head to head · open source
esbuild vs xmake
esbuild has 40,122 GitHub stars, 1,367 forks, 622 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. xmake has 12,286 stars, 965 forks, 255 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. esbuild leads on adoption by 227% (40,122 vs 12,286 stars). esbuild is written in Go under MIT; xmake is written in Lua under Apache-2.0. esbuild has attracted 3% as many forks as stars, xmake 8%. xmake 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| esbuild | xmake | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 12K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Lua |
| Last push | 2026-08-09 | 2026-11-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.4K | ⑂ 965 |
| 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 xmake if
- You want the xmake feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Lua
- You evaluated both and xmake 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 xmake
xmake A cross platform build utility based on Lua Modern C/C++ build tool: Simple, Fast, Powerful dependency package integration Support this project Support this project by becoming a sponsor. Your logo will show up here with a link to your website. 🙏 Introduction (中文) What is Xmake? 1. Xmake is a cross platform build utility based on the Lua scripting language. 2. Xmake is very lightweight and has no dependencies outside of the standard library. 3. Uses the xmake.lua file to maintain project builds with a simple and readable syntax. Xmake can be used to directly build source code (like with Make or Ninja), or…
read the full xmake overview →
More in Developer Tools
Related comparisons
More Build & Deployment projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Build & Deployment field.
Frequently asked questions
Is esbuild or xmake more popular?
esbuild has 40,122 GitHub stars and xmake has 12,286. esbuild has the larger community by that measure.
Are esbuild and xmake free?
Both are open source. esbuild is licensed under MIT and xmake under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between esbuild and xmake?
esbuild is written in Go and xmake in Lua. 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 xmake?
Choose esbuild if you want the larger community (40,122 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose xmake if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.