Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Parcel VS Intro.js

Compare Parcel VS Intro.js and see what are their differences

Note: These products don't have any matching categories. If you think this is a mistake, please edit the details of one of the products and suggest appropriate categories.

Parcel logo Parcel

Blazing fast, zero configuration web application bundler

Intro.js logo Intro.js

Simple Javascript framework for adding screen tips
  • Parcel Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-12-13
  • Intro.js Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-03-29

Parcel features and specs

  • Zero Configuration
    Parcel requires minimal to no configuration to get started, making it extremely user-friendly, especially for beginners or small projects.
  • Fast Bundling
    Parcel uses worker threads to parallelize tasks, which significantly speeds up the bundling process compared to other bundlers that do not use this approach.
  • Out-of-the-box support for many file types
    Parcel supports many file types (e.g., JavaScript, CSS, HTML, images) right out-of-the-box without needing additional plugins or configurations.
  • Hot Module Replacement (HMR)
    Parcel offers built-in HMR, allowing developers to see changes in real-time without needing to refresh the browser, leading to a faster development cycle.
  • Tree Shaking
    Parcel automatically performs tree shaking, removing unused code from the production build to reduce file sizes, which can improve loading times.
  • Code Splitting
    Parcel has automatic code splitting capabilities which help to improve performance by loading only the necessary assets.
  • Extensible via Plugins
    Parcel’s plugin system allows developers to extend its functionality easily if custom or additional features are needed.

Possible disadvantages of Parcel

  • Community and Ecosystem
    The community and ecosystem around Parcel are smaller compared to other bundlers like Webpack, so finding solutions and third-party plugins might be more challenging.
  • Limited Customization
    While the zero-config aspect is beneficial, it also means there are fewer customization options out-of-the-box, which might be limiting for complex projects needing specific configurations.
  • Performance with Large Projects
    For very large projects, Parcel's performance can become a bottleneck, particularly when it comes to initial build times.
  • Documentation
    The documentation, while improving, is not as comprehensive as some other tools, making it harder for developers to find detailed information when they encounter issues.
  • Dependency Bloat
    Parcel can sometimes include more dependencies than necessary in the final bundle, potentially increasing the final bundle size.

Intro.js features and specs

  • User-Friendly Interface
    Intro.js provides an intuitive and easy-to-use interface for creating guided tours on websites, making it accessible for users with varying technical skills.
  • Customizable
    Intro.js is highly customizable, allowing developers to tailor the look and feel of the tour to match the existing design of their website.
  • Lightweight
    The library is lightweight, ensuring that adding it to a website does not significantly increase load times or affect performance.
  • Cross-Browser Support
    Intro.js supports all major browsers, ensuring a consistent experience for users regardless of their browser choice.
  • Rich API
    It offers a rich API, enabling developers to integrate the tool into their applications seamlessly and extend its functionality as needed.

Possible disadvantages of Intro.js

  • Limited Interactivity
    While Intro.js provides basic guided tours, it lacks advanced interactive features that might be needed for more complex walkthroughs.
  • Dependency on JavaScript
    As a JavaScript library, Intro.js requires users to have JavaScript enabled in their browsers, which might not be the case for all users.
  • Potential for User Overload
    Overusing or poorly implementing Intro.js guides can overwhelm users, leading to reduced engagement or missed information.
  • Limited Free Version
    The free version of Intro.js offers limited features compared to the paid plans, which may restrict use for developers not willing to pay for premium features.
  • Learning Curve
    While it is user-friendly, new users may encounter a learning curve when trying to implement advanced customizations or complex tours.

Analysis of Parcel

Overall verdict

  • Parcel is a good choice for developers looking for a hassle-free, efficient, and beginner-friendly bundler. Its minimal configuration approach and speed make it ideal for small to medium-sized projects. However, for highly complex projects that require intricate and highly customized build processes, other bundlers might be more suitable due to their advanced configuration capabilities.

Why this product is good

  • Parcel is a web application bundler that is appreciated for its simplicity and zero-config philosophy. It automatically detects the files needed for a project without requiring a complex configuration file. Its fast performance is attributed to parallelization and efficient caching. Additionally, Parcel offers out-of-the-box support for JavaScript, CSS, HTML, asset management, and various types of file transformations, making it a versatile tool for web developers.

Recommended for

  • Developers new to module bundlers or looking for an easy-to-setup tool.
  • Projects that value speed and simplicity in their build processes.
  • Developers who need a bundler capable of handling multiple asset types with minimal configuration.
  • Teams that prefer convention over configuration and want to get started quickly without diving deep into complex bundler settings.

