Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

rollup.js VS RxJS

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

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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.

RxJS logo RxJS

Reactive Extensions for Javascript
  • rollup.js Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-02-09
  • RxJS Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-29

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.

RxJS features and specs

  • Asynchronous Programming Model
    RxJS allows you to work with asynchronous data streams with ease, enabling you to handle events, Ajax requests, and other asynchronous operations more effectively.
  • Composability
    RxJS operators enable developers to compose complex asynchronous operations concisely. This provides greater flexibility and power over handling streams of data.
  • Functional Programming Paradigm
    By using a functional programming approach, RxJS promotes cleaner and more predictable code. It encourages immutability and side-effect-free functions, enhancing code maintainability.
  • Rich Operator Set
    RxJS has a comprehensive set of operators, which allows developers to transform, combine, and filter data streams in various ways without needing to write a lot of boilerplate code.
  • Community and Ecosystem
    With its active community and extensive ecosystem, RxJS provides robust support, an abundance of learning resources, and numerous integrations with other libraries and frameworks.

Possible disadvantages of RxJS

  • Steep Learning Curve
    For developers unfamiliar with reactive programming concepts or functional programming, understanding RxJS can be challenging, potentially leading to difficulty in adopting it.
  • Overhead for Simple Tasks
    Using RxJS for simple asynchronous tasks might add unnecessary complexity compared to native JavaScript promises or async/await due to its powerful abstractions.
  • Bundle Size
    In certain circumstances, incorporating RxJS might lead to increased bundle sizes, which can be a concern for web performance if not managed properly.
  • Complex Debugging
    RxJS introduces a level of abstraction that can make debugging more complex, especially when dealing with multiple combined and transformed data streams.
  • Performance Overhead
    While RxJS is powerful, its generalized approach to handling asynchronous stream processing can introduce performance overhead if not used judiciously.

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

rollup.js videos

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

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RxJS videos

RxJS is My Favorite Library

More videos:

  • Review - Reactive Programming with RxJS - James Churchill
  • Review - Tero Parviainen "Reactive Music Apps in Angular and RxJS"

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to rollup.js and RxJS)
Web Application Bundler
100 100%
0% 0
Javascript UI Libraries
0 0%
100% 100
JS Build Tools
100 100%
0% 0
Front-End Frameworks
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 RxJS

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

RxJS Reviews

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

Based on our record, rollup.js seems to be more popular. 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 / 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 / 6 months ago
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RxJS mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of RxJS yet. Tracking of RxJS recommendations started around Mar 2021.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing rollup.js and RxJS, 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.

Zustand - Bear necessities for state management in React

Parcel - Blazing fast, zero configuration web application bundler

Redux.js - Predictable state container for JavaScript apps

npm - npm is a package manager for Node.

MobX - Simple, scalable state management