head to head · open source
webpack vs rspack
webpack has 65,978 GitHub stars, 9,619 forks, 123 open issues and last shipped yesterday. rspack has 12,970 stars, 879 forks, 224 open issues and last shipped yesterday. webpack leads on adoption by 409% (65,978 vs 12,970 stars). webpack is written in JavaScript under MIT; rspack is written in Rust under MIT. webpack has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, rspack 7%. webpack was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 6 topic tags (build-tool, compiler, esm, javascript), 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
| webpack | rspack | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 66K | ★ 13K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | JavaScript | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.6K | ⑂ 879 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick webpack if
- You weight community size — 66K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick rspack if
- You want the rspack feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and rspack fits your workflow better
About webpack
[![npm][npm]][npm url] [![node][node]][node url] [![builds1][builds1]][builds1 url] [![dependency review][dependency review]][dependency review url] [![coverage][cover]][cover url] [![PR's welcome][prs]][prs url] webpack Webpack is a module bundler. Its main purpose is to bundle JavaScript files for usage in a browser, yet it is also capable of transforming, bundling, or packaging just about any resource or asset. Table of Contents Install Introduction Concepts Contributing Support Current project members TSC (Technical Steering Committee) Core Collaborators Sponsoring Premium Partners Gold Sponsors Silver…
read the full webpack overview →
About rspack
Rspack English 简体中文 Rspack is a fast Rust based bundler for the web. It modernizes the webpack API to enable seamless replacement of webpack while delivering lightning fast build speeds. ✨ Features 🚀 Fast Startup : Based on Rust, the build speed is extremely fast, bringing you the ultimate development experience. ⚡ Lightning HMR : With a built in incremental compilation mechanism, HMR is extremely fast and fully capable of developing large scale projects. 📦 Webpack Compatible : Compatible with plugins and loaders in the webpack ecosystem, seamlessly integrating excellent libraries built by the community. 🎨…
read the full rspack overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is webpack or rspack more popular?
webpack has 65,978 GitHub stars and rspack has 12,970. webpack has the larger community by that measure.
Are webpack and rspack free?
Both are open source. webpack is licensed under MIT and rspack under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between webpack and rspack?
webpack is written in JavaScript and rspack in Rust. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, webpack or rspack?
Choose webpack if you want the larger community (65,978 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose rspack if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.