Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

MacPorts VS rollup.js

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

MacPorts logo MacPorts

The MacPorts Project is an open-source community initiative to design an easy-to-use system for compiling, installing, and upgrading either command-line, X11 or Aqua based open-source software on the Mac OS X operating system.

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.
  • MacPorts Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-09-29
  • rollup.js Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-02-09

MacPorts features and specs

  • Wide Range of Software
    MacPorts provides access to a large number of open-source software packages, allowing users to easily install and manage them on macOS.
  • Ease of Use
    With a simple command-line interface, MacPorts is easy to use for installing, updating, and managing software packages.
  • Dependency Management
    Automatically handles software dependencies, ensuring that all required packages are installed and properly configured.
  • Customizability
    Offers options to tailor the installation of packages to meet specific user needs, such as enabling or disabling specific variants.
  • Isolated Environment
    Installs packages in a separate directory under /opt/local, preventing conflicts with macOS-provided software and keeping the system environment clean.

Possible disadvantages of MacPorts

  • Disk Space Usage
    MacPorts can consume a significant amount of disk space, as it builds software from source and maintains its own directory tree.
  • Performance Overheads
    Building packages from source can be time-consuming, particularly for large or complex software, which may lead to longer installation times.
  • Limited GUI Options
    Primarily a command-line tool, MacPorts offers limited graphical interfaces for users who prefer GUI-based package management.
  • Learning Curve
    While generally straightforward, MacPorts requires some familiarity with command-line operations and package management concepts.
  • Potential Redundancies
    For users who also use Homebrew or other package managers, there might be overlap in functionality, leading to redundancy and potential conflicts.

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.

Analysis of rollup.js

Overall verdict

  • Rollup.js is a highly recommended choice for projects where ES6 modules are extensively used, and the goal is to produce compact and clean output. It's particularly beneficial for library authors aiming to provide their libraries in multiple formats.

Why this product is good

  • Rollup.js is good due to its efficient bundling process that helps in creating smaller and faster JavaScript files. It uses ES6 modules which enable better tree shaking and helps in removing unused code, leading to cleaner and more optimized builds. Additionally, Rollup has a simple and modular architecture that can be extended with plugins to support various build processes and features.

Recommended for

  • JavaScript library authors
  • Developers prioritizing ES6 module syntax
  • Projects that require efficient tree shaking
  • Those needing a customizable and streamlined bundling process

MacPorts videos

Linux Tools for your Mac. Package Management. HomeBrew, MacPorts, Fink

More videos:

  • Review - Install and Testing MacPorts on an M1 Mac
  • Review - Installing MacPorts on macOS Catalina

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 MacPorts and rollup.js)
Front End Package Manager
Web Application Bundler
0 0%
100% 100
Package Manager
100 100%
0% 0
JS Build Tools
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

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

MacPorts 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 seems to be a lot more popular than MacPorts. While we know about 62 links to rollup.js, we've tracked only 5 mentions of MacPorts. 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.

MacPorts mentions (5)

  • Need help with running OpenBSD on VirtualBox
    Brew & macports have libvirt & virt-manager that are used to manage qemu via GUI. Source: over 2 years ago
  • Brew Is a Bad Neighbor
    Or instead of all this, try MacPorts[0], which in my experience has 99% of what you need. The biggest drawbacks are less support from quite niche packages (the ones that sets up its own homebrew tap), and a bit slower updates. But then I found it bearable much more than homebrew’s downsides. [0]: https://macports.org. - Source: Hacker News / almost 3 years ago
  • How to prevent WireGuard from starting up (menubar) on MacOS?
    You can install wireguard-go and wireguard-tools (or boringtun, which is Cloudflare's userspace implementation) using either MacPorts or Brew. Source: almost 3 years ago
  • Newbie Problem with MacOS Terminal Stuff
    That being said, I'm going to assume that you're working on MacO. Flatpaks aren't going to be an option, that's only going to work if you're using Linux (like Fedora, Ubuntu, Gentoo, Arch, Mint, and so on). If you need to install HandBrake, you may want to consider using macports.org, or brew.sh, these are projects that provide additional libraries and packages for MacOS, this way you can install additional... Source: about 3 years ago
  • Top 10 trending github repos of the week🚽.
    On macOS you can also install the latest release with MacPorts:. - Source: dev.to / over 3 years ago

rollup.js mentions (62)

  • JavaScript is so redundant
    Why are there so many JavaScript build tools? Gulp, Grunt, Webpack, Laravel Mix, Rollup.js, and now Vite. And these are just the ones that I've worked with. Haven't we solved this problem? And why build a new tool? Why not improve existing tools? - Source: dev.to / 6 days ago
  • ⚔️ Vite vs. Turbopack in 2025: Which One to Choose?
    Vite (pronounced veet) was created by Evan You (Vue's creator) and launched in 2020. It uses native ES modules in the browser and esbuild for lightning-fast dev servers and Rollup for optimized production builds. - Source: dev.to / 10 days ago
  • 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 / 2 months 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 / 3 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 / 6 months ago
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What are some alternatives?

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

Homebrew - The missing package manager for macOS

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.

pkgsrc - pkgsrc is a framework for building over 17,000 open source software packages.

Parcel - Blazing fast, zero configuration web application bundler

Homebrew Cask - Install with ease. Your software is just one command away from being ready and raring to go. Forget all about babysitting the install process step by step, from website to cleanup. ls /usr/local/Caskroom google-chrome .

npm - npm is a package manager for Node.