head to head · open source
esbuild vs create-elm-app
esbuild has 40,063 GitHub stars, 1,346 forks, 622 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. create-elm-app has 1,676 stars, 147 forks, 54 open issues and last shipped yesterday. esbuild leads on adoption by 2,290% (40,063 vs 1,676 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| esbuild | create-elm-app | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 1.7K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Go | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-08-09 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.3K | ⑂ 147 |
| 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
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 create-elm-app
Create Elm App is a zero configuration command line tool that scaffolds, runs, and builds Elm applications, aimed at developers who want a working Elm project with hot module replacement and an optimized production build without writing webpack configuration by hand.
read the full create-elm-app overview →
More in Developer Tools
Related comparisons
More Build & Deployment projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Build & Deployment field.
Frequently asked questions
Is esbuild or create-elm-app more popular?
esbuild has 40,063 GitHub stars and create-elm-app has 1,676. 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 (40,063 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose create-elm-app if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.