What's the best JavaScript minifier?

This project benchmarks the following minifiers:

Benchmarks last updated on Apr 6, 2025.

1. To help you pick a minifier that fits your needs
2. To promote JS minifiers and document their performances
3. To encourage healthy competition and improvement amongst minifiers

• Each minifier is executed in its own process with a 10s timeout
• Artifact integrity is verified by a test before and after minification
• Each minifier is minimally configured (sourcemaps & comments disabled), comparing out-of-the-box experience
• Minifier upgrade PRs are automated via WhiteSource Renovate
• Benchmarks are updated on every PR via GitHub Actions
• The raw benchmark data is available in /packages/data/data/data.json

Minifiers are ranked by smallest minzipped size.

Size of the minified output.

Size of the minified output with Gzip compression.

For minifiers, this measures how compressable the output is.

For users, this measures network transfer size, which is usually the metric that matters most.

How long minification took (average of 5 runs). Each time is annotated with a multiplier relative to the fastest minifier.

---
config:
    xyChart:
        width: 720
        height: 360
        xAxis:
            labelPadding: 20
        yAxis:
            labelPadding: 10
---
xychart-beta
	title "react v17.0.2"
	x-axis ["Original",1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12]
	y-axis "Gzip size" 0 --> 19385
	bar [19385,8177,8186,8193,8265,8448,8493,8543,8628,8661,8668,8746,11040]

---
config:
    xyChart:
        width: 720
        height: 360
        xAxis:
            labelPadding: 20
        yAxis:
            labelPadding: 10
---
xychart-beta
	title "moment v2.29.1"
	x-axis ["Original",1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12]
	y-axis "Gzip size" 0 --> 36231
	bar [36231,18568,18690,18748,18910,19119,19260,19334,19478,19569,19683,19857,24998]

---
config:
    xyChart:
        width: 720
        height: 360
        xAxis:
            labelPadding: 20
        yAxis:
            labelPadding: 10
---
xychart-beta
	title "jquery v3.5.1"
	x-axis ["Original",1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12]
	y-axis "Gzip size" 0 --> 84498
	bar [84498,30866,30903,30912,30970,31446,31470,31621,31799,31954,32653,33086,40879]

---
config:
    xyChart:
        width: 720
        height: 360
        xAxis:
            labelPadding: 20
        yAxis:
            labelPadding: 10
---
xychart-beta
	title "vue v2.6.12"
	x-axis ["Original",1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12]
	y-axis "Gzip size" 0 --> 89668
	bar [89668,42727,42919,43036,43358,43925,44230,44354,44368,44450,44679,45400,57169]

---
config:
    xyChart:
        width: 720
        height: 360
        xAxis:
            labelPadding: 20
        yAxis:
            labelPadding: 10
---
xychart-beta
	title "lodash v4.17.21"
	x-axis ["Original",1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12]
	y-axis "Gzip size" 0 --> 96690
	bar [96690,24686,24972,25186,25240,25503,25862,25979,26200,26221,26498,26655,36327]

---
config:
    xyChart:
        width: 720
        height: 360
        xAxis:
            labelPadding: 20
        yAxis:
            labelPadding: 10
---
xychart-beta
	title "d3 v6.3.1"
	x-axis ["Original",1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10]
	y-axis "Gzip size" 0 --> 130686
	bar [130686,87016,87208,88087,88162,88319,89156,89882,90800,92395,94121]

---
config:
    xyChart:
        width: 720
        height: 360
        xAxis:
            labelPadding: 20
        yAxis:
            labelPadding: 10
---
xychart-beta
	title "terser v5.30.3"
	x-axis ["Original",1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11]
	y-axis "Gzip size" 0 --> 193763
	bar [193763,122362,123291,123334,123482,124428,124609,124878,126562,126707,127653,145178]

---
config:
    xyChart:
        width: 720
        height: 360
        xAxis:
            labelPadding: 20
        yAxis:
            labelPadding: 10
---
xychart-beta
	title "three v0.124.0"
	x-axis ["Original",1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11]
	y-axis "Gzip size" 0 --> 248267
	bar [248267,158768,159071,159198,160829,162998,163036,163198,163725,164610,166210,193471]

