head to head · open source
esbuild vs rsbuild
esbuild has 40,063 GitHub stars, 1,346 forks, 622 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. rsbuild has 3,381 stars, 281 forks, 22 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. esbuild leads on adoption by 1,085% (40,063 vs 3,381 stars). esbuild is written in Go under MIT; rsbuild is written in TypeScript under MIT. esbuild has attracted 3% as many forks as stars, rsbuild 8%. rsbuild was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (bundler, javascript, typescript), 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 | rsbuild | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 3.4K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-08-09 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.3K | ⑂ 281 |
| 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 rsbuild if
- You want the rsbuild feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and rsbuild 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 rsbuild
Rsbuild is a build tool for web applications. It lives in the JavaScript and TypeScript frontend ecosystem. It is in the Developer Tools / Build & Deployment category. The repository lists TypeScript and an MIT license. It is part of Rstack, a unified JavaScript toolchain. It is powered by Rspack, and it uses Rust based tools such as SWC and Lightning CSS.
read the full rsbuild overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is esbuild or rsbuild more popular?
esbuild has 40,063 GitHub stars and rsbuild has 3,381. esbuild has the larger community by that measure.
Are esbuild and rsbuild free?
Both are open source. esbuild is licensed under MIT and rsbuild under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between esbuild and rsbuild?
esbuild is written in Go and rsbuild 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 rsbuild?
Choose esbuild if you want the larger community (40,063 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose rsbuild if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.