Next-Gen Build Tools – Turbopacks and Beyond

Build tools are evolving again.

Webpack ruled the bundling world for years. Then came faster alternatives like Parcel, Rollup, and later, esbuild and Vite - built for speed and modern workflows.

Now, it's Turbopack’s turn to shake things up.

What is Turbopack?

Turbopack is a next-gen bundler created by the team at Vercel. It’s written in Rust, just like swc (which Vercel also maintains), and aims to be a Webpack replacement -- but much faster.

Key features:

• Built with performance in mind
• Native support for modern JS and TypeScript
• Incremental compilation and caching
• Great integration with Next.js

Turbopack is still early, but already being used in some production apps. It’s expected to become the default bundler for Next.js in the near future.

How does it compare?

Here’s how some modern build tools stack up:

• Webpack: powerful but slower, very flexible
• esbuild: ultra-fast but not as extensible
• swc: great for transforming code, used in many tools
• Vite: fast dev server using esbuild, with Rollup for production
• Turbopack: promises best of both worlds with Rust performance and deep framework integration

A glimpse at the future

We’re heading toward:

• Instant dev servers (cold start < 100ms)
• Smart dependency graphs and caching
• Compile-less environments (e.g. native ESM in browsers)
• Toolchains that work out of the box (zero-config)

As we enter 2025, it’s clear developers care less about bundling theory and more about instant feedback, short feedback loops, and fewer moving parts.

Whether Turbopack becomes the new standard or not, it’s part of a wider move toward faster, leaner, more modern tooling.

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Originally published at letanure.dev