Comparison

esbuild vs Rolldown

No leader: the top candidate esbuild has only 0.21 confidence (low), below the 0.35 needed to declare a winner. The attribute-by-attribute breakdown below, with a source and date on every value, is the honest way to compare them.

Machine formatsJSONMarkdownGraphQLor send Accept: application/json
esbuild70
Rolldown49
Score
Vioscale score
esbuild70 / 100low · 21%
Rolldown49 / 100low · 23%
Pricing
Free tier
esbuild
Rolldown
Model
esbuild
Rolldownopen_source
Price level
esbuild
Rolldownfree
Transparent
esbuild
Rolldown
Integrations
Count
esbuild
Rolldown5
Adoption
Dependent repos
esbuild491,246
Rolldown2
Github stars
esbuild40,018
Rolldown13,911
Activity
Commits last 30d
esbuild34
Rolldown100
Release
Cadence days
esbuild21
Rolldown6
History
esbuild20 items
Rolldown20 items
License
Spdx
esbuildMIT
RolldownMIT
Language
Primary
esbuildGo
RolldownRust
Market
Availability
esbuild

Capabilities

Feature-by-feature on the axes that matter for bundlers. “-” means undocumented, not absent.

Capabilities
Dev server hmr
esbuild-
Rolldown-
Native esm dev
esbuild-
Rolldown-
Code splitting
esbuild-
Rolldown-
Tree shaking
esbuild-
Rolldown-
Css bundling
esbuild-
Rolldown-
Zero config
esbuild-
Rolldown-
Webpack plugin compat
esbuild-
Rolldown-
Rollup plugin compat
esbuild-
Rolldown-
Monorepo aware
esbuild-
Rolldown-
Source maps
esbuild-
Rolldown-

What each one is

The product in its own terms, so the numbers below have context.

esbuild

A fast bundler that combines JavaScript and other web assets into optimized output, with built-in TypeScript support and APIs accessible through command-line, JavaScript, and Go interfaces.

Independently observed

Rolldown

A JavaScript/TypeScript bundler combining Rollup-compatible APIs with esbuild feature parity, designed as the standard bundler for Vite. Free and open-source software built and maintained by a core team with community contributions.

Independently observed

Pricing

List pricing as published by each vendor, with the date we read it. Always verify at the source before you buy.

esbuild

Pricing not documented yet.

Rolldown

Open sourceFree tier
  • Open SourceFree
    • Rust-based bundler
    • Rollup-compatible API
    • Esbuild feature parity
    • Built-in transforms and minification
    • Vite 8+ integration
as of verify ↗

Platform & deployment

Where each product runs and how it can be hosted. A dash means undocumented, not unsupported.

Platforms
CLI
esbuild
Rolldown
Deployment
Cloud / SaaS
esbuild
Rolldown

Integrations

What each product connects to. Counts come from the vendor's own integration directory where one exists.

esbuild

Not documented yet.

Rolldown

5 total
  • Rollup
  • Vite
  • esbuild
  • napi-rs
  • GitHub
Independently observed

Comparison generated from independently-sourced facts. Every value links to its source and retrieval date. See the method.