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Grunt vs Just vs Webpack: What are the differences?
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1. **Task Runners vs Module Bundlers**: Grunt and Gulp are task runners, focusing on automating tasks, while Webpack is a module bundler that packages resources like CSS or JavaScript files.
2. **Configuration Over Convention vs Convention Over Configuration**: Grunt and Gulp require explicit configuration, whereas Webpack follows a convention-based approach, reducing the need for configuration.
3. **Parallel vs Sequential Processing**: Grunt and Gulp perform tasks in a sequential manner, while Webpack can process tasks in parallel, improving build times.
4. **Ease of Use**: Grunt is known for its steep learning curve due to the extensive configuration required, Gulp is more approachable with its code-over-configuration approach, and Webpack offers great flexibility but can be complex for beginners.
5. **Plugin Ecosystem**: Grunt and Gulp have a wide array of plugins available for different tasks, while Webpack has a more focused plugin ecosystem for specific Webpack-related functionalities.
6. **Code Splitting and Tree Shaking**: Webpack excels in code splitting, allowing for smaller bundles and faster load times, as well as tree shaking to eliminate unused code, optimizing the bundle size further.
In Summary, Grunt, Gulp, and Webpack differ in their approach to automation, configuration, processing, ease of use, plugin ecosystem, and optimization techniques.
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Learn MorePros of Grunt
Pros of Just
Pros of Webpack
Pros of Grunt
- Configuration288
- Open source176
- Automation of minification and live reload166
- Great community60
- SASS compilation7
Pros of Just
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Pros of Webpack
- Most powerful bundler309
- Built-in dev server with livereload182
- Can handle all types of assets142
- Easy configuration87
- Laravel-mix22
- Overengineered, Underdeveloped4
- Makes it easy to bundle static assets2
- Webpack-Encore2
- Redundant1
- Better support in Browser Dev-Tools1
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Cons of Grunt
Cons of Just
Cons of Webpack
Cons of Grunt
- Poor mindshare/community support1
Cons of Just
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Cons of Webpack
- Hard to configure15
- No clear direction5
- Spaghetti-Code out of the box2
- SystemJS integration is quite lackluster2
- Loader architecture is quite a mess (unreliable/buggy)2
- Fire and Forget mentality of Core-Developers2
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What is 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.
What is Just?
It is a build task definition library. It stands on the shoulders of two excellent and well tested libraries: undertaker and yargs. It also provides what we call "stacks" to complete the workflow of building a repository.
What is 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.
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Blog Posts
What are some alternatives to Grunt, Just, and Webpack?
gulp
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.
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.
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.
Gradle
Gradle is a build tool with a focus on build automation and support for multi-language development. If you are building, testing, publishing, and deploying software on any platform, Gradle offers a flexible model that can support the entire development lifecycle from compiling and packaging code to publishing web sites.
Apache Maven
Maven allows a project to build using its project object model (POM) and a set of plugins that are shared by all projects using Maven, providing a uniform build system. Once you familiarize yourself with how one Maven project builds you automatically know how all Maven projects build saving you immense amounts of time when trying to navigate many projects.













