x_team_build_tool_round_up

X-Team Rollup v Webpack v Parcel comparison!

Build Tool Show Down

We'll build a simple React app that's got simple implementations of all the basics:

    1.  React Router v4
    2.  React Redux
    3.  React 16.2.x

The exact package.json dependencies for our build tools:

Shared babel dependencies:

    "babel-loader": "=7.1.4",
    "babel-plugin-external-helpers": "=6.22.0",
    "babel-preset-env": "=1.6.1",
    "babel-preset-react": "=6.24.1",
    "babel-preset-stage-0": "=6.24.1"

parcel dependencies:

    "parcel-bundler": "=1.7.1"

rollup dependencies:

    "rollup": "=0.58.2",
    "rollup-plugin-babel": "=3.0.4",
    "rollup-plugin-uglify": "=3.0.0"

webpack dependencies:

    "webpack": "=4.6.0",
    "webpack-cli": "=2.0.15"

Each build tool's configuration is seperated into independent directories!

Battle of the Builds

We'll be comparing build time for development and production and additional features:

    $ npm run build-parcel
    $ npm run build-webpack
    $ npm run build-rollup

Testing

All three testing libraries were tested and built on the following Dell 15 XPS 2016 with specs:

    Intel Core i7-6700HQ Quad-Core (8 Logical Cores) at 2.60 GHz
    32 GB RAM
    Windows 10 Pro + Linux Subsystem and Cygwin
    NVIDIA 960M GPU
    256GB m2 PCIe SSD
    15.6" FHD Screen

Results divided into production and development modes:

Tool	Dev Build Time One	Dev Build Time Two	Dev Build Time Three	Dev Build Time Avg
Parcel	14.92 s	5.22 s	4.36 s	8.16 avg s
Rollup	0.570 s	0.482 s	0.487 s	0.513 avg s
Webpack	3.608 s	3.328 s	3.844 s	3.59 avg s

Production mode:

Tool	Prod Build Time One	Prod Build Time Two	Prod Build Time Three	Prod Build Time Avg
Parcel	738.509 s	35.364 s	35.592 s	269.82 avg s
Rollup	0.712 s	0.665 s	0.714 s	0.697 avg s
Webpack	3.636 s	3.805 s	4.305 s	3.915 avg s

Other Considerations

Above, we compare raw build time alone but there are several other highly relevant considerations:

Parcel's caching feature sees dramatically decreases in time consumption after the initial run. For frequent, small changes, in smaller projects Parcel is a great choice.
Rollup provides much simpler configuration over webpack 4 and has a host of pre-configured plugins that are a breeze to incorporate into your project. Rollup's also the fastest of the build tools period.
Rollup also provides convient source maps which can aid in debugging.
webpack 4 has gotten a lot easier to use and particularly through the convenient mode attribute (which will enforce minification when set to 'production' automatically now).

Takeaway

Overall, Parcel's a fantastic choice for small projects since it's requires zero configuration.

Rollup represents the next generation of build tools and is lightning fast with easy configuration.

webpack 4 represents a great improvement in the tradition of a tried and true universal build-tool workhorse. It's also largely interchangeable with webpack 3 configuration which simplifies migration.

Shout Outs and Great Resources

https://parceljs.org/

https://webpack.js.org/

https://code.lengstorf.com/learn-rollup-js/

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