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/15903592726 (2025-06-26)

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	769ms	552ms	217ms	121ms	136ms	675ms
Rspack CLI (Lazy) 1.4.0	351ms	309ms	42ms	112ms	108ms	702ms
Rsbuild 1.4.0	667ms	483ms	184ms	116ms	112ms	577ms
Rsbuild (Lazy) 1.4.0	572ms	397ms	175ms	107ms	115ms	598ms
Vite (Rolldown) 7.0.2	3294ms	103ms	3191ms	172ms	148ms	528ms
Vite (SWC) 7.0.0	4008ms	102ms	3905ms	166ms	139ms	1936ms
webpack (SWC) 5.99.9	3334ms	2688ms	645ms	347ms	264ms	2910ms

Bundle size

Name	Total size	Gzipped size
Rspack CLI 1.4.0	839.1kB	218.5kB
Rspack CLI (Lazy) 1.4.0	839.1kB	218.5kB
Rsbuild 1.4.0	870.8kB	212.4kB
Rsbuild (Lazy) 1.4.0	870.8kB	212.4kB
Vite (Rolldown) 7.0.2	861.0kB	236.7kB
Vite (SWC) 7.0.0	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	2143ms	1841ms	302ms	285ms	178ms	2039ms
Rspack CLI (Lazy) 1.4.0	744ms	658ms	85ms	77ms	75ms	2216ms
Rsbuild 1.4.0	1925ms	1651ms	273ms	225ms	199ms	1908ms
Rsbuild (Lazy) 1.4.0	731ms	522ms	208ms	87ms	72ms	1866ms
Vite (Rolldown) 7.0.2	4739ms	307ms	4432ms	122ms	102ms	1799ms
Vite (SWC) 7.0.0	5257ms	220ms	5037ms	139ms	110ms	7205ms
webpack (SWC) 5.99.9	10072ms	9101ms	971ms	1825ms	1179ms	8634ms

Bundle size

Name	Total size	Gzipped size
Rspack CLI 1.4.0	2846.6kB	677.3kB
Rspack CLI (Lazy) 1.4.0	2846.6kB	677.3kB
Rsbuild 1.4.0	2877.6kB	678.7kB
Rsbuild (Lazy) 1.4.0	2877.6kB	678.7kB
Vite (Rolldown) 7.0.2	2719.2kB	752.5kB
Vite (SWC) 7.0.0	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	2906ms	2519ms	387ms	356ms	271ms	2861ms
Rspack CLI (Lazy) 1.4.0	505ms	448ms	57ms	123ms	105ms	2959ms
Rsbuild 1.4.0	3237ms	2873ms	364ms	402ms	297ms	3119ms
Rsbuild (Lazy) 1.4.0	797ms	597ms	199ms	114ms	106ms	3182ms
Vite (Rolldown) 7.0.2	4654ms	154ms	4500ms	175ms	141ms	2468ms
Vite (SWC) 7.0.0	5348ms	160ms	5187ms	156ms	135ms	9776ms
webpack (SWC) 5.99.9	14324ms	13262ms	1062ms	3513ms	2521ms	11724ms

Bundle size

Name	Total size	Gzipped size
Rspack CLI 1.4.0	5996.5kB	1367.1kB
Rspack CLI (Lazy) 1.4.0	5996.5kB	1367.1kB
Rsbuild 1.4.0	6054.8kB	1367.3kB
Rsbuild (Lazy) 1.4.0	6054.8kB	1367.3kB
Vite (Rolldown) 7.0.2	5676.8kB	1547.2kB
Vite (SWC) 7.0.0	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!