head to head · open source
esbuild vs please
esbuild has 40,120 GitHub stars, 1,368 forks, 622 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. please has 2,626 stars, 223 forks, 120 open issues and last shipped yesterday. esbuild leads on adoption by 1,428% (40,120 vs 2,626 stars). esbuild is written in Go under MIT; please is written in Go under Apache-2.0. esbuild has attracted 3% as many forks as stars, please 8%. please 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 | please | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 2.6K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-08-09 | 2026-11-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.4K | ⑂ 223 |
| 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 please if
- You want the please feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and please 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 please
Please Please is a cross language build system with an emphasis on high performance, extensibility and reproducibility. It supports a number of popular languages and can automate nearly any aspect of your build process. See please.build for more information. Currently Linux (tested on Ubuntu), macOS and FreeBSD are actively supported. If you're a fan of Please, don't forget to add yourself to the adopters file. Getting Started =============== The easiest way to install it on your own machine is to run: Or, if you prefer, grab one of the tarballs off our releases page and extract it yourself; it typically lives…
read the full please overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is esbuild or please more popular?
esbuild has 40,120 GitHub stars and please has 2,626. esbuild has the larger community by that measure.
Are esbuild and please free?
Both are open source. esbuild is licensed under MIT and please under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between esbuild and please?
esbuild is written in Go and please in Go. 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 please?
Choose esbuild if you want the larger community (40,120 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose please if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.