# Modern Alternatives: esbuild, Oxc & Native TypeScript — Babel and SWC: JavaScript Transpilation and Build Speed

Source: https://www.geekswithgeeks.com/en/babel-swc/bs-modern-alternatives

> Compare Babel and SWC with esbuild, Oxc and Node's built-in type stripping, and choose the lightest tool that fits.

## More fast options

**esbuild** (Go) transpiles JSX and TypeScript very quickly and powers many bundlers. **Oxc** and Rolldown (Rust) are newer tools that Vite is adopting. None of them type-check, and they do not replicate every Babel plugin.

## Run TypeScript without a build step

Recent Node.js versions can strip simple TypeScript types natively, so small scripts need no transpiler at all.

```bash
# Node.js 22.18+ / 24 can run .ts files that use erasable syntax only
node script.ts

# esbuild: transpile and bundle quickly
npx esbuild src/index.ts --bundle --outfile=dist/index.js --target=es2022
```

Pick the lightest tool that meets your targets. Keep Babel only when you rely on specific plugins, and always run `tsc --noEmit` for type safety.