head to head · open source
parcel vs proguard
parcel has 44,008 GitHub stars, 2,425 forks, 606 open issues and last shipped yesterday. proguard has 3,690 stars, 486 forks, 176 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. parcel leads on adoption by 1,093% (44,008 vs 3,690 stars). parcel is written in JavaScript under MIT; proguard is written in Java under GPL-2.0. parcel has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, proguard 13%. parcel was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (build-tool), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
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
| parcel | proguard | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 44K | ★ 3.7K |
| License | MIT | GPL-2.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | Java |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-30 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 486 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick parcel if
- You weight community size — 44K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick proguard if
- You want the proguard feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and proguard fits your workflow better
About parcel
Parcel is a zero configuration build tool for the web. It combines a great out of the box development experience with a scalable architecture that can take your project from just getting started to massive production application. Features 😍 Zero config – Parcel supports many languages and file types out of the box, from web technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, to assets like images, fonts, videos, and more. It has a built in dev server with hot reloading, beautiful error diagnostics, and much more. No configuration needed! ⚡️ Lightning fast – Parcel's JavaScript compiler is written in Rust for native…
read the full parcel overview →
About proguard
Quick Start • Features • Contributing • License ProGuard is a free shrinker, optimizer, obfuscator, and preverifier for Java bytecode: It detects and removes unused classes, fields, methods, and attributes. It optimizes bytecode and removes unused instructions. It renames the remaining classes, fields, and methods using short meaningless names. The resulting applications and libraries are smaller and faster. ❓ Getting Help Please use the issue tracker to report actual bugs 🐛, crashes , etc. 🚀 Quick Start Command line First, download the latest release from GitHub releases. To run ProGuard, on Linux/MacOS, just…
read the full proguard overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is parcel or proguard more popular?
parcel has 44,008 GitHub stars and proguard has 3,690. parcel has the larger community by that measure.
Are parcel and proguard free?
Both are open source. parcel is licensed under MIT and proguard under GPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between parcel and proguard?
parcel is written in JavaScript and proguard in Java. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, parcel or proguard?
Choose parcel if you want the larger community (44,008 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose proguard if its feature set, stack or GPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.