head to head · open source
esbuild vs style-dictionary
esbuild has 40,120 GitHub stars, 1,368 forks, 622 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. style-dictionary has 4,875 stars, 648 forks, 242 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. esbuild leads on adoption by 723% (40,120 vs 4,875 stars). esbuild is written in Go under MIT; style-dictionary is written in JavaScript under Apache-2.0. esbuild has attracted 3% as many forks as stars, style-dictionary 13%. style-dictionary 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 | style-dictionary | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 4.9K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-08-09 | 2026-11-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.4K | ⑂ 648 |
| 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 style-dictionary if
- You want the style-dictionary feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and style-dictionary 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 style-dictionary
What's new in Style Dictionary 4.0! Style Dictionary See documentation Style once, use everywhere. A Style Dictionary uses design tokens to define styles once and use those styles on any platform or language. It provides a single place to create and edit your styles, and exports these tokens to all the places you need iOS, Android, CSS, JS, HTML, sketch files, style documentation, etc. It is available as a CLI through npm, but can also be used like any normal node module if you want to extend its functionality. When you are managing user experiences, it can be quite challenging to keep styles consistent and…
read the full style-dictionary overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is esbuild or style-dictionary more popular?
esbuild has 40,120 GitHub stars and style-dictionary has 4,875. esbuild has the larger community by that measure.
Are esbuild and style-dictionary free?
Both are open source. esbuild is licensed under MIT and style-dictionary under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between esbuild and style-dictionary?
esbuild is written in Go and style-dictionary in JavaScript. 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 style-dictionary?
Choose esbuild if you want the larger community (40,120 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose style-dictionary if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.