head to head · open source
vite vs mill
vite has 82,861 GitHub stars, 8,745 forks, 767 open issues and last shipped yesterday. mill has 2,792 stars, 447 forks, 272 open issues and last shipped yesterday. vite leads on adoption by 2,868% (82,861 vs 2,792 stars). vite is written in TypeScript under MIT; mill is written in Scala under MIT. vite has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, mill 16%. mill 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 8884 open source comparisons
Side by side
| vite | mill | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 83K | ★ 2.8K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Scala |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 8.7K | ⑂ 447 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick vite if
- You weight community size — 83K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick mill if
- You want the mill feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Scala
- You evaluated both and mill fits your workflow better
About vite
Vite is a build tool for modern web projects, distributed as a set of npm packages and licensed under MIT. It is written in TypeScript and lives in the JavaScript and frontend tooling ecosystem, where it sits alongside the bundlers and dev servers that compile application source into browser ready assets. The project describes itself as next generation frontend tooling and has been maintained for roughly six years, with the most recent push recorded in September 2026.
About mill
Mill build tool. Java Scala Kotlin projects. Lives in JVM ecosystem. Category Developer Tools / Build & Deployment. License MIT. Language Scala. Homepage mill build.org. Stable version 1.1.9. Maven Central artifact com.lihaoyi/mill dist shown. Badge shows stable version and unstable dev version. Repo age 9 years. Last push 2026 09 14T12:22:46Z. Stars 2791. Forks 447. Open issues 272. Contributors not listed. GitHub description repeats tagline. README links current documentation site. README includes quick example.
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 vite or mill more popular?
vite has 82,861 GitHub stars and mill has 2,792. vite has the larger community by that measure.
Are vite and mill free?
Both are open source. vite is licensed under MIT and mill under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between vite and mill?
vite is written in TypeScript and mill 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, vite or mill?
Choose vite if you want the larger community (82,861 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose mill if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.