Parcel videos

Danby Parcel Guard Smart Mailbox blogger Review

More videos:

  • Review - PARCEL MOVIE REVIEW | SASWATA CHATTERJEE | RITUPARNA SENGUPTA | RUPAM'S REVIEW
  • Review - Le Parcel Box review

Intro.js videos

Intro.js: Onboard New Users with a Quick Wizard

More videos:

  • Review - Add a Step-by-Step guide to your Website with intro.js

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Parcel and Intro.js)
Web Application Bundler
100 100%
0% 0
User Engagement
0 0%
100% 100
JS Build Tools
100 100%
0% 0
User Onboarding And Engagement

User comments

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Reviews

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

Parcel Reviews

Rollup v. Webpack v. Parcel
Parcel's caching feature sees dramatically decreases in time consumption after the initial run. For frequent, small changes, in smaller projects **Parcel*8 is a great choice.
Source: x-team.com
If you’ve ever configured Webpack, Parcel will blow your mind!
document.body.className = document.body.className.replace(/(^|\s)is-noJs(\s|$)/, "$1is-js$2")HomepageHomepageJavascriptBecome a memberSign inGet startedIf you’ve ever configured Webpack, Parcel will blow your mind!And how to hit the ground running with Parcel.Ibrahim ButtBlockedUnblockFollowFollowingMar 16, 2018Click here to share this article on LinkedIn »Zero...
Source: medium.com
First impressions with Parcel JS
The big selling point of Parcel though is that it offers a zero configuration experience. This means all the features are available out of the box! It also boasts blazing fast bundle times 👟 You won’t be configuring how Parcel works or having to draft in various plugins to get started. If you do need something, Parcel magically detects this and will pull in stuff for you on...
Source: codeburst.io
Parcel vs webpack - Jakob Lind
Parcel has made their own benchmarks of Parcel and other bundlers. Parcel has been criticized because they have not made the benchmarks open source. People cannot verify that the benchmarks are true when they are not open source.

Intro.js Reviews

15 best user onboarding software you need to try in 2023
The free version offers tooltips and screen portion highlights, which might suffice if your app is relatively straightforward. However, Intro.js is designed to be cut and pasted into your app’s code to create onboarding functions it wouldn’t otherwise have. Therefore, you’ll still need to have built a basic onboarding workflow ready.
8 Best Usetiful Alternatives and Competitors That Are More Professional
The onboarding elements are very limited, so any user onboarding designed with Intro.js will not be likely to satisfy every need of a user.
Source: userguiding.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Parcel should be more popular than Intro.js. It has been mentiond 113 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.

Parcel mentions (113)

  • Migrating a JavaScript Project from Prettier and ESLint to BiomeJS
    Https://parceljs.org/ is another. It even supports languages like `` out of the box which is pretty cool. IIRC it downloads necessarily plugins on the fly. - Source: Hacker News / about 1 month ago
  • Create React App is Deprecated – What’s Next ?
    Parcel is another alternative that requires zero configuration and is super fast. If you want a simple React setup without any hassle, Parcel is a great choice. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • Bun 1.2 Is Released
    From its documentation [1] it looks a lot like a parceljs replacement [2], i.e. a zero config bundler which processes and bundles the dependencies in .html pages. So great for simple websites, not for replacing an entire Vite stack. [1] https://bun.sh/docs/bundler/fullstack [2] https://parceljs.org. - Source: Hacker News / 5 months ago
  • What is Evan You doing by creating VoidZero, and what are the issues with JS toolchains?
    Packagers are the ones we most frequently come into contact with, such as Webpack Vite and Parcel. The latter may not be commonly used, but it is also a well-established tool. - Source: dev.to / 6 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 / 6 months ago
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Intro.js mentions (15)

  • 7 best product tour JavaScript libraries for frontend apps
    Intro.js is an open source JavaScript library that provides an easy way to create simple and effective product tours. It has an approximate file size of 12.5 KB, so it’s a lightweight library that makes building simple walkthroughs easy: One of the key features of Intro.js is its customizability. It allows you to tailor your tours to align with your application's branding by offering various themes and... - Source: dev.to / 10 months ago
  • Guided Tours Solution for Your Web Application
    Intro.js like the others offers a rich set of features such as customizable steps and tooltips, keyboard navigation, theming, progress indicators and more. Like others, this library also has extensive documentation. Intro.js has open source licence under AGPL v3 and a commercial licence with different price plans. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Need Help With Website Guide
    Intro.js might be what you’re looking for. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Button pop up with Java and CSS
    Everything in the browser works with just CSS, JavaScript and HTML. There are JavaScript libraries for things like you are describing, if you are able to customize your site with JS - you should be able to use some of them. For example this one: https://introjs.com/. Source: over 2 years ago
  • How come 1 cookie expires and the other one is not?
    For context, I'm using introjs to make a small tour in my website in 2 different pages. I'm making a cookie wheather a user has visited the page so I can only show the tour only once. My issue is that one cookie sets up with an expiration of 400 days as its supposed to be and the other one stays Session only but both are made from the exact same function with the exacth same parameters. Source: over 2 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Parcel and Intro.js, you can also consider the following products

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.

ShepherdJS - Guide your users through a tour of your app.

rollup.js - Rollup is a module bundler for JavaScript which compiles small pieces of code into a larger piece such as application.

UserGuiding - Create in-app experiences with the most straightforward product adoption platform — quick implementation, lasting user engagement.

esbuild - An extremely fast JavaScript bundler and minifier

Appcues - Improve user onboarding, feature activation & more — no code required! Stop waiting on dev and start increasing customer engagement today. Try it for free.