🏃‍♂️🏃‍♀️🏃 JS minification benchmarks

Benchmarks are gathered on the following minifiers:

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👟 Methodology

Each minifier is executed in its own process
The measured time is an average taken from 10 consecutive runs
Each table is sorted by smallest minified size in ascending order
Each time is annotated with a multiplier relative to the fastest minifier
"Minzipped size" measures how well the minified file compresses with Gzip
Comments are not stripped because not all minifiers support it

📋 Results

d3 v6.3.1

Unminified size: 555.8 kB
Unminified Gzip size: 130.5 kB

Minifier	Minified size	Minzipped size	Time
uglify-js	^🏆-53%`265.4 kB`	^🏆-34%`87.3 kB`	^81x`8,026ms`
terser	^-52%`268.0 kB`	^-33%`87.9 kB`	^42x`4,155ms`
esbuild	^-52%`270.4 kB`	^-31%`90.6 kB`	^🏆`99ms`
uglify-js.no-compress	^-51%`276.1 kB`	^-33%`88.7 kB`	^13x`1,340ms`
terser.no-compress	^-51%`276.5 kB`	^-32%`89.2 kB`	^17x`1,744ms`
google-closure-compiler.simple	^-45%`306.3 kB`	^-22%`101.9 kB`	^103x`10,172ms`
swc	^-17%`463.0 kB`	^-10%`117.7 kB`	^3x`354ms`
babel-minify _Failed	—	—	—
google-closure-compiler.advanced _Failed	—	—	—

jquery v3.5.1

Unminified size: 287.6 kB
Unminified Gzip size: 84.7 kB

Minifier	Minified size	Minzipped size	Time
google-closure-compiler.advanced	^🏆-70%`87.4 kB`	^-62%`32.5 kB`	^199x`8,533ms`
uglify-js	^-70%`88.9 kB`	^🏆-64%`31.0 kB`	^69x`2,980ms`
terser	^-69%`90.3 kB`	^-64%`31.2 kB`	^37x`1,608ms`
esbuild	^-69%`90.5 kB`	^-63%`32.2 kB`	^🏆`43ms`
babel-minify	^-68%`92.4 kB`	^-63%`31.9 kB`	^112x`4,806ms`
uglify-js.no-compress	^-68%`94.3 kB`	^-63%`31.6 kB`	^13x`571ms`
terser.no-compress	^-67%`95.0 kB`	^-63%`31.9 kB`	^14x`620ms`
google-closure-compiler.simple	^-67%`96.5 kB`	^-60%`34.5 kB`	^131x`5,599ms`
swc	^-49%`147.8 kB`	^-51%`42.4 kB`	^1x`81ms`

lodash v4.17.20

Unminified size: 542.6 kB
Unminified Gzip size: 96.8 kB

Minifier	Minified size	Minzipped size	Time
google-closure-compiler.advanced	^🏆-89%`60.2 kB`	^🏆-79%`20.9 kB`	^175x`8,411ms`
uglify-js	^-88%`69.5 kB`	^-75%`24.5 kB`	^60x`2,889ms`
terser	^-87%`71.2 kB`	^-74%`25.2 kB`	^36x`1,761ms`
babel-minify	^-87%`71.9 kB`	^-74%`25.3 kB`	^85x`4,112ms`
esbuild	^-87%`72.6 kB`	^-73%`26.2 kB`	^🏆`48ms`
uglify-js.no-compress	^-87%`75.2 kB`	^-74%`25.8 kB`	^11x`571ms`
terser.no-compress	^-87%`75.8 kB`	^-73%`26.3 kB`	^14x`696ms`
google-closure-compiler.simple	^-86%`77.4 kB`	^-73%`26.3 kB`	^117x`5,634ms`
swc	^-72%`155.9 kB`	^-62%`37.6 kB`	^1x`71ms`

moment v2.29.1

Unminified size: 173.9 kB
Unminified Gzip size: 36.5 kB

Minifier	Minified size	Minzipped size	Time
uglify-js	^🏆-67%`58.3 kB`	^🏆-50%`18.5 kB`	^65x`2,094ms`
terser	^-66%`59.2 kB`	^-49%`18.7 kB`	^38x`1,221ms`
babel-minify	^-66%`59.2 kB`	^-49%`18.8 kB`	^91x`2,907ms`
esbuild	^-66%`60.0 kB`	^-47%`19.4 kB`	^🏆`32ms`
google-closure-compiler.simple	^-65%`60.9 kB`	^-47%`19.7 kB`	^157x`5,011ms`
uglify-js.no-compress	^-64%`63.0 kB`	^-47%`19.5 kB`	^11x`380ms`
terser.no-compress	^-64%`63.3 kB`	^-47%`19.7 kB`	^15x`484ms`
swc	^-42%`102.4 kB`	^-30%`25.9 kB`	^1x`48ms`
google-closure-compiler.advanced _Failed	—	—	—

