head to head · open source
vite vs xmake
vite has 83,676 GitHub stars, 9,089 forks, 767 open issues and last shipped yesterday. xmake has 12,286 stars, 965 forks, 255 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. vite leads on adoption by 581% (83,676 vs 12,286 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 | ★ 84K | ★ 12K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Lua |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.1K | ⑂ 965 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick vite if
- You weight community size — 84K 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 ⚡ Next Generation Frontend Tooling 💡 Instant Server Start ⚡️ Lightning Fast HMR 🛠️ Rich Features 📦 Optimized Build 🔩 Universal Plugin Interface 🔑 Fully Typed APIs Vite (French word for "quick", pronounced /viːt/ , like "veet") is a build tool that aims to provide a faster and leaner development experience for modern web projects. It consists of two major parts: A dev server that provides rich feature enhancements over native ES modules, for example extremely fast Hot Module Replacement (HMR). A build command that bundles your code with Rolldown, pre configured to output highly optimized static assets…
About xmake
xmake A cross platform build utility based on Lua Modern C/C++ build tool: Simple, Fast, Powerful dependency package integration Support this project Support this project by becoming a sponsor. Your logo will show up here with a link to your website. 🙏 Introduction (中文) What is Xmake? 1. Xmake is a cross platform build utility based on the Lua scripting language. 2. Xmake is very lightweight and has no dependencies outside of the standard library. 3. Uses the xmake.lua file to maintain project builds with a simple and readable syntax. Xmake can be used to directly build source code (like with Make or Ninja), or…
read the full xmake overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is vite or xmake more popular?
vite has 83,676 GitHub stars and xmake has 12,286. 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 (83,676 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose xmake if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.