head to head · open source
vite vs retire.js
vite has 82,861 GitHub stars, 8,745 forks, 767 open issues and last shipped yesterday. retire.js has 4,173 stars, 440 forks, 2 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. vite leads on adoption by 1,886% (82,861 vs 4,173 stars). vite is written in TypeScript under MIT; retire.js is written in JavaScript under Apache-2.0. vite has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, retire.js 11%. vite 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
| vite | retire.js | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 83K | ★ 4.2K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 8.7K | ⑂ 440 |
| 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 retire.js if
- You want the retire.js 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 retire.js 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 retire.js
Retire.js is an open source JavaScript security scanner for web and Node.js projects. It lives in the JavaScript software composition analysis ecosystem and is distributed under the Apache 2.0 license. The project detects JavaScript libraries and Node.js modules with known vulnerabilities, including libraries downloaded into source control rather than listed in a package manifest.
read the full retire.js overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is vite or retire.js more popular?
vite has 82,861 GitHub stars and retire.js has 4,173. vite has the larger community by that measure.
Are vite and retire.js free?
Both are open source. vite is licensed under MIT and retire.js under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between vite and retire.js?
vite is written in TypeScript and retire.js 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, vite or retire.js?
Choose vite if you want the larger community (82,861 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose retire.js if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.