Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Bower VS rollup.js

Compare Bower VS rollup.js and see what are their differences

Bower logo Bower

Bower is a package manager for the web.

rollup.js logo rollup.js

Rollup is a module bundler for JavaScript which compiles small pieces of code into a larger piece such as application.
  • Bower Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-03
  • rollup.js Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-02-09

Bower features and specs

  • Dependency Management
    Bower provides an easy way to manage front-end dependencies, allowing developers to quickly add, update, and remove libraries.
  • Flat Dependency Tree
    Bower maintains a flat dependency tree, which means there are no nested dependencies, reducing the chances of version conflicts.
  • Language Agnostic
    Bower can manage any static content used in a web application, regardless of whether it's JavaScript, CSS, HTML, or images.
  • Human-Readable Configuration
    The configuration file (bower.json) is easy to read and edit, making it user-friendly for developers.
  • Wide Adoption
    Despite newer tools emerging, Bower is still widely used in the industry and has a large repository of packages.

Possible disadvantages of Bower

  • Deprecated
    Bower is officially deprecated, and the maintainers recommend using Yarn and Webpack for the new projects.
  • Limited Scope
    Bower is primarily focused on front-end packages, whereas other tools like npm and Yarn can handle both front-end and back-end packages.
  • No Native Support for Version Locking
    Bower does not natively support version locking (like package-lock.json in npm), which can lead to inconsistencies across environments.
  • Redundant with npm
    Bower's functionality overlaps significantly with npm, which has become the standard for both front-end and back-end package management.
  • Maintenance Overhead
    Using Bower alongside npm can add unnecessary maintenance overhead to projects, as developers need to manage dependencies in two separate tools.

rollup.js features and specs

  • Tree Shaking
    Rollup.js performs treeshaking to eliminate dead code, resulting in smaller bundle sizes. It analyzes the dependency tree and includes only the parts of the code that are actually used.
  • Output Formats
    Supports multiple output formats including ES modules, CommonJS, AMD, UMD, and IIFE. This makes it versatile for different use cases.
  • Plugins
    Rollup.js has a rich ecosystem of plugins that extend its functionality, such as code transformation, minification, and support for various types of modules.
  • Code Splitting
    Supports code splitting, allowing you to break your code into smaller chunks that can be loaded on demand. This improves performance for larger projects.
  • Efficient Bundling
    Offers efficient bundling by removing duplicates and ensuring that each module gets included only once, which contributes to reduced bundle size.
  • Minimal Configuration
    Generally requires minimal configuration to get started, focusing on simplicity and ease of use.

Possible disadvantages of rollup.js

  • Learning Curve
    Although relatively simple to use, there is still a learning curve associated with understanding its configuration and the plugin system.
  • Initial Build Time
    The initial build time can be slower compared to some other bundlers, particularly for larger projects.
  • Limited Built-in Features
    Rollup.js focuses on being a minimalist tool, so it lacks some of the built-in features that other bundlers may have. Often, additional functionality needs to be added via plugins.
  • Plugin Compatibility
    Not all plugins work seamlessly with Rollup.js, and there may be occasional compatibility issues, especially with plugins originally designed for other bundlers.
  • Node.js Ecosystem
    While Rollup.js excels in bundling for browsers, it is not as commonly used for Node.js applications compared to other tools like Webpack.
  • Community Size
    The community size is smaller compared to other bundling tools like Webpack, which can sometimes make finding solutions to issues more challenging.

Bower videos

Walmart $30 Ring Light ! | Bower 8 Inch Ring Light Review!

More videos:

  • Review - BOWER Multi Pod Unboxing and Review - Best Tripod for Beginners?
  • Review - $29 BOWER 8” RING LIGHT WALMART UNBOXING, SET-UP & REVIEW

rollup.js videos

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

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Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Bower and rollup.js)
JS Build Tools
31 31%
69% 69
Web Application Bundler
19 19%
81% 81
Front End Package Manager
JavaScript Package Manager

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Bower and rollup.js

Bower Reviews

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rollup.js Reviews

Rollup v. Webpack v. Parcel
Rollup provides much simpler configuration over webpack 4 and has a host of pre-configured plugins that are a breeze to incorporate into your project. Rollup's also the fastest of the build tools period.
Source: x-team.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, rollup.js should be more popular than Bower. It has been mentiond 60 times since March 2021. 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.

