head to head · open source
esbuild vs xc
esbuild has 40,063 GitHub stars, 1,346 forks, 622 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. xc has 1,402 stars, 36 forks, 17 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. esbuild leads on adoption by 2,758% (40,063 vs 1,402 stars). esbuild is written in Go under MIT; xc is written in Go under MIT. esbuild has attracted 3% as many forks as stars, xc 3%. xc 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 | xc | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 1.4K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-08-09 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.3K | ⑂ 36 |
| 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 xc if
- You want the xc feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and xc 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 xc
xc is a Markdown defined task runner, written in Go and released under the MIT licence, that lets a project's build and release commands live in the same document that explains the project.
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Frequently asked questions
Is esbuild or xc more popular?
esbuild has 40,063 GitHub stars and xc has 1,402. esbuild has the larger community by that measure.
Are esbuild and xc free?
Both are open source. esbuild is licensed under MIT and xc under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between esbuild and xc?
esbuild is written in Go and xc 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 xc?
Choose esbuild if you want the larger community (40,063 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose xc if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.