When comparing Webpack vs stealjs, the Slant community recommends Webpack for most people. In the question“What are the best frontend JavaScript module bundlers?” Webpack is ranked 1st while stealjs is ranked 10th. The most important reason people chose Webpack is:
Plugins and loaders are easy to write and allow you to control each step of the build, from loading and compiling CoffeeScript, LESS and JADE files to smart post processing and asset manifest building.
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Pros
Pro Rich and flexible plugin infrastructure
Plugins and loaders are easy to write and allow you to control each step of the build, from loading and compiling CoffeeScript, LESS and JADE files to smart post processing and asset manifest building.
Pro Tap into npm's huge module ecosystem
Using Webpack opens you up to npm, that has over 80k modules of which a great amount work both client-side and server-side. And the list is growing rapidly.
Pro Can create a single bundle or multiple chunks loaded on demand, to reduce initial loading time
Webpack allows you to split your codebase into multiple chunks. Chunks are loaded on demand. This reduces the initial loading time.
Pro Supports source maps for easier debugging
Source maps allow for easier debugging, because they allow you to find the problems within the origin files instead of the output file.
Pro ES6 module support
Webpack supports ES6 modules and their import
and export
methods without having to compile them to CommonJS require
Pro Share the same modules client-side and server-side
Because Webpack allows you to use the same require() function as node.js, you can easily share modules between the client-side and server-side.
Pro Bundles CommonJs and AMD modules (even combined)
Webpack supports AMD and CommonJS module styles. It performs clever static analysis on the AST of your code. It even has an evaluation engine to evaluate simple expressions. This allows you to support most existing libraries.
Pro Mix ES6 AMD and CommonJS
Webpack supports using all three module types, even in the same file.
Pro Limit plugin integration issues
Pro Supports several modules types
StealJS has support for AMD, CJS and ES6 module types.
Pro Support for LESS and CSS
StealJS can also load CSS and LESS files in addition to JavaScript modules.
Pro Mix ES6 AMD and CommonJS
StealJS supports using all three module types, even in the same file.
Pro ES6 module support
StealJs supports ES6 modules and their import
and export
methods without having to compile them to CommonJS require
.
Pro Support for ES6
StealJS supports transpiling of ES6 code to ES5
Pro Supports all systemjs based plugins
Pro Supports source maps for easier debugging
Source maps allow for easier debugging, because they allow you to find the problems within the origin files instead of the output file.
Pro Share the same modules client-side and server-side
Because StealJS allows you to use the same require()
function as node.js, you can easily share modules between the client-side and server-side.
Pro Tap into npm's huge module ecosystem
Using StelaJS opens you up to npm, that has over 80k modules of which a great amount work both client-side and server-side. And the list is growing rapidly.
Cons
Con Config file may be hard to understand
Due to a somewhat hard to grasp syntax, configuring Webpack may take some time.
Con Can not load files discovered during runtime
Con Changing the order of require statements causes unexpected behavior
Sometimes changing the order of the require
statements in a JavaScript file loaded with stealjs may cause unexpected problems or even breaking the code altogether.