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Grunt vs gulp: What are the differences?

Developers describe Grunt as "The JavaScript Task Runner". The less work you have to do when performing repetitive tasks like minification, compilation, unit testing, linting, etc, the easier your job becomes. After you've configured it, a task runner can do most of that mundane work for you—and your team—with basically zero effort. On the other hand, gulp is detailed as "The streaming build system". Build system automating tasks: minification and copying of all JavaScript files, static images. More capable of watching files to automatically rerun the task when a file changes.

Grunt and gulp belong to "JS Build Tools / JS Task Runners" category of the tech stack.

"Configuration ", "Open source" and "Automation of minification and live reload" are the key factors why developers consider Grunt; whereas "Build speed", "Readable" and "Code-over-configuration" are the primary reasons why gulp is favored.

Grunt and gulp are both open source tools. It seems that gulp with 31.3K GitHub stars and 4.41K forks on GitHub has more adoption than Grunt with 11.9K GitHub stars and 1.55K GitHub forks.

According to the StackShare community, gulp has a broader approval, being mentioned in 1163 company stacks & 705 developers stacks; compared to Grunt, which is listed in 796 company stacks and 429 developer stacks.

Advice on Grunt and gulp
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gulpgulp
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ParcelParcel

Hi, I am at a point when I discovered I need starter templates to kick off my web projects quickly and easily. I want to set-up my template code with the best or rather a packaging tool that is fast in compiling my Sass code and JS. Should I use gulp or Parcel or Webpack.

I need help please, A.S.A.P

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Replies (1)
Yoram Kornatzky
Independent Information Technology and Services Professional at DR. YORAM KORNATZKY LTD · | 5 upvotes · 6.2K views
Recommends
on
ParcelParcelWebpackWebpack

Gulp is very old. I would not use it.

It all depends on what framework you are using. They usually come with a bundler. And templates often come with a bundler.

Webpack is the standard Webpack solution. But maybe complicated to use if it does not come with your template or framework. So you may wish to try Parcel first.

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Decisions about Grunt and gulp

Very simple to use and a great way to optimize repetitive tasks, like optimize PNG images, convert to WebP, create sprite images with CSS.

I didn't choose Grunt because of the fact it uses files and Gulp uses memory, making it faster for my use case since I need to work with 3000+ small images. And the fact Gulp has 32k+ stars on GitHub.

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Pros of Grunt
Pros of gulp
  • 288
    Configuration
  • 176
    Open source
  • 166
    Automation of minification and live reload
  • 60
    Great community
  • 7
    SASS compilation
  • 451
    Build speed
  • 277
    Readable
  • 244
    Code-over-configuration
  • 210
    Open source
  • 175
    Node streams
  • 107
    Intuitive
  • 83
    Lots of plugins
  • 66
    Works great with browserify
  • 45
    Easy to Learn
  • 17
    Laravel-elixir
  • 4
    build workflow
  • 3
    Simple & flexible
  • 3
    Great community
  • 2
    Stylus intergration
  • 2
    Clean Code
  • 2
    jade intergration
  • 0
    Well documented

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Cons of Grunt
Cons of gulp
  • 1
    Poor mindshare/community support
    Be the first to leave a con

    Sign up to add or upvote consMake informed product decisions

    What is Grunt?

    The less work you have to do when performing repetitive tasks like minification, compilation, unit testing, linting, etc, the easier your job becomes. After you've configured it, a task runner can do most of that mundane work for you—and your team—with basically zero effort.

    What is gulp?

    Build system automating tasks: minification and copying of all JavaScript files, static images. More capable of watching files to automatically rerun the task when a file changes.

    Need advice about which tool to choose?Ask the StackShare community!

    What companies use Grunt?
    What companies use gulp?
    Manage your open source components, licenses, and vulnerabilities
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    Sign up to get full access to all the companiesMake informed product decisions

    What tools integrate with Grunt?
    What tools integrate with gulp?

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    What are some alternatives to Grunt and gulp?
    Webpack
    A bundler for javascript and friends. Packs many modules into a few bundled assets. Code Splitting allows to load parts for the application on demand. Through "loaders" modules can be CommonJs, AMD, ES6 modules, CSS, Images, JSON, Coffeescript, LESS, ... and your custom stuff.
    npm
    npm is the command-line interface to the npm ecosystem. It is battle-tested, surprisingly flexible, and used by hundreds of thousands of JavaScript developers every day.
    Yarn
    Yarn caches every package it downloads so it never needs to again. It also parallelizes operations to maximize resource utilization so install times are faster than ever.
    Gradle
    Gradle is a build tool with a focus on build automation and support for multi-language development. If you are building, testing, publishing, and deploying software on any platform, Gradle offers a flexible model that can support the entire development lifecycle from compiling and packaging code to publishing web sites.
    Apache Maven
    Maven allows a project to build using its project object model (POM) and a set of plugins that are shared by all projects using Maven, providing a uniform build system. Once you familiarize yourself with how one Maven project builds you automatically know how all Maven projects build saving you immense amounts of time when trying to navigate many projects.
    See all alternatives