netpack — A.NET bundler that aims for performance parity…

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About this project

Netpack is a web project bundler written in C#/.NET, designed to challenge traditional performance norms. By leveraging Ahead-of-Time (AoT) compilation, netpack delivers impressive startup times and efficient resource management while being fully integrated into the .NET ecosystem. Ideal for optimizing ASP.NET Core and Blazor applications.

netpack is a web project bundler crafted using C# and .NET, designed to challenge the performance capabilities of existing tools written in languages such as Rust or Go. While it is currently in an experimental stage and not deemed production-ready, it offers unique insights into the potential of .NET tooling in the web development ecosystem.

Performance Insights

The primary focus of netpack is optimizing performance; the project leverages Ahead-of-Time (AoT) compilation to minimize runtime dependencies, providing startup speeds comparable to the best in class. Although netpack maintains a garbage collector, it significantly enhances startup time by eliminating Just-In-Time (JIT) compilation.

Benchmarks have demonstrated compelling performance metrics:

Test	esbuild	rspack	Vite	netpack
Small lib	326ms	611ms	601ms	359ms
Small project	670ms	912ms	1658ms	418ms
Medium project	1931ms	2877ms	10601ms	974ms
Large project	2189ms	2422ms	13710ms	1357ms

The performance benchmarks were conducted on Ubuntu 22.04 with standardized hardware setup, providing a fair comparison across different bundlers.

Target Audience

netpack aims to be a viable alternative for developers integrated within the .NET ecosystem, particularly those working on ASP.NET Core and Blazor applications. By utilizing .NET, developers can benefit from improved code readability and performance advantages over JavaScript-based tools.

Current Features

Although still evolving, netpack includes a range of features pertinent to modern web bundling:

JavaScript and JSX support
Image optimization via SkiaSharp
CSS handling
HTML and JSON processing
Minification of assets
DevServer functionality for file watching and reload
Bundle analysis support

Future enhancements may see the inclusion of TypeScript support, CSS modules, and hot module replacement (HMR) for a streamlined development workflow.

Conclusion

Developers interested in exploring an innovative approach to web bundling using C# and .NET can consider contributing to the netpack project to help evolve it into a production-ready tool. For those interested in supporting its development, opportunities for code contributions and sponsorship are welcomed.