
Startup	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	Include initial build (except for Vite)
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

Bench cases

Data from GitHub Actions: https://github.com/rspack-contrib/build-tools-performance/actions/runs/15697679057 (2025-06-17)

Small app (2.5k modules)

1000 React components + 1500 modules in node_modules. (Most components are dynamic imported)

CASE=small pnpm benchmark

Build performance

Name	Startup	Server start	Page load	Root HMR	Leaf HMR	Prod build
Rspack CLI 1.4.0-beta.1	811ms	606ms	205ms	129ms	123ms	678ms
Rspack CLI (Lazy) 1.4.0-beta.1	345ms	302ms	43ms	115ms	108ms	679ms
Rsbuild 1.4.0-beta.4	648ms	499ms	149ms	101ms	111ms	613ms
Rsbuild (Lazy) 1.4.0-beta.4	704ms	231ms	473ms	110ms	94ms	616ms
Vite (Rolldown) 6.3.18	3578ms	130ms	3447ms	169ms	138ms	598ms
Vite (SWC) 6.3.5	3652ms	126ms	3526ms	177ms	140ms	2069ms
webpack (SWC) 5.99.9	3169ms	2491ms	678ms	374ms	278ms	2784ms

Bundle size

Name	Total size	Gzipped size
Rspack CLI 1.4.0-beta.1	839.1kB	218.5kB
Rspack CLI (Lazy) 1.4.0-beta.1	839.1kB	218.5kB
Rsbuild 1.4.0-beta.4	870.8kB	212.4kB
Rsbuild (Lazy) 1.4.0-beta.4	870.8kB	212.4kB
Vite (Rolldown) 6.3.18	878.8kB	245.9kB
Vite (SWC) 6.3.5	801.4kB	216.4kB
webpack (SWC) 5.99.9	882.1kB	237.3kB

Medium app (10k modules)

5000 React components + 5000 modules in node_modules. (Most components are dynamic imported)

CASE=medium pnpm benchmark

Build performance

Name	Startup	Server start	Page load	Root HMR	Leaf HMR	Prod build
Rspack CLI 1.4.0-beta.1	1507ms	1273ms	233ms	200ms	173ms	1338ms
Rspack CLI (Lazy) 1.4.0-beta.1	374ms	336ms	38ms	87ms	87ms	1362ms
Rsbuild 1.4.0-beta.4	1962ms	1718ms	244ms	210ms	167ms	1708ms
Rsbuild (Lazy) 1.4.0-beta.4	337ms	178ms	158ms	93ms	91ms	1406ms
Vite (Rolldown) 6.3.18	3080ms	172ms	2908ms	152ms	140ms	1345ms
Vite (SWC) 6.3.5	3062ms	138ms	2924ms	123ms	63ms	5084ms
webpack (SWC) 5.99.9	7642ms	6934ms	708ms	826ms	774ms	7289ms

Bundle size

Name	Total size	Gzipped size
Rspack CLI 1.4.0-beta.1	2846.7kB	677.3kB
Rspack CLI (Lazy) 1.4.0-beta.1	2846.7kB	677.3kB
Rsbuild 1.4.0-beta.4	2877.7kB	678.7kB
Rsbuild (Lazy) 1.4.0-beta.4	2877.7kB	678.7kB
Vite (Rolldown) 6.3.18	2722.1kB	754.1kB
Vite (SWC) 6.3.5	2579.4kB	688.7kB
webpack (SWC) 5.99.9	2871.1kB	711.4kB

Large app (20k modules)

10000 React components + 10000 modules in node_modules. (Most components are dynamic imported)

CASE=large pnpm benchmark

Build performance

Name	Startup	Server start	Page load	Root HMR	Leaf HMR	Prod build
Rspack CLI 1.4.0-beta.1	2890ms	2556ms	333ms	363ms	272ms	2795ms
Rspack CLI (Lazy) 1.4.0-beta.1	613ms	552ms	61ms	111ms	112ms	3950ms
Rsbuild 1.4.0-beta.4	3407ms	3077ms	330ms	376ms	299ms	3044ms
Rsbuild (Lazy) 1.4.0-beta.4	484ms	229ms	254ms	122ms	107ms	3247ms
Vite (Rolldown) 6.3.18	4472ms	140ms	4332ms	166ms	142ms	2647ms
Vite (SWC) 6.3.5	7824ms	247ms	7576ms	122ms	138ms	10801ms
webpack (SWC) 5.99.9	16518ms	15262ms	1256ms	4498ms	3506ms	13340ms

Bundle size

Name	Total size	Gzipped size
Rspack CLI 1.4.0-beta.1	5996.5kB	1367.1kB
Rspack CLI (Lazy) 1.4.0-beta.1	5996.5kB	1367.1kB
Rsbuild 1.4.0-beta.4	6054.9kB	1367.4kB
Rsbuild (Lazy) 1.4.0-beta.4	6054.9kB	1367.4kB
Vite (Rolldown) 6.3.18	5679.8kB	1549.1kB
Vite (SWC) 6.3.5	5369.2kB	1409.3kB
webpack (SWC) 5.99.9	5993.4kB	1464.6kB

Run locally

Run the benchmark.mjs script to get the results (requires Node.js >= 22):

# Run the benchmark for the medium case
pnpm benchmark

# Run the benchmark for the small case
CASE=small pnpm benchmark

If you want to start the project with the specified tool, try:

pnpm i # install dependencies

# Dev server
pnpm start:farm # Start Farm
pnpm start:rspack # Start Rspack
pnpm start:rsbuild # Start Rsbuild
pnpm start:vite # Start Vite
pnpm start:webpack # Start webpack

# Build
pnpm build:farm # Build Farm
pnpm build:rspack # Build Rspack
pnpm build:rsbuild # Build Rsbuild
pnpm build:vite # Build Vite
pnpm build:webpack # Build webpack

Options

Use CASE to switch the benchmark case:

CASE=small pnpm benchmark
CASE=medium 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!