Comparison

webpack is not the only module bundler out there. If you are choosing between using webpack or any of the bundlers below, here is a feature-by-feature comparison on how webpack fares against the current competition.

Feature webpack/webpack jrburke/requirejs substack/node-browserify jspm/jspm-cli rollup/rollup brunch/brunch

Feature

webpack/webpack

jrburke/requirejs

substack/node-browserify

jspm/jspm-cli

rollup/rollup

brunch/brunch

Additional chunks are loaded on demand

yes

yes yes no System.import no no

Feature

webpack/webpack

jrburke/requirejs

substack/node-browserify

jspm/jspm-cli

rollup/rollup

brunch/brunch

AMD define

yes

yes yes deamdify yes rollup-plugin-amd yes

Feature

webpack/webpack

jrburke/requirejs

substack/node-browserify

jspm/jspm-cli

rollup/rollup

brunch/brunch

AMD require

yes

yes yes no yes no yes

Feature

webpack/webpack

jrburke/requirejs

substack/node-browserify

jspm/jspm-cli

rollup/rollup

brunch/brunch

AMD require loads on demand

yes

yes with manual configuration no yes no no

Feature

webpack/webpack

jrburke/requirejs

substack/node-browserify

jspm/jspm-cli

rollup/rollup

brunch/brunch

CommonJS exports

yes

yes only wrapping in define yes yes commonjs-plugin yes

Feature

webpack/webpack

jrburke/requirejs

substack/node-browserify

jspm/jspm-cli

rollup/rollup

brunch/brunch

CommonJS require

yes

yes only wrapping in define yes yes commonjs-plugin yes

Feature

webpack/webpack

jrburke/requirejs

substack/node-browserify

jspm/jspm-cli

rollup/rollup

brunch/brunch

CommonJS require.resolve

yes

yes no no no no

Feature

webpack/webpack

jrburke/requirejs

substack/node-browserify

jspm/jspm-cli

rollup/rollup

brunch/brunch

Concat in require require("./fi" + "le")

yes

yes no♦ no no no

Feature

webpack/webpack

jrburke/requirejs

substack/node-browserify

jspm/jspm-cli

rollup/rollup

brunch/brunch

Debugging support

SourceUrl, SourceMaps

SourceUrl, SourceMaps not required SourceMaps SourceUrl, SourceMaps SourceUrl, SourceMaps SourceMaps

Feature

webpack/webpack

jrburke/requirejs

substack/node-browserify

jspm/jspm-cli

rollup/rollup

brunch/brunch

Dependencies

19MB / 127 packages

19MB / 127 packages 11MB / 118 packages 1.2MB / 1 package 26MB / 131 packages ?MB / 3 packages

Feature

webpack/webpack

jrburke/requirejs

substack/node-browserify

jspm/jspm-cli

rollup/rollup

brunch/brunch

ES2015 import/export

yes (webpack 2)

yes (webpack 2) no no yes yes yes, via es6 module transpiler

Feature

webpack/webpack

jrburke/requirejs

substack/node-browserify

jspm/jspm-cli

rollup/rollup

brunch/brunch

Expressions in require (guided) require("./templates/" + template)

yes (all files matching included)

yes (all files matching included) no♦ no no no no

Feature

webpack/webpack

jrburke/requirejs

substack/node-browserify

jspm/jspm-cli

rollup/rollup

brunch/brunch

Expressions in require (free) require(moduleName)

with manual configuration

with manual configuration no♦ no no no

Feature

webpack/webpack

jrburke/requirejs

substack/node-browserify

jspm/jspm-cli

rollup/rollup

brunch/brunch

Generate a single bundle

yes

yes yes♦ yes yes yes yes

Feature

webpack/webpack

jrburke/requirejs

substack/node-browserify

jspm/jspm-cli

rollup/rollup

brunch/brunch

Indirect require var r = require; r("./file")

