head to head · open source
esbuild vs Capgo
esbuild has 40,120 GitHub stars, 1,368 forks, 622 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. Capgo has 212 stars, 134 forks, 41 open issues and last shipped yesterday. esbuild leads on adoption by 18,825% (40,120 vs 212 stars). esbuild is written in Go under MIT; Capgo is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0. esbuild has attracted 3% as many forks as stars, Capgo 63%. Capgo was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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 | Capgo | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 212 |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-08-09 | 2026-11-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.4K | ⑂ 134 |
| 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 Capgo if
- You want the Capgo feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Capgo 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 Capgo
Console to manage and distribute your live update ➡️ Get Instant updates for your App with Capgo Missing a feature? We’ll build the plugin for you 💪 Features ☁️ Cloud / Self hosted Support: Use our Cloud to manage your app updates or yours. 📦 Bundle Management: Download, assign to channel, rollback. 📺 Channel Support: Use channels to manage different environments. 🎯 Set Channel to specific device to do QA or debug one user. 🔄 Auto Update: Automatically download and set the latest bundle for the app. ✅ Official Appflow alternative: our Capacitor updater plugin is the official alternative to Ionic Appflow. 🛟…
read the full Capgo overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is esbuild or Capgo more popular?
esbuild has 40,120 GitHub stars and Capgo has 212. esbuild has the larger community by that measure.
Are esbuild and Capgo free?
Both are open source. esbuild is licensed under MIT and Capgo under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between esbuild and Capgo?
esbuild is written in Go and Capgo 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 Capgo?
Choose esbuild if you want the larger community (40,120 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Capgo if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.