head to head · open source
webpack vs wxt
webpack has 65,978 GitHub stars, 9,619 forks, 123 open issues and last shipped yesterday. wxt has 10,688 stars, 589 forks, 214 open issues and last shipped yesterday. webpack leads on adoption by 517% (65,978 vs 10,688 stars). webpack is written in JavaScript under MIT; wxt is written in TypeScript under MIT. webpack has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, wxt 6%. 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| webpack | wxt | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 66K | ★ 11K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | JavaScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.6K | ⑂ 589 |
| 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 wxt if
- You want the wxt feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and wxt 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 wxt
WXT Next gen framework for developing web extensions. ⚡ It's like Nuxt, but for Web Extensions Get Started • Configuration • Examples • Changelog • Discord Demo Quick Start Bootstrap a new project: Or see the installation guide to get started with WXT. Features 🌐 Supports all browsers ✅ Supports both MV2 and MV3 ⚡ Dev mode with HMR & fast reload 📂 File based entrypoints 🚔 TypeScript 🦾 Auto imports 🤖 Automated publishing 🎨 Frontend framework agnostic: works with Vue, React, Svelte, etc 📦 Module system for reusing code between extensions 🖍️ Quickly bootstrap a new project 📏 Bundle analysis Sponsors WXT is…
More in Developer Tools
Related comparisons
More Build & Deployment projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Build & Deployment field.
Frequently asked questions
Is webpack or wxt more popular?
webpack has 65,978 GitHub stars and wxt has 10,688. webpack has the larger community by that measure.
Are webpack and wxt free?
Both are open source. webpack is licensed under MIT and wxt under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between webpack and wxt?
webpack is written in JavaScript and wxt in TypeScript. 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 wxt?
Choose webpack if you want the larger community (65,978 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose wxt if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.