head to head · open source
esbuild vs cargo-make
esbuild has 40,063 GitHub stars, 1,346 forks, 622 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. cargo-make has 2,953 stars, 145 forks, 89 open issues and last shipped 8 months ago. esbuild leads on adoption by 1,257% (40,063 vs 2,953 stars). esbuild is written in Go under MIT; cargo-make is written in Rust under Apache-2.0. esbuild has attracted 3% as many forks as stars, cargo-make 5%. esbuild 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 | cargo-make | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 3.0K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-08-09 | 2026-02-05 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.3K | ⑂ 145 |
| 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 cargo-make if
- You want the cargo-make feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and cargo-make fits your workflow better
About esbuild
esbuild is an MIT licensed, Go based bundler for the web that compiles JavaScript, CSS, TypeScript, and JSX in one tool, aimed at front end developers and teams whose current web build pipelines are slower than they need to be.
read the full esbuild overview →
About cargo-make
cargo make is a Rust task runner and build tool. It lives in the Rust and Cargo ecosystem, and it is distributed as a cargo subcommand.
read the full cargo-make overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is esbuild or cargo-make more popular?
esbuild has 40,063 GitHub stars and cargo-make has 2,953. esbuild has the larger community by that measure.
Are esbuild and cargo-make free?
Both are open source. esbuild is licensed under MIT and cargo-make under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between esbuild and cargo-make?
esbuild is written in Go and cargo-make 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, esbuild or cargo-make?
Choose esbuild if you want the larger community (40,063 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose cargo-make if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.