Turbopack vs Vite: The Next.js Performance Battle

For years, Webpack was the undisputed king of the JavaScript ecosystem. It was powerful, configurable, and incredibly slow.

Then came Vite. Built on esbuild (written in Go), Vite changed the game. It offered near-instant server starts and Hot Module Replacement (HMR) that felt like magic. It became the default for almost every modern framework—Vue, Svelte, and eventually React projects via strict SPA template.

But one giant didn't adopt Vite: Next.js.

Instead, Vercel (the creators of Next.js) hired the creator of Webpack, Tobias Koppers, to build something new. Something written in Rust. Something they claimed would be "10x faster than Vite."

They called it Turbopack.

Now, in mid-2025, Turbopack serves as the default development engine for Next.js. But does it live up to the hype? Is it actually faster than Vite? Or is it just "fast enough"?

Benchmarks are notoriously easy to game. To make this fair, we didn't use a "Hello World" app. We tested on a realistic, messy, enterprise-scale codebase.

The Test Repo:

• Framework: Next.js 15 (App Router)
• Components: ~500 customized React components
• Styling: Tailwind CSS + SCSS Modules + Framer Motion
• Lines of Code: ~30,000 LOC
• Structure: complex barrel files (index.ts exports), deep nesting, and circular dependencies (we know, we know).

The Hardware:

• MacBook Pro M4 Max, 64GB RAM.

We measured three metrics critical to Developer Experience (DX):

1. Cold Start Time

How long from typing npm run dev until the localhost page is interactive?

• Vite: 1.2 seconds
• Turbopack: 0.8 seconds

Winner: Turbopack. But honestly? Both are instantaneous to the human perception. The difference is negligible.

2. Hot Module Replacement (HMR)

When I save a file deep in the dependency tree, how long until the browser updates?

• Vite: ~120ms
• Turbopack: ~35ms

Winner: Turbopack. This is where Rust shines. 35ms is effectively "instant." It feels like the browser updates as you type. While 120ms is fast, on a larger project, Vite can sometimes drift up to 300-400ms. Turbopack stayed consistently under 50ms regardless of file depth.

3. Production Build

Time to build next build.

• Vite (using Rollup): 45 seconds
• Turbopack: 38 seconds

Winner: Turbopack. Again, a noticeable but not earth-shattering difference.

If you look purely at the numbers, Turbopack wins. It is technically the superior engine for incremental computation.

However...

Vite has a superpower that Turbopack is still chasing: The Plugin Ecosystem. Vite is compatible with the massive library of Rollup plugins. If you need to do something weird—like import a .glsl shader file, optimize a specific WASM module, or integrate a legacy tool—there is a Vite plugin for it. It just works.

Turbopack is closing this gap, but it is still stricter. In 2024, we ran into several issues where specific libraries caused Turbopack to crash or required custom config. In 2025, these stability issues are largely gone for standard React code, but edge cases remain.

So, which one should you choose?

For Next.js Projects: Use Turbopack. It is now the stable, default, first-class citizen. Vercel has optimized the entire Next.js architecture (RSC, Server Actions) to work seamlessly with Turbopack. Fighting against it to hack Vite into Next.js is not worth the effort. The HMR speed is addictive, and strictness is a feature, not a bug—it forces you to fix circular dependencies.

For React SPAs / Other Frameworks: Vite remains the king. If you are building a pure client-side React app (using TanStack Router), a Vue app, or a Svelte app, Vite is the gold standard. Its flexibility, universality, and ease of configuration make it the safe, performant bet.

The "War" is good for us. Competition between Vercel and Evan You (Vite's creator) has pushed the entire web ecosystem forward. We have moved from "waiting 30 seconds for Webpack to reload" to "complaining that 100ms is too slow."

As developers, we are the winners.

If you are struggling with build performance in your current stack, Contact us. We specialize in Modernizing Legacy React Apps and optimizing developer infrastructure.