head to head · open source
esbuild vs mill
esbuild has 40,120 GitHub stars, 1,368 forks, 622 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. mill has 2,798 stars, 449 forks, 272 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. esbuild leads on adoption by 1,334% (40,120 vs 2,798 stars). esbuild is written in Go under MIT; mill is written in Scala under MIT. esbuild has attracted 3% as many forks as stars, mill 16%. mill 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 | mill | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 2.8K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Go | Scala |
| Last push | 2026-08-09 | 2026-11-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.4K | ⑂ 449 |
| 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 mill if
- You want the mill feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Scala
- You evaluated both and mill 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 mill
= image:website/docs/logo.svg[title=Mill Logo] Mill: A Better Build Tool for Java, Scala, & Kotlin :mill stable version: 1.1.9 :link github: :link current doc site: :link mill moduledefs: // customize appearance on GitHub :idprefix: :idseparator: :toc: :toc placement: preamble ifndef::env github[] :icons: font endif::[] ifdef::env github[] :caution caption: :fire: :important caption: :exclamation: :note caption: :paperclip: :tip caption: :bulb: :warning caption: :warning: endif::[] link:changelog.adoc[image: Central Version]] Mill is a build tool that improves upon the tools traditionally used in the JVM…
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Frequently asked questions
Is esbuild or mill more popular?
esbuild has 40,120 GitHub stars and mill has 2,798. esbuild has the larger community by that measure.
Are esbuild and mill free?
Both are open source. esbuild is licensed under MIT and mill under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between esbuild and mill?
esbuild is written in Go and mill in Scala. 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 mill?
Choose esbuild if you want the larger community (40,120 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose mill if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.