Gulp vs Rolldown
Gulp
gulpjs.com
Rolldown
rolldown.rsSide by side
| Figure | Gulp | Rolldown |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | Free |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | — | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| Android | — | Yes |
| API | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 0 | 1 |
| Spec score · JavaScript Build Tools | 7.6 (#14) | 8.7 (#1) |
| Compatibility | The project describes Gulp as platform-agnostic and says integrations are built into major IDEs and it is used with PHP, .NET, Node.js, Java, and other platforms. | Rolldown provides a Rollup-compatible API and can reuse most existing Rollup plugins. |
| License | The project's GitHub repository identifies its license as MIT. | Rolldown is free and open source; VoidZero states that it remains open source and MIT-licensed. |
| Plugin ecosystem | Gulp plugins are Node Transform Streams that transform files in a pipeline, and the project site provides a plugin search page. | Community plugins published to npm are listed in the Vite Plugin Registry. |
| Purpose | Gulp is a toolkit for automating slow or repetitive development workflows and composing them into build pipelines. | Rolldown is a Rust-based bundler for JavaScript with a Rollup-compatible API and esbuild feature parity. |
Plans
In their own words
Rolldown
Rolldown is a free, open-source JavaScript bundler written in Rust and designed as the unified bundler powering Vite 8+. Its Rollup-compatible plugin API can reuse most existing Rollup plugins. Built-in capabilities include TypeScript and JSX transforms, syntax lowering, module resolution, ESM and CommonJS interoperability, define, inject, and minification. It can handle mixed ESM and CommonJS module graphs and supports configurable manual code splitting. Install commands are provided for npm, pnpm, yarn, bun, and vp. Prebuilt binaries are listed for Linux, Windows, Apple platforms, Android, and other targets; where none is distributed, a Wasm build or building from source are options. The guide recommends using Rolldown through Vite for most applications and points library authors to tsdown. Module types are experimental, and the JavaScript build() API may change in patch releases. The troubleshooting guide says Windows file-system access can slow builds, particularly when transforms run without plugins. An online REPL is linked, along with GitHub, Discord, and contribution resources. VoidZero Inc. holds the copyrights, funds development, and directs the project; it states Rolldown remains open source and MIT-licensed.