Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Babel VS Google Hosted Libraries

Compare Babel VS Google Hosted Libraries and see what are their differences

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Babel logo Babel

Babel is a compiler for writing next generation JavaScript.

Google Hosted Libraries logo Google Hosted Libraries

A stable, reliable, high-speed, globally available content distribution network for the most popular open-source JavaScript libraries.
  • Babel Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-04-02
  • Google Hosted Libraries Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-06-24

Babel features and specs

  • JavaScript Version Compatibility
    Babel allows developers to write code using the latest JavaScript features and syntax, and transpile it into a version of JavaScript that can run on older browsers. This ensures greater compatibility across different environments.
  • Future-Proof Code
    With Babel, developers can start using upcoming JavaScript features today. This means that codebases can stay modern and developers can take advantage of new functionalities without waiting for full browser support.
  • Ecosystem and Plugins
    Babel has a rich ecosystem of plugins and presets that can extend its capabilities, making it highly adaptable to different project needs. This modularity allows for customization and enhancement of the build process.
  • Integration with Modern Development Tools
    Babel integrates well with various development tools such as Webpack, making it easier to include in existing build processes and workflows. This helps streamline development and maintain efficient workflows.
  • Community and Support
    Babel has a large and active community, which means extensive documentation, tutorials, and support forums. This can be particularly useful for troubleshooting and staying updated with best practices.

Possible disadvantages of Babel

  • Performance Overhead
    Transpiling code with Babel introduces a performance overhead during the build process. This can slow down development workflows, especially for large codebases with many files.
  • Configuration Complexity
    Setting up Babel can be complex, particularly for beginners. The numerous options and plugins available can sometimes be overwhelming and require significant time to configure correctly.
  • Source Map Issues
    Generating accurate source maps can sometimes be tricky with Babel, leading to difficulties in debugging. Misconfigured source maps can make it harder to track down issues within the original source code.
  • Dependency Bloat
    Including Babel in a project can add a significant number of dependencies. This dependency bloat can increase the size of the project and potentially introduce maintenance challenges or security vulnerabilities.
  • Learning Curve
    There is a learning curve associated with Babel, especially for developers who are new to modern JavaScript tooling. Understanding how Babel works and how to effectively use its features can take time and effort.

Google Hosted Libraries features and specs

  • Improved Load Speed
    Google Hosted Libraries are distributed via Google's global Content Delivery Network (CDN), which can deliver assets to users with minimal latency by caching them at data centers worldwide. This often results in faster load times compared to hosting libraries on your own server.
  • Better Caching
    Using a common source like Google Hosted Libraries means that users are more likely to have cached copies of these libraries from visiting other sites, reducing load time for returning users who have already downloaded the files.
  • Reliability
    Google's infrastructure is reliable and highly available, reducing the risk of downtime and ensuring that libraries are served to end-users efficiently and consistently.
  • Version Management
    Developers can include specific version numbers in the URLs, ensuring that their applications can easily upgrade or downgrade a library version if needed, allowing for better version control management.
  • Reduced Server Load
    Offloading the delivery of these libraries to Google reduces the bandwidth and load on your own servers, potentially lowering hosting costs and improving your site's overall performance.

Possible disadvantages of Google Hosted Libraries

  • Dependency on Third Party
    Relying on Google for serving these libraries means your application's uptime is partially dependent on a third party, which may introduce risks if Google's services experience issues.
  • Privacy Concerns
    Using Google Hosted Libraries means that user data may be shared with Google whenever these resources are fetched, which could raise privacy concerns depending on your user base and regulatory environment.
  • Limited Customization
    Because these libraries are hosted externally, there is limited opportunity to customize or modify them to fit specific project needs without hosting your own version.
  • Internet Requirement
    If a user is offline or if Google's servers are unreachable for some reason, your application may fail to load these libraries unless you have local fallbacks or entire offline support.

Analysis of Babel

Overall verdict

  • Yes, Babel is widely considered a good tool for modern JavaScript development. It eases the use of cutting-edge JavaScript features and ensures broader compatibility, which is crucial for many projects. Its active community and continuous updates reflect its standing as a reliable and well-supported choice.

Why this product is good

  • Babel is a popular JavaScript compiler that allows developers to use the latest JavaScript features while maintaining compatibility with older environments that may not support these features natively. It transforms modern JavaScript code into a version that can run in current and older browsers or environments. Babel is highly configurable and has a rich ecosystem of plugins and presets that enable developers to tailor it to their specific needs, making development smoother and more efficient.

