head to head · open source
esbuild vs bunup
esbuild has 40,120 GitHub stars, 1,368 forks, 622 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. bunup has 525 stars, 14 forks, 1 open issues and last shipped 5 months ago. esbuild leads on adoption by 7,542% (40,120 vs 525 stars). esbuild is written in Go under MIT; bunup is written in TypeScript under MIT. esbuild has attracted 3% as many forks as stars, bunup 3%. esbuild was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (bundler, typescript), 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
| esbuild | bunup | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 525 |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-08-09 | 2026-06-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.4K | ⑂ 14 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick esbuild if
- You weight community size — 40K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick bunup if
- You want the bunup feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and bunup fits your workflow better
About esbuild
Website Getting started Documentation Plugins FAQ Why? Our current build tools for the web are 10 100x slower than they could be: The main goal of the esbuild bundler project is to bring about a new era of build tool performance, and create an easy to use modern bundler along the way. Major features: Extreme speed without needing a cache JavaScript, CSS, TypeScript, and JSX built in A straightforward API for CLI, JS, and Go Bundles ESM and CommonJS modules Bundles CSS including CSS modules Tree shaking, minification, and source maps Local server, watch mode, and plugins Check out the getting started instructions…
read the full esbuild overview →
About bunup
Bunup helps you ship TypeScript/React libraries faster with great DX — built on Bun's native bundler. Performance Instant builds by design. With Bun’s native speed, builds and rebuilds are extremely quick, even in monorepos. Faster feedback loops, higher productivity, calmer flow. 🚀 Quick Start Create a TypeScript file: Build it instantly: Outputs to dist/ with ESM and .d.ts types. Need CommonJS too? Want to generate and sync package exports automatically? Scaffold Spin up a modern, ready to publish TypeScript or React component library (or a basic starter) in 10 seconds: See more in Scaffold with Bunup…
read the full bunup overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is esbuild or bunup more popular?
esbuild has 40,120 GitHub stars and bunup has 525. esbuild has the larger community by that measure.
Are esbuild and bunup free?
Both are open source. esbuild is licensed under MIT and bunup under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between esbuild and bunup?
esbuild is written in Go and bunup in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, esbuild or bunup?
Choose esbuild if you want the larger community (40,120 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose bunup if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.