Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

UglifyJS VS Browserify

Compare UglifyJS VS Browserify and see what are their differences

UglifyJS logo UglifyJS

JavaScript minifier, beautifier, mangler and parser toolkit.

Browserify logo Browserify

Browserify lets you require('modules') in the browser by bundling up all of your dependencies.
  • UglifyJS Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-10-30
  • Browserify Landing page
    Landing page //
    2018-09-29

UglifyJS features and specs

  • Minification
    UglifyJS effectively reduces the file size of JavaScript by removing whitespace, shortening variable names, and eliminating unnecessary code, which can lead to faster load times in web applications.
  • Maturity and Stability
    As a mature and well-established tool, UglifyJS has a long history of usage and a strong community, making it a reliable choice for JavaScript minification with less risk of encountering severe bugs.
  • Customization
    UglifyJS offers various options and configurations that allow developers to control the minification process, such as toggling specific optimizations and preserving certain comments.
  • Compression
    Besides minification, UglifyJS provides compression options which further optimize the JavaScript code by evaluating constant expressions and removing unreachable code.

Possible disadvantages of UglifyJS

  • Source Mapping Complexity
    Generating source maps with UglifyJS can sometimes be complex and might not always accurately map minified code back to the original source, complicating debugging efforts.
  • Transformations Side Effects
    Some of the aggressive transformations made by UglifyJS could potentially introduce bugs if the original code relies on exact syntax structure or has side effects that depend on expression evaluation order.
  • Limited ES6+ Support
    Historically, UglifyJS has lagged in support for newer ECMAScript features compared to other modern minifiers, which might cause issues when dealing with ES6+ syntax without transpiling it first.
  • Error Diagnosis
    When errors occur during the minification process, UglifyJS may not always provide clear or detailed error messages, which can make it difficult to diagnose and fix issues.

Browserify features and specs

  • Node.js module system support
    Browserify allows developers to use the Node.js-style require() function for module loading in the browser, enabling the use of NPM packages designed for Node.js.
  • Code organization
    By enabling modular code, Browserify helps developers organize their code better, making it more maintainable and scalable.
  • Ecosystem integration
    Browserify seamlessly integrates with the Node.js ecosystem and encourages code sharing between the server and client.
  • Customizability
    With Browserify's plugin system, developers can easily customize and extend its functionality to fit their needs.
  • Performance optimization
    Advanced features like code splitting and static analysis can improve performance by reducing the amount of code sent to the browser.

Possible disadvantages of Browserify

  • Build process complexity
    Integrating Browserify into your workflow can add complexity to your build process, especially for developers who are not familiar with build tools.
  • Plugins and transformations
    While Browserify is customizable, managing a large number of plugins and transformations can become cumbersome and difficult to understand.
  • Performance overhead
    The bundling process can introduce performance overhead during development due to the time taken to bundle the files.
  • Modern alternatives
    Modern alternatives like Webpack and Rollup offer more features and optimizations, making Browserify less attractive for some use cases.
  • Limited built-in features
    Compared to alternatives like Webpack, Browserify has fewer built-in features, which can necessitate additional tools or plugins for functionalities like hot module replacement.

UglifyJS videos

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

Add video

Browserify videos

MacBook Pro Retina vs MacBook Air - Django collect static & browserify

More videos:

  • Review - Atlanta JavaScript Presents Mobile Development with Cordova and Browserify with Roman Shtylman HD

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to UglifyJS and Browserify)
Web Application Bundler
49 49%
51% 51
JS Build Tools
0 0%
100% 100
Tool
100 100%
0% 0
Monitoring Tools
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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

Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare UglifyJS and Browserify

UglifyJS Reviews

We have no reviews of UglifyJS yet.
Be the first one to post

Browserify Reviews

First impressions with Parcel JS
Heard of Webpack, Rollup or Browserify? They are popular bundlers. If you’ve used one of them, you’ve used a bundler. A bundler does what it says on the tin, bundles your code 📦
Source: codeburst.io

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Browserify seems to be a lot more popular than UglifyJS. While we know about 22 links to Browserify, we've tracked only 1 mention of UglifyJS. 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.

UglifyJS mentions (1)

  • Overview of the next-gen frontend dev tools
    There are many minifiers such as terser and uglify. But, because minifying also require to parse the JS, it is actually possible to use esbuild and SWC to minify the code. Here's a benchmark of the main minifiers. - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago

Browserify mentions (22)

  • 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
  • How to Create a Real-time Public Transportation Schedule App
    Browserify to use node packages in the browser. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • 5 Different Tools to Bundle Node.js Apps
    Browserify is a widely used JavaScript bundler with over 2 million NPM weekly downloads. In addition to Node.js support, allowing developers to use require() statements in the browser is one of its highlighted features. - Source: dev.to / almost 2 years ago
  • JavaScript Module Bundlers and all that Jazz ✨
    This began to change when NPM came in and running npm install became a quick and easy way to install dependencies. Browserify became the first JavaScript bundler. As its documentation says -. - Source: dev.to / about 2 years ago
  • Hack to Run React Application inside Service Worker
    One problem was to run jsDOM as UMD module. But luckly I was able to use browserify to compile jsDOM into UMD. - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing UglifyJS and Browserify, you can also consider the following products

Terser - JavaScript parser, mangler, optimizer and beautifier toolkit for ES6+

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.

JavaScript Obfuscator - JavaScript Obfuscator is a free online tool that obfuscates your source code, preventing it from being stolen and used without permission.

Parcel - Blazing fast, zero configuration web application bundler

Closure Compiler - The Closure Compiler is a tool for making JavaScript download and run faster.

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