Vite (software)

Local development server

Vite

Original author(s)	Evan You
Initial release	20 April 2020; 4 years ago (2020-04-20)

Stable release	v5.3.3 / 3 July 2024; 2 months ago (2024-07-03)

Repository	github.com/vitejs/vite
Written in	TypeScript
Platform	Node.js, Deno, Bun
Available in	English Docs in English, Chinese, Japanese and Spanish
Type	Development server
License	MIT License
Website	vitejs.dev

Vite (French: [vit], like "veet") is a local development server written by Evan You,^[1] the creator of Vue.js, and used by default by Vue and for React project templates. It has support for TypeScript and JSX. It uses Rollup and esbuild internally for bundling.^[2]

It monitors files as they're being edited and upon file save the web browser reloads the code being edited through a process called Hot Module Replacement (HMR)^[3] which works by just reloading the specific file being changed using ES6 modules (ESM) instead of recompiling the entire application.

Vite provides built-in support for server-side rendering (SSR). By default, it listens on TCP port 5173. It is possible to configure Vite to serve content over HTTPS and proxy requests (including WebSocket) to a back-end web server (such as Apache HTTP Server or lighttpd).

Features and performance

Vite has a Hot Module Replacement (HMR) system, which reduces wait times during development. Vite supports frameworks such as React, Vue, and Svelte, and has server-side rendering (SSR), code-splitting, and asynchronous loading.

Vite's production build times are fast compared to traditional build tools, clocking in at 3.37 seconds versus Webpack’s 10.82 seconds and Parcel’s 9.01 seconds. Vite is framework-agnostic and integrates seamlessly with tools such as Vitest for testing, Astro for content-driven sites, and Slidev for presentations.^[4]

References

^ "Introducing Vite JS - Next-Gen Frontend Tooling". Radixweb. Retrieved 10 November 2023.
^ "Why Vite". vitejs.dev.
^ "Educative Answers - Trusted Answers to Developer Questions". Educative. Retrieved 10 November 2023.
^ "Understanding Vite and Bun.js: A Detailed Developer's Review". Valletta Software Blog. July 27, 2024. Retrieved August 28, 2024.