yes

yes no♦ no no no

Feature

webpack/webpack

jrburke/requirejs

substack/node-browserify

jspm/jspm-cli

rollup/rollup

brunch/brunch

Load each file separate

no

no yes no yes no no

Feature

webpack/webpack

jrburke/requirejs

substack/node-browserify

jspm/jspm-cli

rollup/rollup

brunch/brunch

Mangle path names

yes

yes no partial yes not required (path names are not included in the bundle) no

Feature

webpack/webpack

jrburke/requirejs

substack/node-browserify

jspm/jspm-cli

rollup/rollup

brunch/brunch

Minimizing

Terser

Terser uglify, closure compiler uglifyify yes uglify-plugin UglifyJS-brunch

Feature

webpack/webpack

jrburke/requirejs

substack/node-browserify

jspm/jspm-cli

rollup/rollup

brunch/brunch

Multi pages build with common bundle

with manual configuration

with manual configuration yes with manual configuration with bundle arithmetic no no

Feature

webpack/webpack

jrburke/requirejs

substack/node-browserify

jspm/jspm-cli

rollup/rollup

brunch/brunch

Multiple bundles

yes

yes with manual configuration with manual configuration yes no yes

Feature

webpack/webpack

jrburke/requirejs

substack/node-browserify

jspm/jspm-cli

rollup/rollup

brunch/brunch

Node.js built-in libs require("path")

yes

yes no yes yes node-resolve-plugin

Feature

webpack/webpack

jrburke/requirejs

substack/node-browserify

jspm/jspm-cli

rollup/rollup

brunch/brunch

Other Node.js stuff

process, __dir/filename, global

process, __dir/filename, global - process, __dir/filename, global process, __dir/filename, global for cjs global (commonjs-plugin)

Feature

webpack/webpack

jrburke/requirejs

substack/node-browserify

jspm/jspm-cli

rollup/rollup

brunch/brunch

Plugins

yes

yes yes yes yes yes yes

Feature

webpack/webpack

jrburke/requirejs

substack/node-browserify

jspm/jspm-cli

rollup/rollup

brunch/brunch

Preprocessing

loaders

loaders loaders transforms plugin translate plugin transforms compilers, optimizers

Feature

webpack/webpack

jrburke/requirejs

substack/node-browserify

jspm/jspm-cli

rollup/rollup

brunch/brunch

Replacement for browser

web_modules, .web.js, package.json field, alias configuration option

web_modules, .web.js, package.json field, alias configuration option alias option package.json field, alias option package.json, alias option no

Feature

webpack/webpack

jrburke/requirejs

substack/node-browserify

jspm/jspm-cli

rollup/rollup

brunch/brunch

Requirable files

file system

file system web file system through plugins file system or through plugins file system

Feature

webpack/webpack

jrburke/requirejs

substack/node-browserify

jspm/jspm-cli

rollup/rollup

brunch/brunch

Runtime overhead

243B + 20B per module + 4B per dependency

243B + 20B per module + 4B per dependency 14.7kB + 0B per module + (3B + X) per dependency 415B + 25B per module + (6B + 2X) per dependency 5.5kB for self-executing bundles, 38kB for full loader and polyfill, 0 plain modules, 293B CJS, 139B ES2015 System.register before gzip none for ES2015 modules (other formats may have)

Feature

webpack/webpack

jrburke/requirejs

substack/node-browserify

jspm/jspm-cli

rollup/rollup

brunch/brunch

Watch mode

yes

yes not required watchify not needed in dev rollup-watch yes

♦ in production mode (opposite in development mode)

X is the length of the path string

Bundling vs. Loading

It's important to note some key differences between loading and bundling modules. A tool like SystemJS, which can be found under the hood of JSPM, is used to load and transpile modules at runtime in the browser. This differs significantly from webpack, where modules are transpiled (through "loaders") and bundled before hitting the browser.

Each method has its advantages and disadvantages. Loading and transpiling modules at runtime can add a lot of overhead for larger sites and applications comprised of many modules. For this reason, SystemJS makes more sense for smaller projects where fewer modules are required. However, this may change a bit as HTTP/2 will improve the speed at which files can be transferred from server to client. Note that HTTP/2 doesn't change anything about transpiling modules, which will always take longer when done client-side.