Vite

Vite is a frontend build tool that provides near-instant dev server startup and hot module replacement by serving native ES modules in development and bundling with Rollup (now Rolldown) for production. It has become the default answer for new frontend projects, passing webpack by more than 3-to-1 in weekly npm downloads — ~132M versus ~41M in September 2026.

Created by Evan You and now stewarded with VoidZero (his company, which also builds Rolldown and Oxc), Vite underpins the modern frontend stack: it powers scaffolding for React, Vue, Svelte, and Solid, and frameworks from Astro to Nuxt build on it. Vite 8 and the Rolldown-powered bundler have pushed production builds dramatically faster while keeping the famous zero-config developer experience.

Limitations: very large legacy codebases with deep webpack plugin customization can be painful to migrate; the ecosystem moves fast, so major-version upgrades need attention; and SSR/production edge cases still require more configuration than the happy path.

npm create vite@latest; or add to an existing project — works with React, Vue, Svelte, Solid, and vanilla TS.