As a backend developer, I’ve always prioritized efficiency in my workflow. But when my JavaScript builds started taking over 91 seconds (91,241ms) with Babel, I knew something had to change. Enter SWC (Speedy Web Compiler)—a Rust-based alternative to Babel that completely transformed my development experience.

My build time dropped from 91,241ms to just 216.21ms. That’s a 400x speedup! 🚀

Why Babel Started Slowing Me Down

Babel is an incredible tool, but its reliance on JavaScript-based transpilation makes it slower as projects scale. My app, weighing 196MB, was becoming a bottleneck in my CI/CD pipeline. The long build times were frustrating, leading to:
✅ Slower iteration cycles
✅ Longer deployment times
✅ Increased resource usage

SWC: A Game-Changer for Build Performance

These tests were conducted on a real production app, making the results even more significant. SWC, written in Rust, is built for speed.

Here’s how my build stats changed:

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