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Babel VS UglifyJS

Compare Babel VS UglifyJS and see what are their differences

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Babel logo Babel

Babel is a compiler for writing next generation JavaScript.

UglifyJS logo UglifyJS

JavaScript minifier, beautifier, mangler and parser toolkit.
  • Babel Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-04-02
  • UglifyJS Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-10-30

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.

UglifyJS features and specs

  • Minification
    UglifyJS effectively reduces the file size of JavaScript by removing whitespace, shortening variable names, and eliminating unnecessary code, which can lead to faster load times in web applications.
  • Maturity and Stability
    As a mature and well-established tool, UglifyJS has a long history of usage and a strong community, making it a reliable choice for JavaScript minification with less risk of encountering severe bugs.
  • Customization
    UglifyJS offers various options and configurations that allow developers to control the minification process, such as toggling specific optimizations and preserving certain comments.
  • Compression
    Besides minification, UglifyJS provides compression options which further optimize the JavaScript code by evaluating constant expressions and removing unreachable code.

Possible disadvantages of UglifyJS

  • Source Mapping Complexity
    Generating source maps with UglifyJS can sometimes be complex and might not always accurately map minified code back to the original source, complicating debugging efforts.
  • Transformations Side Effects
    Some of the aggressive transformations made by UglifyJS could potentially introduce bugs if the original code relies on exact syntax structure or has side effects that depend on expression evaluation order.
  • Limited ES6+ Support
    Historically, UglifyJS has lagged in support for newer ECMAScript features compared to other modern minifiers, which might cause issues when dealing with ES6+ syntax without transpiling it first.
  • Error Diagnosis
    When errors occur during the minification process, UglifyJS may not always provide clear or detailed error messages, which can make it difficult to diagnose and fix issues.

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

UglifyJS videos

No UglifyJS videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

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Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Babel and UglifyJS)
Development Tools
100 100%
0% 0
Web Application Bundler
0 0%
100% 100
Javascript UI Libraries
100 100%
0% 0
Tool
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 UglifyJS. While we know about 147 links to Babel, we've tracked only 1 mention of UglifyJS. 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 / about 1 month ago
  • #wecode Landing Page - WeCoded Challenge March 2025
    @vitejs/plugin-react uses Babel for Fast Refresh. - Source: dev.to / 2 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 / 2 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 / 3 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 / 3 months ago
View more

UglifyJS mentions (1)

  • Overview of the next-gen frontend dev tools
    There are many minifiers such as terser and uglify. But, because minifying also require to parse the JS, it is actually possible to use esbuild and SWC to minify the code. Here's a benchmark of the main minifiers. - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Babel and UglifyJS, you can also consider the following products

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

Terser - JavaScript parser, mangler, optimizer and beautifier toolkit for ES6+

React Native - A framework for building native apps with React

JavaScript Obfuscator - JavaScript Obfuscator is a free online tool that obfuscates your source code, preventing it from being stolen and used without permission.

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

Closure Compiler - The Closure Compiler is a tool for making JavaScript download and run faster.