head to head · open source
esbuild vs sandboxd
esbuild has 40,063 GitHub stars, 1,346 forks, 622 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. sandboxd has 946 stars, 60 forks, 14 open issues and last shipped 11 days ago. esbuild leads on adoption by 4,135% (40,063 vs 946 stars). esbuild is written in Go under MIT; sandboxd is written in Go under MIT. esbuild has attracted 3% as many forks as stars, sandboxd 6%. sandboxd 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 | sandboxd | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 946 |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-08-09 | 2026-09-09 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.3K | ⑂ 60 |
| 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 sandboxd if
- You want the sandboxd feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and sandboxd 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 sandboxd
sandboxd is an open source, self hosted AI app builder that runs a coding agent inside isolated sandboxes on your own server and gives every generated app its own live preview URL, and it is built for developers and teams who want the prompt to app workflow of hosted builders without giving up their infrastructure, code, or data.
read the full sandboxd overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is esbuild or sandboxd more popular?
esbuild has 40,063 GitHub stars and sandboxd has 946. esbuild has the larger community by that measure.
Are esbuild and sandboxd free?
Both are open source. esbuild is licensed under MIT and sandboxd under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between esbuild and sandboxd?
esbuild is written in Go and sandboxd 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 sandboxd?
Choose esbuild if you want the larger community (40,063 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose sandboxd if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.