It's pretty fast with modern tooling. Try vite or swc if you have the time and inclination. vite builds one of my large $DAYJOB projects in ~45 seconds (which is insane compared to how webpack performed).
If you don't need vite's extensibility, you can go with 'pure' esbuild and slim down transpilation + minification + bundling to only a few seconds.
https://vitejs.dev
https://github.com/swc-project/swc
https://github.com/evanw/esbuild
In Why Rust?swc-project
swc
Rust2018–2025
swc-project / swc
swc
Rust-based platform for the Web
50Distinct people
50Mentions
1Explicit recommenders
34.2KGitHub stars
What to know before exploring
What it is
Rust-based platform for the Web
GitHub
Where it is used
No documented product use was verified in the last source check.
What people are saying
Slightly tangential, but I can't tell if I love or hate the logo for swc https://github.com/swc-project/swc Either way, I want to try this next time I'm using TypeScript.
dj_gitmo used a recommendation phrase. One indexed comment matches. This is a phrase match, not a verdict.
No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.
Also in these discussions
- evanw/esbuild · linked in 3 of the same discussions
- denoland/deno · linked in 2 of the same discussions
Mentioned in the same Hacker News threads. That is not proof they are substitutes.
This week on Hacker News
Nov 8–Nov 15 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/15/2026, 9:01:12 PM UTC.
No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.
Mentions over time
HN mentions by year50 dated mentions
Observed mentions: 2018-11-10 20:18:20 UTC to 2025-09-16 12:14:36 UTC.
Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.
View mention counts and date ranges
| Period | Start (UTC) | End (exclusive, UTC) | Mentions | Submissions | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 4 | 3 | 1 |
| 2019 | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2020 | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 10 | 0 | 10 |
| 2021 | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 18 | 2 | 16 |
| 2022 | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 9 | 1 | 8 |
| 2023 | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 2024 | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 4 | 0 | 4 |
| 2025 | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 3 | 0 | 3 |
From the project README
An excerpt from the repository, fetched Nov 13, 2026.
Read the project’s introduction
Make the web (development) faster.
SWC (stands for Speedy Web Compiler) is a super-fast TypeScript / JavaScript compiler written in Rust. It's a library for Rust and JavaScript at the same time. If you are using SWC from Rust, see rustdoc and for most users, your entry point for using the library will be parser.
Also, SWC tries to ensure that
If you select the latest version of each crates, it will work
for rust users.
MSRV of crates is currently 1.73.
To update all SWC crates you use, you can run curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/swc-project/swc/main/scripts/update-all-swc-crates.sh | bash -s. This script will update all dependencies to the latest version and run cargo build to ensure that everything works.
Note that you need
jq
cargo upgrade
command to run the script.
Supported Node Versions:
Node v10+ for usage
Node v20+ for development
If you are using SWC from JavaScript, please refer to docs on the website.
Documentation
Check out the documentation in the website.
Native npm packages use self-loading compressed addons on x64 and arm64 macOS,
Windows MSVC, and Linux GNU/musl. The first load materializes the verified
original addon; package names and JavaScript APIs stay the same. See
native addon carriers
for the supported-target boundary and SWC_NATIVE_BINDING_CACHE.
Features
Please see comparison with babel.
Performance
Please see benchmark results on the website.
Supporting development
Supporting swc
Star History
Powered by
Sponsors
SWC is a community-driven project, and is maintained by a group of volunteers. If you'd like to help support the future of the project, please consider:
Giving developer time on the project. (Message us on Discord (preferred) or Github discussions for guidance!)
Giving funds by becoming a sponsor (see https://opencollective.com/swc)!
Contributing
See CONTRIBUTING.md. You may also find the architecture
documentation useful (ARCHITECTURE.md).
License
SWC is primarily distributed under the terms of the Apache License (Version 2.0).
See LICENSE for details.
Read the full README on GitHubWhat Hacker News says
9 sources(Not OP) That repo looks like a proof-of-concept which is linked to from an open issue in https://github.com/swc-project/swc which is apparently a "super-fast TypeScript / JavaScript compiler".
In Rustle: Svelte compiler rewritten in RustIf I understand correctly..
SWC is not a "TypeScript type-checker project", it's a bundler and compiler.
The type checker in the title refers to the author's work porting the TypeScript compiler tsc to Go, which is a different/additional project.
> Vercel is sponsoring and funding the work to port tsc to Go. We’re planning to open-source this work in the future. I’ll also be creating a bridge to use this new version of tsc with SWC.
From the author's blog post "I'm porting tsc to Go" - https://kdy1.dev/posts/2022/1/tsc-go
The author has gone back and forth on whether the work will be open-sourced.
> It will be developed as a propriety software.
Mar 2021 - https://github.com/swc-project/swc/issues/571#issuecomment-8...
> I'm considering withdrawing the plan for open-sourcing it.
Apr 2022 - https://github.com/swc-project/swc/issues/571#issu
Read the rest
Rust-based TypeScript type-checker project leader threatens paid solution
3 points · Open discussionYeah I meant speed of execution. Sorry for the letdown! But https://github.com/swc-project/swc is a very fast Typescript compiler written in Rust :)
In TypeScript as fast as Rust: TypeScript++Here's a relevant GitHub thread where some conversation that has been happening: https://github.com/swc-project/swc/issues/571
In I’m porting the TypeScript type checker tsc to GoUnfortunately, this will not be open source:
https://github.com/swc-project/swc/issues/571#issuecomment-7...
In I'm making a Typescript type-checker in RustSimilar work is also taking place in swc:
https://github.com/swc-project/swc/issues/571
In I'm making a Typescript type-checker in Rust