Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Superplate VS Webpacker

Compare Superplate VS Webpacker and see what are their differences

Superplate logo Superplate

The frontend boilerplate with superpowers

Webpacker logo Webpacker

Use Webpack to manage app-like JavaScript modules in Rails - rails/webpacker
  • Superplate Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-08-02
  • Webpacker Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-27

Superplate features and specs

  • Modular Structure
    Superplate provides a modular and extensible structure, which allows developers to easily add or remove technologies and tools as needed, enabling flexibility in project customization.
  • Wide Technology Support
    Superplate supports a broad range of technologies including React, Next.js, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS, and many others, offering a comprehensive toolkit for modern web development.
  • Boilerplate Generation
    It assists in quickly generating a boilerplate, thereby reducing the initial setup time for projects and allowing developers to focus on building features rather than setting up the development environment.
  • Active Community
    With an active community and regular updates, Superplate keeps up with the latest trends and practices in the development community, providing users with current information and support.

Possible disadvantages of Superplate

  • Learning Curve
    For beginners, the extensive set of tools and configurations may present a steep learning curve, requiring time to understand how to effectively use each component.
  • Overhead for Small Projects
    For smaller projects or simpler applications, the comprehensive setup and features of Superplate may introduce unnecessary overhead, making it less efficient compared to using simpler setups.
  • Dependency Management
    Managing the wide array of dependencies and keeping them up to date can become challenging, particularly as project complexity increases.
  • Customization Complexity
    Though designed to be flexible, highly customizing the template to meet very specific project needs may require a deeper understanding of the configuration and underlying technologies.

Webpacker features and specs

  • Modern JavaScript Features
    Webpacker allows Rails applications to utilize modern JavaScript features and tools, such as ES6 syntax, JSX, and TypeScript, thereby enhancing the developer experience and code quality.
  • Asset Bundling
    It efficiently bundles multiple JavaScript files into a single package, reducing load times and improving performance by minimizing the number of HTTP requests.
  • Integration with Rails
    As an official Rails library, Webpacker integrates seamlessly with the Rails framework, ensuring that front-end builds are consistent and easier to manage alongside Ruby on Rails projects.
  • Configurable
    Provides a highly configurable environment, allowing developers to customize their JavaScript and asset builds extensively to meet specific project needs.
  • Community Support
    Being part of the Rails ecosystem, Webpacker benefits from an extensive community support, with a wealth of third-party resources, documentation, and plugins available.

Possible disadvantages of Webpacker

  • Complexity
    Webpacker can introduce additional complexity, especially for developers not familiar with JavaScript tooling or the webpack configuration, which can lead to a steeper learning curve.
  • Performance Overhead
    The abstraction and tooling required by Webpacker can add performance overhead during development with slower compilation and building times compared to simpler asset management solutions.
  • Dependency Management
    Managing dependencies can become burdensome as Webpacker requires handling both the Ruby Gems and the JavaScript packages through yarn or npm, increasing maintenance efforts.
  • Migration Path
    As newer tools and techniques emerge, moving away from Webpacker could require significant refactoring efforts, especially for applications with extensive custom configurations.
  • Deprecated Status
    Webpacker is no longer the recommended default for new Rails applications starting from Rails 7, which now prefers using esbuild or importmaps, potentially affecting its long-term viability.

Superplate videos

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

Add video

Webpacker videos

RailsConf 2020 CE - Webpacker, It-Just-Works, But How? by Justin Gordon

More videos:

  • Review - Should you use React with Webpacker in your Rails project? Rails MVC vs Single Page App (SPA)!

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Superplate and Webpacker)
Developer Tools
77 77%
23% 23
Web Application Bundler
22 22%
78% 78
Tech
100 100%
0% 0
JS Build Tools
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using Superplate and Webpacker. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
Log in or Post with

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Webpacker should be more popular than Superplate. It has been mentiond 17 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.

Superplate mentions (11)

View more

Webpacker mentions (17)

  • React + Ruby on Rails without any gems
    We will use Webpacker or JavaScript compiler and assets management. By following the webpacker installation guide, let’s add Webpacker and React to our application. - Source: dev.to / 11 months ago
  • Collecting JavaScript code coverage with Capybara in Ruby on Rails application
    For example, there is a Ruby on Rails application that uses Webpacker and has JavaScript files that are covered by the system tests. Capybara is used as the system testing tool. - Source: dev.to / 12 months ago
  • Asset Pipeline JS Migration
    Using Webpacker in Rails provides several advantages over the traditional asset pipeline. First, Webpacker uses JavaScript modules, which allows for better code organization and improved code reusability. Second, it offers modern frontend build tools, such as Babel and PostCSS, for transforming and compiling assets. Third, it provides faster build times and faster runtime performance through code splitting and... - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • Thank you Webpacker, Goodbye Webpacker
    This article is replace Webpacker with Simpacker and webpack. - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • How to setup ruby on rails + Angular
    In ruby ​​on rails 7 what is the best way to properly install Angular because I can't find any documentation about it. The only tutorial that exists uses webpacker (https://github.com/rails/webpacker) but unfortunately it is no longer supported and no longer up to date in terms of security. Source: over 2 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Superplate and Webpacker, you can also consider the following products

Refine - A React Framework for building internal tools, admin panels, dashboards & B2B apps with unmatched flexibilty.

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.

Pingy CLI - Making Modern Websites Should Be Easier. Pingy is Here To Help.

Turbolinks - Turbolinks makes navigating your web application faster

Heartface - One-click checkout for anything, sold by anyone, everywhere.

Merebase - Merebase is a new take on serverless development.