Recommended for

    Babel is recommended for web developers who want to write modern JavaScript but need to ensure that their code remains functional across different environments and older browsers. It is also valuable for projects where developers aspire to use the latest ECMAScript features without waiting for broad native support.

Babel videos

Babel - Movie Review

More videos:

  • Review - Day 16 | Babel Review | 365 Films
  • Review - Worth The Hype? - BABEL Review
  • Review - Book CommuniTEA: Is BABEL a rac1st mani!fest0? [you should know the answer]
  • Review - Babel is a Masterpiece, And Here's Why

Google Hosted Libraries videos

Why you should use Google Hosted libraries!

More videos:

  • Review - Google Hosted Libraries

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Babel and Google Hosted Libraries)
Development Tools
100 100%
0% 0
CDN
0 0%
100% 100
Javascript UI Libraries
100 100%
0% 0
Cloud Computing
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Babel seems to be a lot more popular than Google Hosted Libraries. While we know about 147 links to Babel, we've tracked only 7 mentions of Google Hosted Libraries. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Babel mentions (147)

  • Valentine’s Day Breakup: React Dumps Create React App
    Create React App (CRA) is a command-line interface tool that allows developers to set up a React project easily. It primarily serves as a project scaffolding tool, allowing you to create a new project with a single command: npx create-react-app . CRA comes with tools like Webpack and Babel, which handle the bundling and transpiling of code. The tools are pre-configured. It comes with a development server that... - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
  • #wecode Landing Page - WeCoded Challenge March 2025
    @vitejs/plugin-react uses Babel for Fast Refresh. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • You Don’t Know JS Yet: My Weekly Journey Through JavaScript Mastery
    For new and incompatible syntax, the solution is transpiling—converting newer JS syntax to older syntax that can run on older engines. The most popular transpiler? Babel. This process ensures modern JS code can still reach a wide audience, even on legacy systems. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • Desktop apps for Windows XP in 2025
    Fortunately we have tools like PostCSS and Babel, that let you target your specific Browser version, and they'll do their best to transpile and polyfill your code to work with that version. This alone will do a lot of the heavy lifting for you if you are working with a lot of code. However, if you are just writing out a few HTML, CSS, and JS files, then that would be overkill and you can just figure out what code... - Source: dev.to / 4 months ago
  • The Tools and APIs That Made My GeoGuessr 🌍 Project Possible
    Cross-Browser Compatibility: Some features worked differently across browsers. I used Babel to transpile my JavaScript code, ensuring it worked consistently everywhere. - Source: dev.to / 4 months ago
View more

Google Hosted Libraries mentions (7)

  • Unpkg CDN down causing dependent website outages
    I'd imagine for many developers, the probability of something like Google's Hosted Libraries (https://developers.google.com/speed/libraries) going down or being hacked is far, far lower than the probability of their own site hosting having a problem. - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
  • A list of SaaS, PaaS and IaaS offerings that have free tiers of interest to devops and infradev
    Developers.google.com — The Google Hosted Libraries is a content distribution network for the most popular Open Source JavaScript libraries. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Closure Compiler, JSDOC, Polymer, Lit and apps script
    To make things worse, I can't even find about Polymer or Lit on this list: Https://developers.google.com/speed/libraries. Source: almost 3 years ago
  • Apps Script Observable
    I am looking in the hosted libraries: https://developers.google.com/speed/libraries And found that they have Indefinite Observable, the thing is, as far I know Promisses don't work with apps script web app. But Observables work? Source: almost 3 years ago
  • Public CDN's aren't useful anymore
    Public CDN’s were supposed to help page speed, but things have changed in 2019. Services like Google Fonts, Cloudflare’s cdnjs, jsDelivr and Google Hosted Libraries may not help make sites load faster anymore. - Source: dev.to / about 3 years ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Babel and Google Hosted Libraries, you can also consider the following products

jQuery - The Write Less, Do More, JavaScript Library.

cdnjs - An open source community driven JS/CSS CDN.

React Native - A framework for building native apps with React

Yandex CDN - Разработчики сайтов могут загружать различные JavaScript-фреймворки и библиотеки с открытым исходным кодом с серверов Яндекса по постоянным ссылкам.

Composer - Composer is a tool for dependency management in PHP.

jsDelivr - A free, fast, and reliable Open Source CDN for npm and GitHub with the largest network and best performance from all OSS CDNs. Serving 100 billion requests per month.