head to head · open source
esbuild vs create-elm-app
esbuild has 40,120 GitHub stars, 1,368 forks, 622 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. create-elm-app has 1,675 stars, 146 forks, 54 open issues and last shipped 12 days ago. esbuild leads on adoption by 2,295% (40,120 vs 1,675 stars). esbuild is written in Go under MIT; create-elm-app is written in JavaScript under MIT. esbuild has attracted 3% as many forks as stars, create-elm-app 9%. create-elm-app 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 | create-elm-app | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 1.7K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Go | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-08-09 | 2026-10-24 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.4K | ⑂ 146 |
| 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 create-elm-app if
- You want the create-elm-app feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and create-elm-app 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 create-elm-app
Create Elm App Create Elm apps with no build configuration. Getting Started – How to create a new app. User Guide – How to develop apps bootstrapped with Create Elm App. Elm SPA example Using Create Elm App Elm in SPA example by Richard Feldman. Quickstart Create a production build with elm app build Getting Started Installation Node =8 is required for installation. Yarn yarn global add create elm app NPM npm install create elm app g If you are running Linux OS, you should install it as the superuser: sudo npm install create elm app g Creating an App To create a new app, run: Create a new my app folder with…
read the full create-elm-app overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is esbuild or create-elm-app more popular?
esbuild has 40,120 GitHub stars and create-elm-app has 1,675. esbuild has the larger community by that measure.
Are esbuild and create-elm-app free?
Both are open source. esbuild is licensed under MIT and create-elm-app under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between esbuild and create-elm-app?
esbuild is written in Go and create-elm-app in JavaScript. 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 create-elm-app?
Choose esbuild if you want the larger community (40,120 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose create-elm-app if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.