Need advice about which tool to choose?Ask the StackShare community!
Parcel vs rollup: What are the differences?
Introduction: When comparing Parcel and Rollup, it is crucial to understand the key differences between these build tools to choose the one that best suits your project requirements.
Bundle Size Optimization: Parcel focuses on zero-config setup and automatically includes necessary optimizations out of the box, resulting in larger bundle sizes but with less configuration required. On the other hand, Rollup offers more fine-grained control over the bundling process, allowing developers to optimize bundle size more efficiently by eliminating dead code and tree-shaking.
Tree-shaking: Rollup is known for its superior tree-shaking capabilities, meaning it can eliminate unused code more effectively than Parcel. This results in smaller bundle sizes and improved runtime performance in applications built with Rollup.
Extensibility and Plugins: Rollup provides a plugin system that allows developers to extend its functionality and customize the build process to fit specific project requirements. In contrast, Parcel offers a simpler approach without the need for extensive configuration or plugin management, making it more beginner-friendly.
Build Time Performance: Rollup is generally faster in terms of build times compared to Parcel, especially in projects with a large codebase. This advantage can significantly impact developer productivity by reducing the waiting time for the build process to complete.
Code Splitting: Rollup excels in code splitting capabilities, enabling developers to split their code into smaller, more manageable chunks that can be loaded on-demand. This can lead to improved loading times and better performance in applications with dynamic module loading requirements.
Community and Ecosystem: Rollup has a more established community with a wide range of plugins and resources available, making it easier to find solutions to common problems and leverage best practices. In contrast, Parcel's community is smaller but growing, which can impact the availability of support and resources for more specific use cases.
In Summary, understanding the key differences such as bundle size optimization, tree-shaking capabilities, extensibility, build time performance, code splitting, and community support can help in choosing between Parcel and Rollup for your project.
We mostly use rollup to publish package onto NPM. For most all other use cases, we use the Meteor build tool (probably 99% of the time) for publishing packages. If you're using Node on FHIR you probably won't need to know rollup, unless you are somehow working on helping us publish front end user interface components using FHIR. That being said, we have been migrating away from Atmosphere package manager towards NPM. As we continue to migrate away, we may publish other NPM packages using rollup.
Pros of Parcel
- Zero configuration10
- Built-in dev server with livereload8
Pros of rollup
- Makes it easy to publish packages4
- Easier configuration3
- Better tree shaking2
- Provides smaller bundle size2
- Integrates seamlessly with SystemJS1
- Produces very clean code1
- Very reliable1
- Very robust Plugin-API (years old Plugins still work)1
- Very flexible1
- Was built with ESM-Modules in mind1
Sign up to add or upvote prosMake informed product decisions
Cons of Parcel
- Lack of documentation3
Cons of rollup
- No clear path for static assets1
- No Loader like Webpack (need to use sjs or ESM imports)1
- Almost everything needs to be a Plugin1
- Manual Chunking is a bit buggy1
Sign up to add or upvote consMake informed product decisions
What is Parcel?
What is rollup?
Need advice about which tool to choose?Ask the StackShare community!
What companies use rollup?
Sign up to get full access to all the companiesMake informed product decisions
What tools integrate with Parcel?
What tools integrate with rollup?
Sign up to get full access to all the tool integrationsMake informed product decisions
Blog Posts
+46