Features
- Instant dev server startup with native ES modules
- Lightning-fast HMR that stays fast regardless of app size
- Optimized production builds via Rollup
- Rich plugin ecosystem compatible with Rollup plugins
Pros
- Dramatically faster dev experience compared to Webpack
- Minimal configuration needed out of the box
- First-class support for TypeScript, JSX, CSS Modules
Cons
- Dev and prod use different bundlers, occasional behavior differences
- Rollup-based prod builds can be slower than esbuild alternatives
- Some legacy browser support requires additional configuration
Overview
Vite is a modern frontend build tool created by Evan You (creator of Vue.js). It leverages native ES modules in the browser during development to provide an extremely fast dev server that starts instantly regardless of application size. Unlike traditional bundlers that need to process the entire dependency graph before serving, Vite serves source code on demand.
For production builds, Vite uses Rollup under the hood to produce highly optimized bundles with tree-shaking, code splitting, and other advanced optimizations. This dual approach gives developers the best of both worlds: speed during development and optimization for production.
Vite has become the default build tool for Vue, and is widely adopted across React, Svelte, and other framework ecosystems. Its plugin API is a superset of Rollup’s, making it easy to extend.
When to Use
Choose Vite for any new frontend project. It is the de facto standard build tool for modern web development, offering the best developer experience with minimal configuration. It works great for SPAs, libraries, and SSR applications alike.
Getting Started
npm create vite@latest my-app -- --template react-ts
cd my-app
npm install
npm run dev