head to head · open source
vite vs webpack
vite has 82,861 GitHub stars, 8,745 forks, 767 open issues and last shipped yesterday. webpack has 65,945 stars, 9,545 forks, 123 open issues and last shipped yesterday. vite leads on adoption by 26% (82,861 vs 65,945 stars). vite is written in TypeScript under MIT; webpack is written in JavaScript under MIT. vite has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, webpack 14%. webpack 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 | webpack | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 83K | ★ 66K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 8.7K | ⑂ 9.5K |
| 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 webpack if
- You want the webpack feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and webpack 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 webpack
webpack is an open source module bundler for JavaScript and related assets, distributed under the MIT license and published to npm. It lives in the JavaScript ecosystem, where the README describes its main purpose as bundling JavaScript files for use in a browser, while also being capable of transforming, bundling, or packaging just about any resource or asset. Loaders let modules arrive in many forms — CommonJS, AMD, ES6 modules, CSS, images, JSON, CoffeeScript, LESS, or custom formats — and the plugin system extends what the build can do.
read the full webpack overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is vite or webpack more popular?
vite has 82,861 GitHub stars and webpack has 65,945. vite has the larger community by that measure.
Are vite and webpack free?
Both are open source. vite is licensed under MIT and webpack under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between vite and webpack?
vite is written in TypeScript and webpack 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 webpack?
Choose vite if you want the larger community (82,861 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose webpack if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.