---
config:
    xyChart:
        width: 720
        height: 360
        xAxis:
            labelPadding: 20
        yAxis:
            labelPadding: 10
---
xychart-beta
	title "victory v35.8.4"
	x-axis ["Original",1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9]
	y-axis "Gzip size" 0 --> 309942
	bar [309942,157435,157848,158706,162262,165014,166386,167579,181071,182671]

---
config:
    xyChart:
        width: 720
        height: 360
        xAxis:
            labelPadding: 20
        yAxis:
            labelPadding: 10
---
xychart-beta
	title "echarts v5.1.1"
	x-axis ["Original",1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]
	y-axis "Gzip size" 0 --> 684611
	bar [684611,321265,321987,324635,330736,331412,331563,331847,337934]

---
config:
    xyChart:
        width: 720
        height: 360
        xAxis:
            labelPadding: 20
        yAxis:
            labelPadding: 10
---
xychart-beta
	title "antd v4.16.1"
	x-axis ["Original",1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]
	y-axis "Gzip size" 0 --> 825175
	bar [825175,452478,457786,463334,471730,475480,478572,488279,491833]

---
config:
    xyChart:
        width: 720
        height: 360
        xAxis:
            labelPadding: 20
        yAxis:
            labelPadding: 10
---
xychart-beta
	title "typescript v4.9.5"
	x-axis ["Original",1,2,3,4,5,6]
	y-axis "Gzip size" 0 --> 1884998
	bar [1884998,859210,860670,875806,876535,879301,915551]

Wow, what an intense and tight race in the world of JavaScript minifiers! These competitors duked it out across multiple rounds, slicing bytes and shaving milliseconds like coding ninjas. Let's dive into the results and see who deserves the crown and who deserves a kind pat on the back for showing up.

🏆 @swc/core takes the top recommendation! It consistently delivered the smallest Gzip size across multiple rounds while maintaining lightning-fast speeds. For large files like "antd" or "typescript," @swc/core demonstrated its mastery with unmatched compression paired with speed. Even against juggernauts like uglify-js and terser, it didn't just hold ground—it dominated. Developers seeking a balance of minimal file size and remarkable speed will love this tool.

1. oxc-minify – A rising star in the minification arena, oxc-minify shocked everyone with its incredible speed. Even on beastly packages like "lodash" and "typescript," it processed files in milliseconds while staying competitive in compression. It’s ideal for those in a rush who can afford minor sacrifices in size.

2. @tdewolff/minify – If speed were the only measure, this minifier would run away with gold medals! Its blistering performance made it the fastest minifier round after round. While its Gzip sizes weren’t the absolute smallest, it considerably compressed files—making it a solid choice for workflows prioritizing speed over every byte.

3. uglify-js – The veteran in the lineup, uglify-js showed its experience by producing the smallest Gzip sizes for several packages like "lodash" and "d3." However, its compression came at the cost of painfully slow speeds. For users who are optimization purists and can tolerate the wait, uglify-js remains a powerhouse.

4. esbuild – Esbuild brings a welcome mix of speed and simplicity. While it wasn’t a leader in size reduction, it showed reliable performance in medium-to-large files like "three" and "antd." Great for developers needing a fast and straightforward option with decent results.

5. terser – Another battle-hardened competitor, terser scored high overall with commendable Gzip results. However, it was often outpaced by @swc/core and oxc-minify, making it better suited as a reliable fallback or for cases needing very specific configurations.

Some competitors stumbled along the way, showing that cutting corners in compression can lead to costly errors.

• babel-minify – Unfortunately, this contender hit a glaring issue with a runtime error during "d3." A promising tool but unreliable in its current state. Stay clear unless you enjoy debugging minifiers!

• tedivm/jshrink – Another casualty during "d3," this tool failed due to an unclosed regex. It has potential but can’t be trusted for serious use at this time.

• bun – A curveball knockout! Bun’s incorrect handling of newlines in "typescript" resulted in a validation failure. While the speed is enticing, this post-processing blunder rules it out for now.

What a race! Each competitor showed off unique strengths, but the awe-inspiring consistency and balance of @swc/core made it the true champion. Honorable mentions like oxc-minify and @tdewolff/minify deserve applause for their remarkable speed, while veterans like uglify-js proved there's still room to shine. Congratulations to all participants for astonishing engineering, and thank you for making the world of JavaScript lighter and faster! Until the next lightning-fast showdown!