Bower mentions (6)

  • 100+ Must-Have Web Development Resources
    Bower: A web package manager for HTML, CSS, JavaScript, fonts, and even images. - Source: dev.to / 7 months ago
  • 5 NPM Alternatives You Should Try
    Bower is a package manager specifically designed for front-end web development. It can be used to manage JavaScript, CSS, and HTML packages and dependencies. It was developed by Twitter and is known for its simplicity and ease of use. However, it is worth noting that Bower is no longer actively maintained, and developers are encouraged to use other package managers like Yarn or PNPM instead. - Source: dev.to / about 2 years ago
  • zachrytylerwood/vscode
    Bower dependency directory (https://bower.io/). Source: about 2 years ago
  • The Emperor's New Library
    What we see, a decade ago, are that many of the "popular" libraries, frameworks, and methods, not surprisingly, have gone by the wayside, a lot that have remained in current code as difficult-to-removemodernize legacy cruft (Bower, Gulp, Grunt, Backbone, Angular 1, ...), and then we have the small minority that are still here. Some that remain have had their utility lessened/questioned by platform and language... - Source: dev.to / about 2 years ago
  • Assets #2 - installation
    In this way, all the packages that we add in the require section of composer.json, will be installed in the ./node_modulesdirectory, and their download will be managed by asset-packagist, to see the available packages, you can search for both bower and npm packages. Source: over 2 years ago
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rollup.js mentions (60)

  • Valentine’s Day Breakup: React Dumps Create React App
    Vite is a modern frontend build tool used to develop fast and super efficient web applications. It serves files instantly and ensures that changes are updated immediately after they are implemented. It makes use of Rollup for optimized builds and has support for when you want to build a Javascript library (instead of a full app). - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • Advanced Guide to Using Vite with React in 2025
    In 2025, mastering Vite for your React projects means leveraging powerful configurations, intelligent optimizations, and a robust plugin ecosystem. By understanding Vite’s modern architecture—native ES modules (ESM) during development and optimized Rollup bundling for production—you can significantly streamline your workflow, improve developer experience, and deliver fast, performant applications at scale. - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • Optimizing React Development with Vite🤩.
    6. Production-Ready Code Vite uses Rollup for production builds, which optimizes the code by bundling it efficiently, performing tree shaking, and minifying JavaScript. This results in smaller, optimized production builds that are ready for deployment. - Source: dev.to / 5 months ago
  • What is Evan You doing by creating VoidZero, and what are the issues with JS toolchains?
    Meanwhile, esbulid (developed in Go language, as introduced earlier) and rollup can also be used separately as packaging tools, and many third-party JS plugins are packaged using rollup. - Source: dev.to / 5 months ago
  • Node.js: A brief history of cjs, bundlers, and esm
    Npm packages dramatically sped up the productivity of developers by being able to leverage other developers' work. However, it had a major disadvantage: cjs was not compatible with web browsers. To solve this problem, the concept of bundlers was born. Browserify was the first bundler which essentially worked by traversing an entry point and "bundling" all the require()-ed code into a single .js file compatible... - Source: dev.to / 5 months ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Bower and rollup.js, you can also consider the following products

npm - npm is a package manager for Node.

Webpack - Webpack is a module bundler. Its main purpose is to bundle JavaScript files for usage in a browser, yet it is also capable of transforming, bundling, or packaging just about any resource or asset.

Parcel - Blazing fast, zero configuration web application bundler

Ender - Frontend Development

JSHint - New JSHint website. Anton Kovalyov Oct 1st, 2013. For the last couple of weeks I've been working on a new homepage for JSHint and today I'm proud to announce the new jshint. com! JSHint Website.

RequireJS - RequireJS is a JavaScript file and module loader.