head to head · open source
esbuild vs ultra-runner
esbuild has 40,063 GitHub stars, 1,346 forks, 622 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. ultra-runner has 1,247 stars, 39 forks, 60 open issues and last shipped yesterday. esbuild leads on adoption by 3,113% (40,063 vs 1,247 stars). esbuild is written in Go under MIT; ultra-runner is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. esbuild has attracted 3% as many forks as stars, ultra-runner 3%. ultra-runner 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 | ultra-runner | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 1.2K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-08-09 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.3K | ⑂ 39 |
| 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 ultra-runner if
- You want the ultra-runner feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and ultra-runner 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 ultra-runner
Ultra Runner is an open source, zero configuration script runner and build tool for JavaScript and TypeScript monorepos, built for teams that keep many packages in one repository and need to run scripts and builds across all of them quickly.
read the full ultra-runner overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is esbuild or ultra-runner more popular?
esbuild has 40,063 GitHub stars and ultra-runner has 1,247. esbuild has the larger community by that measure.
Are esbuild and ultra-runner free?
Both are open source. esbuild is licensed under MIT and ultra-runner under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between esbuild and ultra-runner?
esbuild is written in Go and ultra-runner 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 ultra-runner?
Choose esbuild if you want the larger community (40,063 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose ultra-runner if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.