head to head · open source
esbuild vs midway
esbuild has 40,120 GitHub stars, 1,368 forks, 622 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. midway has 7,754 stars, 584 forks, 118 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. esbuild leads on adoption by 417% (40,120 vs 7,754 stars). esbuild is written in Go under MIT; midway is written in TypeScript under MIT. esbuild has attracted 3% as many forks as stars, midway 8%. midway was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (react), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
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 | midway | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 7.8K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-08-09 | 2026-10-30 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.4K | ⑂ 584 |
| 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 midway if
- You want the midway feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and midway 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 midway
Midway 一个面向未来的云端一体 Node.js 框架 English 简体中文 资源 2022 夏季 mini 直面会 2022 冬季直面会 3.x beta 功能预览 2021 秋季直面会 2021 夏季直面会 v2 示例教程 2.0 发布会回放《2.0 发布会文章》 特性 🐘 全功能 ：支持 Web 应用/Serverless/FaaS/微服务/小程序后端等多种场景，基于装饰器和依赖注入开发企业级应用 🐦 前端集成 ：全新的云端一体应用研发体验，零 API 调用，使用 "React Hooks " 风格一体研发 🐴 跨平台 ：支持部署至普通 Server 或 Serverless/FaaS 环境 🐶 扩展 ：组件化扩展能力，另外支持使用 Koa/Express/Egg.js 生态插件 🐂 示例 : 官方提供多种场景的示例代码，方便开发者快速上手 🛡 TypeScript 全面支持 描述 Midway 是一个适用于构建 Serverless 服务，传统应用、微服务，小程序后端的 Node.js 框架。 Midway 可以使用 Koa，Express 或 Egg.js 作为基础 Web 框架。它还提供了独立使用的基本解决方案，例如 Socket.io，GRPC，Dubbo.js 和 RabbitMQ 等。 此外，Midway 也适用于前端/全栈开发人员的 Node.js…
read the full midway overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is esbuild or midway more popular?
esbuild has 40,120 GitHub stars and midway has 7,754. esbuild has the larger community by that measure.
Are esbuild and midway free?
Both are open source. esbuild is licensed under MIT and midway under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between esbuild and midway?
esbuild is written in Go and midway 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 midway?
Choose esbuild if you want the larger community (40,120 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose midway if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.