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  1. Stackups
  2. DevOps
  3. Build Automation
  4. Javascript Build Tools
  5. Browserify vs gulp

Browserify vs gulp

OverviewComparisonAlternatives

Overview

gulp
gulp
Stacks15.3K
Followers9.1K
Votes1.7K
GitHub Stars33.0K
Forks4.2K
Browserify
Browserify
Stacks2.2K
Followers414
Votes261

Browserify vs gulp: What are the differences?

Browserify: Browser-side require() the node.js way. Browserify lets you require('modules') in the browser by bundling up all of your dependencies; gulp: The streaming build system. Build system automating tasks: minification and copying of all JavaScript files, static images. More capable of watching files to automatically rerun the task when a file changes.

Browserify and gulp are primarily classified as "Front End Package Manager" and "JS Build Tools / JS Task Runners" tools respectively.

"Node style browser code" is the top reason why over 73 developers like Browserify, while over 454 developers mention "Build speed" as the leading cause for choosing gulp.

Browserify and gulp are both open source tools. It seems that gulp with 31.3K GitHub stars and 4.41K forks on GitHub has more adoption than Browserify with 12.8K GitHub stars and 1.12K GitHub forks.

Typeform, PedidosYa, and Myntra are some of the popular companies that use gulp, whereas Browserify is used by Typeform, Accenture, and Avocode. gulp has a broader approval, being mentioned in 1163 company stacks & 705 developers stacks; compared to Browserify, which is listed in 111 company stacks and 42 developer stacks.

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Detailed Comparison

gulp
gulp
Browserify
Browserify

Build system automating tasks: minification and copying of all JavaScript files, static images. More capable of watching files to automatically rerun the task when a file changes.

Browserify lets you require('modules') in the browser by bundling up all of your dependencies.

By preferring code over configuration, gulp keeps simple things simple and makes complex tasks manageable.;By harnessing the power of node's streams you get fast builds that don't write intermediary files to disk.;gulp's strict plugin guidelines assure plugins stay simple and work the way you expect.;With a minimal API surface, you can pick up gulp in no time. Your build works just like you envision it: a series of streaming pipes.
Use a node-style require() to organize your browser code and load modules installed by npm.;browserify will recursively analyze all the require() calls in your app in order to build a bundle you can serve up to the browser in a single script tag.
Statistics
GitHub Stars
33.0K
GitHub Stars
-
GitHub Forks
4.2K
GitHub Forks
-
Stacks
15.3K
Stacks
2.2K
Followers
9.1K
Followers
414
Votes
1.7K
Votes
261
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 451
    Build speed
  • 277
    Readable
  • 244
    Code-over-configuration
  • 210
    Open source
  • 175
    Node streams
Pros
  • 75
    Node style browser code
  • 52
    Load modules installed by npm
  • 45
    Works great with gulp.js
  • 38
    NPM modules in the brower
  • 34
    Open source

What are some alternatives to gulp, Browserify?

npm

npm

npm is the command-line interface to the npm ecosystem. It is battle-tested, surprisingly flexible, and used by hundreds of thousands of JavaScript developers every day.

Webpack

Webpack

A bundler for javascript and friends. Packs many modules into a few bundled assets. Code Splitting allows to load parts for the application on demand. Through "loaders" modules can be CommonJs, AMD, ES6 modules, CSS, Images, JSON, Coffeescript, LESS, ... and your custom stuff.

Grunt

Grunt

The less work you have to do when performing repetitive tasks like minification, compilation, unit testing, linting, etc, the easier your job becomes. After you've configured it, a task runner can do most of that mundane work for you—and your team—with basically zero effort.

RequireJS

RequireJS

RequireJS loads plain JavaScript files as well as more defined modules. It is optimized for in-browser use, including in a Web Worker, but it can be used in other JavaScript environments, like Rhino and Node. It implements the Asynchronous Module API. Using a modular script loader like RequireJS will improve the speed and quality of your code.

Yarn

Yarn

Yarn caches every package it downloads so it never needs to again. It also parallelizes operations to maximize resource utilization so install times are faster than ever.

Brunch

Brunch

Brunch is an assembler for HTML5 applications. It's agnostic to frameworks, libraries, programming, stylesheet & templating languages and backend technology.

Component

Component

Component's philosophy is the UNIX philosophy of the web - to create a platform for small, reusable components that consist of JS, CSS, HTML, images, fonts, etc. With its well-defined specs, using Component means not worrying about most frontend problems such as package management, publishing components to a registry, or creating a custom build process for every single app.

Parcel

Parcel

Parcel is a web application bundler, differentiated by its developer experience. It offers blazing fast performance utilizing multicore processing, and requires zero configuration.

rollup

rollup

It is a module bundler for JavaScript which compiles small pieces of code into something larger and more complex, such as a library or application. It uses the new standardized format for code modules included in the ES6 revision of JavaScript, instead of previous idiosyncratic solutions such as CommonJS and AMD.

Backpack

Backpack

Backpack is minimalistic build system for Node.js. Inspired by Facebook's create-react-app, Zeit's Next.js, and Remy's Nodemon, Backpack lets you create modern Node.js apps and services with zero configuration. Backpack handles all the file-watching, live-reloading, transpiling, and bundling, so you don't have to.

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