Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

rollup.js VS Cookiecutter

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

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.

Cookiecutter logo Cookiecutter

A command-line utility that creates projects from cookiecutters (project templates), e.g.
  • rollup.js Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-02-09
  • Cookiecutter Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-23

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.

Cookiecutter features and specs

  • Time Saving
    Cookiecutter automates the setup of new projects by providing pre-defined templates, which reduces the time developers need to spend on configuring projects manually.
  • Consistency
    Using standardized templates helps maintain consistency across multiple projects, ensuring that projects follow similar structures and coding conventions.
  • Flexibility
    Cookiecutter templates can be customized to suit specific project needs, allowing developers to adapt templates while still benefiting from a predefined structure.
  • Community Support
    There is a wide range of community-contributed templates available, covering various languages and frameworks, which developers can use or build upon.
  • Easy to Use
    Cookiecutter is user-friendly and requires minimal setup, making it accessible for developers of all skill levels.

Possible disadvantages of Cookiecutter

  • Learning Curve
    While basic usage is straightforward, understanding how to create and maintain advanced custom templates can be challenging for beginners.
  • Template Maintenance
    Once a project is created from a template, keeping the project updated if there are changes in the template can be difficult and require manual adjustments.
  • Overhead
    For very simple or one-off projects, using Cookiecutter might introduce unnecessary overhead in terms of setup and configuration.
  • Complexity with Customization
    Highly customized templates can become complex, leading to potential difficulties in debugging and reproducing configurations across different environments.
  • Dependency on Templates
    Projects heavily reliant on custom or third-party templates can face issues if those templates are no longer maintained or updated to reflect best practices.

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to rollup.js and Cookiecutter)
Web Application Bundler
76 76%
24% 24
JS Build Tools
76 76%
24% 24
Developer Tools
58 58%
42% 42
Software Development
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 rollup.js and Cookiecutter

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

Cookiecutter Reviews

We have no reviews of Cookiecutter yet.
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, rollup.js should be more popular than Cookiecutter. 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.

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 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 / 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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Cookiecutter mentions (40)

  • Crafting a Custom SAM Template for Your AWS Lambda Function, Resource, and Operations
    AWS SAM is the native tools that help manage and handle serverless components and resources with predefined template powered by Cloudformation and cookiecutter that allow you to quickstart project with templates base on different use-case Before going to craft with custom template on your own I will show you how to get start working with aws predefined template first. - Source: dev.to / 5 months ago
  • Converging project boilerplates with copier
    If you are coming from python like I am then you may already be familiar with cookiecutter. I have been in the situation a few times where it might have made sense to use it, but every time it was a matter of balancing out the timeline and trying to stay away from over engineering. - Source: dev.to / 12 months ago
  • Ask HN: How do you bootstrap your software projects?
    Sometimes I use this to abstract boilerplate https://github.com/cookiecutter/cookiecutter It can use a repo as a template. It supports some interactive questions to choose options but mostly it is jinja templates. Having libraries would be another option. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • FastStream: Python's framework for Efficient Message Queue Handling
    Install the cookiecutter package using the following command:. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Template for Django Projects
    Consider taking a look at cookiecutter to generate projects from templates. There is also cookiecutter-django. As for your environment variables you should have an example .env file containing all the environment variables required by your project (without setting them) that can be safely pushed into your repository for you and other developers to copy into the actual .env file that'll be used by your project (add... Source: almost 2 years ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing rollup.js and Cookiecutter, 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.

Yeoman - To do so, we provide a generator ecosystem. A generator is basically a plugin that can be run with the `yo` command to scaffold complete projects or useful parts. Through our official Generators, we promote the "Yeoman workflow".

Parcel - Blazing fast, zero configuration web application bundler

Copier - Copier is a CLI app and a library for rendering project templates.

npm - npm is a package manager for Node.

cookiedough - Graphical frontend to cookiecutter, which comes with an easily searchable list of templates, and simplifies unpacking with a compact placeholder form.