react v17.0.1

Unminified size: 72.1 kB
Unminified Gzip size: 19.5 kB

Minifier	Minified size	Minzipped size	Time
uglify-js	^🏆-69%`22.8 kB`	^🏆-58%`8.2 kB`	^51x`915ms`
terser	^-68%`23.4 kB`	^-57%`8.4 kB`	^25x`460ms`
babel-minify	^-68%`23.8 kB`	^-57%`8.5 kB`	^68x`1,217ms`
esbuild	^-67%`24.0 kB`	^-56%`8.7 kB`	^1x`19ms`
uglify-js.no-compress	^-66%`25.1 kB`	^-56%`8.7 kB`	^9x`170ms`
terser.no-compress	^-65%`25.3 kB`	^-55%`8.9 kB`	^11x`208ms`
google-closure-compiler.simple	^-55%`32.9 kB`	^-43%`11.2 kB`	^235x`4,194ms`
swc	^-42%`42.5 kB`	^-42%`11.4 kB`	^🏆`18ms`
google-closure-compiler.advanced _Failed	—	—	—

terser v5.6.0

Unminified size: 868.1 kB
Unminified Gzip size: 174.2 kB

Minifier	Minified size	Minzipped size	Time
uglify-js	^🏆-54%`407.1 kB`	^🏆-34%`115.1 kB`	^71x`6,464ms`
terser	^-53%`410.5 kB`	^-34%`115.2 kB`	^40x`3,637ms`
esbuild	^-53%`411.6 kB`	^-33%`118.0 kB`	^🏆`91ms`
uglify-js.no-compress	^-52%`422.8 kB`	^-34%`116.0 kB`	^14x`1,320ms`
terser.no-compress	^-52%`424.3 kB`	^-34%`116.0 kB`	^16x`1,495ms`
google-closure-compiler.simple	^-52%`425.2 kB`	^-29%`125.3 kB`	^94x`8,590ms`
swc	^-33%`588.6 kB`	^-20%`140.8 kB`	^3x`296ms`
babel-minify _Failed	—	—	—
google-closure-compiler.advanced _Failed	—	—	—

three v0.124.0

Unminified size: 1.2 MB
Unminified Gzip size: 249.0 kB

Minifier	Minified size	Minzipped size	Time
uglify-js	^🏆-49%`644.3 kB`	^🏆-37%`158.7 kB`	^67x`10,069ms`
babel-minify	^-49%`645.3 kB`	^-36%`161.4 kB`	^156x`23,345ms`
esbuild	^-49%`647.2 kB`	^-35%`163.3 kB`	^🏆`150ms`
terser	^-48%`653.4 kB`	^-37%`159.1 kB`	^35x`5,368ms`
google-closure-compiler.simple	^-48%`660.1 kB`	^-33%`167.1 kB`	^77x`11,624ms`
uglify-js.no-compress	^-46%`675.4 kB`	^-35%`162.9 kB`	^12x`1,873ms`
terser.no-compress	^-46%`675.6 kB`	^-35%`162.9 kB`	^15x`2,265ms`
swc	^-24%`959.9 kB`	^-21%`197.0 kB`	^3x`530ms`
google-closure-compiler.advanced _Failed	—	—	—

vue v2.6.12

Unminified size: 223.2 kB
Unminified Gzip size: 62.3 kB

Minifier	Minified size	Minzipped size	Time
uglify-js	^🏆-58%`94.2 kB`	^🏆-50%`31.2 kB`	^54x`2,203ms`
terser	^-58%`95.0 kB`	^-50%`31.3 kB`	^31x`1,265ms`
esbuild	^-58%`95.2 kB`	^-49%`31.8 kB`	^🏆`40ms`
babel-minify	^-58%`95.3 kB`	^-50%`31.5 kB`	^79x`3,214ms`
google-closure-compiler.simple	^-56%`99.5 kB`	^-47%`33.0 kB`	^129x`5,246ms`
uglify-js.no-compress	^-55%`101.0 kB`	^-49%`32.2 kB`	^11x`484ms`
terser.no-compress	^-55%`101.3 kB`	^-49%`32.2 kB`	^13x`548ms`
swc	^-40%`134.7 kB`	^-39%`38.3 kB`	^1x`64ms`
google-closure-compiler.advanced _Failed	—	—	—

Want to see more projects listed? PRs welcome!

🥇 Results

Best minification performance

UglifyJS takes first place for minification performance, winning 6/8 races and only losing to Google Closure Compiler by less than 9 kB! What's even more impressive is that it's still written in ES5 but can handle ES6 up to ES2020.

Terser takes a very close second, only short by at most by 1~2%. Terser is a fork of uglify-es and comes with support for ES6+.

Fastest minifier

esbuild runs 10x+ laps around everyone else! The Go-lang JS minifier/bundler is a beast of its own. Not only is it insanely fast, but demonstrates very competitive minification abilities, usually performing just as well as Terser while supporting cutting-edge ESNext syntax.

⚡️ Pro Tip: Harness the speed of esbuild in your Webpack build for minification (and even transpilation) with esbuild-loader.