head to head · open source
parcel vs Bear
parcel has 44,024 GitHub stars, 2,284 forks, 606 open issues and last shipped 14 days ago. Bear has 6,493 stars, 369 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. parcel leads on adoption by 578% (44,024 vs 6,493 stars). parcel is written in JavaScript under MIT; Bear is written in Rust under GPL-3.0. parcel has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, Bear 6%. Bear was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (build-tool), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| parcel | Bear | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 44K | ★ 6.5K |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-09-06 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.3K | ⑂ 369 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick parcel if
- You weight community size — 44K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Bear if
- You want the Bear feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and Bear fits your workflow better
About parcel
Parcel is a zero configuration build tool for the web, distributed as the parcel package on npm and licensed under MIT. It lives in the JavaScript ecosystem and is written primarily in JavaScript, with its JavaScript compiler implemented in Rust for native performance. The project has been developed for roughly nine years, carries more than 44,000 stars and over 2,200 forks on GitHub, and its documentation is hosted at parceljs.org.
read the full parcel overview →
About Bear
Bear is a GPL 3.0, Rust based command line tool that produces a compile commands.json compilation database for any C or C++ build by recording the compiler invocations that run during it, and it is aimed at developers, code explorers, and CI jobs whose build systems cannot emit that database on their own.
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Frequently asked questions
Is parcel or Bear more popular?
parcel has 44,024 GitHub stars and Bear has 6,493. parcel has the larger community by that measure.
Are parcel and Bear free?
Both are open source. parcel is licensed under MIT and Bear under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between parcel and Bear?
parcel is written in JavaScript and Bear in Rust. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, parcel or Bear?
Choose parcel if you want the larger community (44,024 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Bear if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.