head to head · open source
parcel vs sbt
parcel has 44,008 GitHub stars, 2,425 forks, 606 open issues and last shipped yesterday. sbt has 4,953 stars, 1,053 forks, 498 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. parcel leads on adoption by 789% (44,008 vs 4,953 stars). parcel is written in JavaScript under MIT; sbt is written in Scala under Apache-2.0. parcel has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, sbt 21%. 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 | sbt | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 44K | ★ 5.0K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | Scala |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-31 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 1.1K |
| 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 sbt if
- You want the sbt feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Scala
- You evaluated both and sbt 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 sbt
[sbt/sbt zero seven]: [CONTRIBUTING]: CONTRIBUTING.md [contributing docs]: contributing docs/README.md [Setup]: [FAQ]: [sbt dev]: [searching]: [asking]: [LICENSE]: LICENSE [sbt/io]: [sbt/zinc]: [sbt/sbt]: sbt === sbt is a build tool for Scala, Java, and more. For general documentation, see sbt 2.x This is the 2.x series of sbt. The source code of sbt is split across several GitHub repositories, including this one. [sbt/io][sbt/io] hosts sbt.io module. [sbt/zinc][sbt/zinc] hosts Zinc, an incremental compiler for Scala. [sbt/sbt][sbt/sbt], this repository hosts modules that implement the build tool. Other links…
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Frequently asked questions
Is parcel or sbt more popular?
parcel has 44,008 GitHub stars and sbt has 4,953. parcel has the larger community by that measure.
Are parcel and sbt free?
Both are open source. parcel is licensed under MIT and sbt under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between parcel and sbt?
parcel is written in JavaScript and sbt in Scala. 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 sbt?
Choose parcel if you want the larger community (44,008 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose sbt if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.