head to head · open source
esbuild vs cloud-in-a-bottle
esbuild has 40,120 GitHub stars, 1,368 forks, 622 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. cloud-in-a-bottle has 1,242 stars, 84 forks, 17 open issues and last shipped today. esbuild leads on adoption by 3,130% (40,120 vs 1,242 stars). esbuild is written in Go under MIT; cloud-in-a-bottle is written in Python under AGPL-3.0. esbuild has attracted 3% as many forks as stars, cloud-in-a-bottle 7%. cloud-in-a-bottle 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 | cloud-in-a-bottle | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 1.2K |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | Python |
| Last push | 2026-08-09 | 2026-11-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.4K | ⑂ 84 |
| 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 cloud-in-a-bottle if
- You want the cloud-in-a-bottle feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and cloud-in-a-bottle 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 cloud-in-a-bottle
Cloud in a Bottle Your corner of the cloud. Deploy, use, and share web apps on a server you control. Your apps, data, and infrastructure stay yours. Why Cloud in a Bottle Most people have no access to the cloud that isn't mediated by a company with different incentives than theirs. Open source web software exists but running it somewhere means fighting infrastructure that most people don't want to touch. Cloud in a Bottle is the project our team needed and couldn't find: a corner of the cloud that's genuinely yours. Where apps install as easily as on your phone, and the data lives on hardware you control. What…
read the full cloud-in-a-bottle overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is esbuild or cloud-in-a-bottle more popular?
esbuild has 40,120 GitHub stars and cloud-in-a-bottle has 1,242. esbuild has the larger community by that measure.
Are esbuild and cloud-in-a-bottle free?
Both are open source. esbuild is licensed under MIT and cloud-in-a-bottle under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between esbuild and cloud-in-a-bottle?
esbuild is written in Go and cloud-in-a-bottle in Python. 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 cloud-in-a-bottle?
Choose esbuild if you want the larger community (40,120 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose cloud-in-a-bottle if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.