esbuild is a JavaScript bundler written in Go that supports blazing fast ESNext & TypeScript transpilation and JS minification.
esbuild-loader lets you harness the speed of esbuild in your Webpack build by offering faster alternatives for transpilation (eg. babel-loader/ts-loader) and minification (eg. Terser)!
⚠️ esbuild only supports a subset of tsconfig options (see TransformOptions interface) and does not do type-checks. It's recommended to use a type-aware IDE or tsc --noEmit for type-checking instead. It is also recommended to enable isolatedModules and esModuleInterop options in your tsconfig by the esbuild docs.
JS Minification (eg. Terser)
You can replace JS minifiers like Terser or UglifyJs. Checkout the benchmarks to see how much faster esbuild is. The target option tells esbuild that it can use newer JS syntax to perform better minification.
In webpack.config.js:
+ const { ESBuildMinifyPlugin } = require('esbuild-loader')
module.exports = {
...,
+ optimization: {+ minimizer: [+ new ESBuildMinifyPlugin({+ target: 'es2015' // Syntax to compile to (see options below for possible values)+ })+ ]+ },
}
💁♀️ Protip: Use the minify plugin in-place of the loader to transpile the JS
If you're not using TypeScript, JSX, or any syntax unsupported by Webpack, you can also leverage the minifier for transpilation (as an alternative to Babel). It will be faster because there's less files to work on and will produce a smaller output because the polyfills will only be bundled once for the entire build instead of per file. Simply set the target option on the minifier to specify which support level you want.
CSS Minification
There are two ways to minify CSS, depending on your setup. You should already have CSS setup in your build using css-loader.
If you'd like to see working Webpack builds that use esbuild-loader for basic JS, React, TypeScript, or Next.js, check out the examples repo.
Bring your own esbuild (Advanced)
esbuild-loader comes with a version of esbuild it has been tested to work with. However, esbuild has a frequent release cadence, and while we try to keep up with the important releases, it can easily go out of date.
Use the implementation option in the loader or the minify plugin to pass in your own version of esbuild (eg. a newer one).
⚠️ esbuild is not stable yet and can have dramatic differences across releases. Using a different version of esbuild is not guaranteed to work.
The implementation option will be removed once esbuild reaches a stable release. Instead esbuild will become a peerDependency so you always provide your own.
No. esbuild plugins are only available in the build API. And esbuild-loader uses the transform API instead of the build API for two reasons:
The build API is for creating JS bundles, which is what Webpack does. If you want to use esbuild's build API, consider using esbuild directly instead of Webpack.
The build API reads directly from the file-system, but Webpack loaders operate in-memory. Webpack loaders are essentially just functions that are called with the source-code as the input. Not reading from the file-system allows loaders to be chainable. For example, using vue-loader to compile Single File Components (.vue files), then using esbuild-loader to transpile just the JS part of the SFC.
Running esbuild as a standalone bundler vs esbuild-loader + Webpack are completely different:
esbuild is highly optimized, written in Go, and compiled to native code. Read more about it here.
esbuild-loader is handled by Webpack in a JS runtime, which applies esbuild transforms per file. On top of that, there's likely other loaders & plugins in a Webpack config that slow it down.
Using any JS bundler introduces a bottleneck that makes reaching those speeds impossible. However, esbuild-loader can still speed up your build by removing the bottlenecks created by babel-loader, ts-loader, Terser, etc.
Will there be type-checking support?
According to the esbuild FAQ, it will not be supported.
Consider these type-checking alternatives:
Using an IDEs like VSCode or WebStorm that has live type-checking built in
privatenumber/esbuild-loader
esbuild-loader

Speed up your Webpack build with esbuild!🔥
esbuild is a JavaScript bundler written in Go that supports blazing fast ESNext & TypeScript transpilation and JS minification.
esbuild-loader lets you harness the speed of esbuild in your Webpack build by offering faster alternatives for transpilation (eg. babel-loader/ts-loader) and minification (eg. Terser)!
Curious how much faster your build will be? See what users are saying.
Support this project by⭐️ starring and sharing it. Follow me to see what other cool projects I'm working on! ❤️
Javascript & JSX transpilation (eg. Babel)
In
webpack.config.js
:TypeScript & TSX
In
webpack.config.js
:Configuration
If you have a
tsconfig.json
file, esbuild-loader will automatically detect it.Alternatively, you can also pass it in directly via the
tsconfigRaw
option:{ test: /\.tsx?$/, loader: 'esbuild-loader', options: { loader: 'tsx', target: 'es2015', + tsconfigRaw: require('./tsconfig.json') } }
tsconfig
options (seeTransformOptions
interface) and does not do type-checks. It's recommended to use a type-aware IDE ortsc --noEmit
for type-checking instead. It is also recommended to enableisolatedModules
andesModuleInterop
options in yourtsconfig
by the esbuild docs.JS Minification (eg. Terser)
You can replace JS minifiers like Terser or UglifyJs. Checkout the benchmarks to see how much faster esbuild is. The
target
option tells esbuild that it can use newer JS syntax to perform better minification.In
webpack.config.js
:If you're not using TypeScript, JSX, or any syntax unsupported by Webpack, you can also leverage the minifier for transpilation (as an alternative to Babel). It will be faster because there's less files to work on and will produce a smaller output because the polyfills will only be bundled once for the entire build instead of per file. Simply set the
target
option on the minifier to specify which support level you want.CSS Minification
There are two ways to minify CSS, depending on your setup. You should already have CSS setup in your build using
css-loader
.CSS assets
If your CSS is extracted and emitted as a CSS file, you can replace CSS minification plugins like
css-minimizer-webpack-plugin
oroptimize-css-assets-webpack-plugin
with the sameESBuildMinifyPlugin
by enabling thecss
option.Assuming the CSS is extracted using something like MiniCssExtractPlugin, in
webpack.config.js
:const { ESBuildMinifyPlugin } = require('esbuild-loader') const MiniCssExtractPlugin = require('mini-css-extract-plugin'); module.exports = { ..., optimization: { minimizer: [ new ESBuildMinifyPlugin({ target: 'es2015', + css: true // Apply minification to CSS assets }) ] }, module: { rules: [ { test: /\.css$/i, use: [ MiniCssExtractPlugin.loader, 'css-loader' ] } ] }, plugins: [ new MiniCssExtractPlugin() ] }
CSS in JS
If your CSS is not emitted as a CSS file, but rather loaded via JS using something like
style-loader
, you can use the loader for minification.In
webpack.config.js
:Examples
If you'd like to see working Webpack builds that use esbuild-loader for basic JS, React, TypeScript, or Next.js, check out the examples repo.
