Rspack Has a Free Rust-Powered Bundler — Here's How to Use It

#rspack #bundler #rust #webpack

Webpack is battle-tested but slow. Vite is fast but different. Rspack gives you webpack compatibility at Rust speed — drop-in replacement, 5-10x faster builds.

What Is Rspack?

Rspack is a Rust-based JavaScript bundler fully compatible with the webpack ecosystem. Your existing webpack config, plugins, and loaders work with minimal changes — but builds run 5-10x faster.

Speed Comparison

Project	webpack	Rspack	Speedup
Dev startup	12s	1.5s	8x
Production build	60s	8s	7.5x
HMR update	1.5s	0.2s	7.5x

Quick Start

npm create rspack@latest
# or migrate existing webpack project
npm install -D @rspack/core @rspack/cli

Migration From Webpack

Most webpack configs work directly. Common changes:

// rspack.config.js (instead of webpack.config.js)
const { defineConfig } = require('@rspack/cli');

module.exports = defineConfig({
  entry: './src/index.ts',
  output: {
    path: __dirname + '/dist',
    filename: '[name].[contenthash].js',
  },
  module: {
    rules: [
      {
        test: /\.tsx?$/,
        use: {
          loader: 'builtin:swc-loader', // Built-in SWC instead of babel-loader
          options: {
            jsc: {
              parser: { syntax: 'typescript', tsx: true },
              transform: { react: { runtime: 'automatic' } },
            },
          },
        },
      },
      {
        test: /\.css$/,
        type: 'css', // Built-in CSS support
      },
    ],
  },
});

What Works From Webpack

Most loaders — css-loader, file-loader, url-loader, etc.
Most plugins — HtmlWebpackPlugin, DefinePlugin, etc.
Code splitting — dynamic imports, splitChunks
Tree shaking — automatic dead code elimination
Module Federation — for micro-frontends
Source maps — all types supported

Built-In Features (No Extra Packages)

module.exports = {
  builtins: {
    html: [{ template: './index.html' }],  // No HtmlWebpackPlugin needed
    css: { modules: { localIdentName: '[name]__[local]' } },
    define: { 'process.env.NODE_ENV': JSON.stringify('production') },
  },
};

Framework Support

React — @rspack/plugin-react-refresh
Vue — vue-loader works
Svelte — svelte-loader works
Angular — experimental support

Why Migrate to Rspack

5-10x faster builds and HMR
Drop-in replacement for most webpack projects
webpack ecosystem compatibility (loaders, plugins)
Built-in SWC — no need for Babel
Module Federation 2.0 — advanced micro-frontend support
Actively maintained by ByteDance

Get Started

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