oven-sh /
bun
Incredibly fast JavaScript runtime, bundler, test runner, and package manager – all in one
Overview
Bun's core pitch is speed: it bundles a JavaScript/TypeScript runtime, package manager, bundler, and test runner into a single binary written in Zig, and in most benchmarks it starts up and installs dependencies noticeably faster than the Node.js + npm combination most JavaScript developers grew up with. For everyday scripting and running an Astro dev server, that speed difference is genuinely noticeable — not just a benchmark trick.
The part that took some getting used to is that Bun isn't a drop-in replacement for Node.js in every scenario yet. Most npm packages work fine since Bun implements Node's module resolution and a large chunk of its APIs, but native addons and a handful of framework-specific edge cases occasionally behave differently. For a static site generator like Astro that mostly reads files, fetches an API, and writes HTML, none of that friction shows up in practice.
If you're deciding between Bun and Node for a project like this one, the honest answer is: try `bun install` and `bun run build` first — if your build passes (as it does for this project), you get faster installs and a snappier dev loop for free, with npm always available as a fallback.
Key topics
- bun
- bundlerA tool that combines many source files into optimized output for the browser.
- javascriptA scripting language that runs in browsers and servers (via Node.js/Bun/Deno).
- javascriptcore
Getting started
Installation steps vary depending on how a project is packaged, so the most reliable source is always the official README. As a starting point:
How it compares
Here is how this project sits alongside a few other tools in the same category:
Questions about this project
- What is bun?
- Bun's core pitch is speed: it bundles a JavaScript/TypeScript runtime, package manager, bundler, and test runner into a single binary written in Zig, and in most benchmarks it starts up and installs dependencies noticeably faster than the Node.js + npm combination most JavaScript developers grew up with. For everyday scripting and running an Astro dev server, that speed difference is genuinely noticeable — not just a benchmark trick.
- What license does bun use?
- Other
- How popular is bun on GitHub?
- bun has roughly 93.7k stars and 4.8k forks on GitHub as of the latest data.
- Is bun actively maintained?
- Based on its GitHub activity, this repository has been updated recently, which is generally a good sign of active maintenance.
- What language is bun written in?
- bun is written primarily in Rust.
Repository info
| Owner | oven-sh |
|---|---|
| Primary language | Rust |
| License | Other |
| Created | April 14, 2021 |
| Last updated | July 9, 2026 |
| Open issues | 7211 |