head to head · open source
rspack vs xmake
rspack has 12,966 GitHub stars, 879 forks, 224 open issues and last shipped yesterday. xmake has 12,288 stars, 965 forks, 255 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. rspack leads on adoption by 6% (12,966 vs 12,288 stars). rspack is written in Rust under MIT; xmake is written in Lua under Apache-2.0. rspack has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, xmake 8%. rspack 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| rspack | xmake | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 13K | ★ 12K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Rust | Lua |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-11-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 879 | ⑂ 965 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick rspack if
- You weight community size — 13K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- 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 rspack
Rspack English 简体中文 Rspack is a fast Rust based bundler for the web. It modernizes the webpack API to enable seamless replacement of webpack while delivering lightning fast build speeds. ✨ Features 🚀 Fast Startup : Based on Rust, the build speed is extremely fast, bringing you the ultimate development experience. ⚡ Lightning HMR : With a built in incremental compilation mechanism, HMR is extremely fast and fully capable of developing large scale projects. 📦 Webpack Compatible : Compatible with plugins and loaders in the webpack ecosystem, seamlessly integrating excellent libraries built by the community. 🎨…
read the full rspack 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 rspack or xmake more popular?
rspack has 12,966 GitHub stars and xmake has 12,288. rspack has the larger community by that measure.
Are rspack and xmake free?
Both are open source. rspack is licensed under MIT and xmake under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between rspack and xmake?
rspack is written in Rust 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, rspack or xmake?
Choose rspack if you want the larger community (12,966 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose xmake if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.