head to head · open source
esbuild vs sandboxd
esbuild has 40,120 GitHub stars, 1,368 forks, 622 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. sandboxd has 976 stars, 69 forks, 14 open issues and last shipped yesterday. esbuild leads on adoption by 4,011% (40,120 vs 976 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 7%. 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 | ★ 976 |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-08-09 | 2026-11-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.4K | ⑂ 69 |
| 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
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 sandboxd
sandboxd Open source, self hosted AI app builder. Prompt it and a coding agent builds real apps in isolated sandboxes on your server — each live at a preview URL. You own the infra, code, and data. MIT. 🔥 Trend of the Day on Trendshift Prompt → a real, running app on your server, at its own URL. See it in action 👇 1 · Build from a prompt — an agent builds it in an isolated sandbox, live at a preview URL. 2 · Or run an existing app — n8n, Ghost, Grafana… 80+ curated apps, one click. 3 · Or drive the API — every action is a /v1 call, headless & scriptable. ▶ Try the live demo Click around a real console with…
read the full sandboxd overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is esbuild or sandboxd more popular?
esbuild has 40,120 GitHub stars and sandboxd has 976. 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 (40,120 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose sandboxd if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.