Browserify vs Parcel
Browserify
browserify.org
Parcel
parceljs.orgSide by side
| Figure | Browserify | Parcel |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | — |
| Free plan | — | — |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| API | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 0 | 0 |
| Spec score · JavaScript Build Tools | 7.5 (#15) | 7.8 (#10) |
| Production optimization | The site recommends Tinyify for optimized, tree-shaken production bundles. | Production mode automatically bundles and optimizes apps, including minification, tree shaking, image optimization, and code splitting. |
| Purpose | Browserify lets you use Node-style require() in browser code by bundling dependencies. | Parcel is a zero configuration build tool for the web. |
| Support | The official site directs users to the #browserify IRC channel on freenode or to contact @browserify on Twitter for help. | Parcel links to community support through Discord and publishes documentation and a GitHub repository. |
In their own words
Browserify
Browserify has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.
Parcel
Parcel is a free, open source, zero-configuration build tool for web projects. It handles HTML, CSS, JavaScript, TypeScript, JSX, Flow, images, fonts, videos, Sass, SVG, Vue, Node, Electron, GraphQL, MDX, XML and other file types out of the box. It can automatically install plugins and development dependencies for additional file types. For development, Parcel includes an HTTPS server with an API proxy and automatically updates code in the browser, with React Fast Refresh and Vue hot-reloading integrations. Terminal and browser diagnostics include syntax-highlighted code frames, hints and documentation links. Production features include tree shaking, minification, image optimization, code splitting, content hashing, and Gzip and Brotli compression. Builds use worker threads and caching, with lazy development builds also supported. Parcel can target declared browser environments, handle workers, build libraries for multiple targets and build monorepos with one command. A plugin system and programmatic API support customization and integration into existing build systems. Its development server builds only one target at a time and defaults to a modern browser target; compression is not enabled by default.