Bring your own esbuild (Advanced)
esbuild-loader comes with a version of esbuild it has been tested to work with. However, esbuild has a frequent release cadence, and while we try to keep up with the important releases, it can easily go out of date.
Use the
implementation
option in the loader or the minify plugin to pass in your own version of esbuild (eg. a newer one).The
implementation
option will be removed once esbuild reaches a stable release. Instead esbuild will become a peerDependency so you always provide your own.Loader
The loader supports all Transform options from esbuild.
Note:
devtool
.sourcemap
/sourcefile
options are ignored.tsconfig.json
is automatically detected for you. You don't need to pass intsconfigRaw
unless it's in a different path.Here are some common configurations and custom options:
target
Type:
string | Array<string>
Default:
'es2015'
The target environment (e.g.
es2016
,chrome80
,esnext
).Read more about it in the esbuild docs.
loader
Type:
'js' | 'jsx' | 'ts' | 'tsx' | 'css' | 'json' | 'text' | 'base64' | 'file' | 'dataurl' | 'binary' | 'default'
Default:
'js'
The loader to use to handle the file. See the type for possible values.
Read more about it in the esbuild docs.
jsxFactory
Type:
string
Default:
React.createElement
Customize the JSX factory function name to use.
Read more about it in the esbuild docs.
jsxFragment
Type:
string
Default:
React.Fragment
Customize the JSX fragment function name to use.
Read more about it in the esbuild docs.
implementation
Type:
{ transform: Function }
Custom esbuild-loader option.
Use it to pass in a different esbuild version.
MinifyPlugin
The loader supports all Transform options from esbuild.
target
Type:
string | Array<string>
Default:
'esnext'
Target environment (e.g.
'es2016'
,['chrome80', 'esnext']
)Read more about it in the esbuild docs.
Here are some common configurations and custom options:
minify
Type:
boolean
Default:
true
Enable JS minification. Enables all
minify*
flags below.To have nuanced control over minification, disable this and enable the specific minification you want below.
Read more about it in the esbuild docs.
minifyWhitespace
Type:
boolean
Minify JS by removing whitespace.
minifyIdentifiers
Type:
boolean
Minify JS by shortening identifiers.
minifySyntax
Type:
boolean
Minify JS using equivalent but shorter syntax.
legalComments
Type:
'none' | 'inline' | 'eof'
Default:
'inline'
Read more about it in the esbuild docs.
sourcemap
Type:
boolean
Default: Webpack
devtool
configurationWhether to emit sourcemaps.
css
Type:
boolean
Default:
false
Custom esbuild-loader option.
Whether to minify CSS files.
include
Type:
string | RegExp | Array<string | RegExp>
Custom esbuild-loader option.
Filter assets to include in minification
exclude
Type:
string | RegExp | Array<string | RegExp>
Custom esbuild-loader option.
Filter assets to exclude from minification
implementation
Type:
{ transform: Function }
Custom esbuild-loader option.
Use it to pass in a different esbuild version.
Is it possible to use esbuild plugins?
No. esbuild plugins are only available in the build API. And esbuild-loader uses the transform API instead of the build API for two reasons:
The build API is for creating JS bundles, which is what Webpack does. If you want to use esbuild's build API, consider using esbuild directly instead of Webpack.
The build API reads directly from the file-system, but Webpack loaders operate in-memory. Webpack loaders are essentially just functions that are called with the source-code as the input. Not reading from the file-system allows loaders to be chainable. For example, using
vue-loader
to compile Single File Components (.vue
files), then usingesbuild-loader
to transpile just the JS part of the SFC.Is it possible to use esbuild's inject option?
No. The
inject
option is only available in the build API. And esbuild-loader uses the transform API.However, you can use the Webpack equivalent ProvidePlugin instead.
If you're using React, check out this example on how to auto-import React in your components.
Is it possible to use Babel plugins?
No. If you really need them, consider porting them over to a Webpack loader.
And please don't chain
babel-loader
andesbuild-loader
. The speed gains come from replacingbabel-loader
.Why am I not getting a 100x speed improvement as advertised?
Running esbuild as a standalone bundler vs esbuild-loader + Webpack are completely different:
Using any JS bundler introduces a bottleneck that makes reaching those speeds impossible. However, esbuild-loader can still speed up your build by removing the bottlenecks created by
babel-loader
,ts-loader
, Terser, etc.Will there be type-checking support?
According to the esbuild FAQ, it will not be supported.
Consider these type-checking alternatives:
tsc --noEmit
to type checkfork-ts-checker-webpack-plugin
instant-mocha
Webpack-integrated Mocha test-runner with Webpack 5 support.
webpack-localize-assets-plugin
Localize/i18nalize your Webpack build. Optimized for multiple locales!