head to head · open source
vite vs xmake
vite has 82,861 GitHub stars, 8,745 forks, 767 open issues and last shipped yesterday. xmake has 12,220 stars, 954 forks, 255 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. vite leads on adoption by 578% (82,861 vs 12,220 stars). vite is written in TypeScript under MIT; xmake is written in Lua under Apache-2.0. vite has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, xmake 8%. 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 | xmake | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 83K | ★ 12K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Lua |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 8.7K | ⑂ 954 |
| 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 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 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 xmake
Xmake is a cross platform build utility and package manager, written in Lua and licensed under Apache 2.0, that takes a single xmake.lua project file and turns it into builds for desktop, mobile, BSD, Wasm and other targets — it is aimed at C, C++, Objective C and mixed toolchain developers who want Make/Ninja style building, CMake/Meson style project generation, and Vcpkg/Conan style dependency handling from one tool.
read the full xmake overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is vite or xmake more popular?
vite has 82,861 GitHub stars and xmake has 12,220. vite has the larger community by that measure.
Are vite and xmake free?
Both are open source. vite is licensed under MIT and xmake under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between vite and xmake?
vite is written in TypeScript 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, vite or xmake?
Choose vite if you want the larger community (82,861 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose xmake if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.