Introducing next-rspack: Seamless Rspack Integration for Next.js with Performance Benchmarks and Future Roadmap

Rspack partners with Next.js

One of Rspack’s core goals is to deliver an excellent developer experience while allowing seamless integration with webpack‑based projects, minimizing migration costs. In the JavaScript ecosystem, Next.js has a heavily customized webpack configuration and rich plugin ecosystem, making it an ideal candidate for validating Rspack’s compatibility and robustness.

Today we are pleased to launch next-rspack , a community‑driven plugin that lets Next.js use Rspack as its bundler. For teams not yet ready to adopt Turbopack, this provides a high‑performance, webpack‑compatible alternative.

Visit our documentation or check the official Next.js examples to get started.

Before developing next-rspack we created rsnext , a Next.js branch, to explore integration possibilities and prototype a solution. This early work helped verify feasibility, uncover many edge cases, and highlighted that while Rspack’s high compatibility with webpack offers a solid starting point, achieving stable integration still requires substantial effort and collaboration.

Collaboration with Vercel

The launch of next-rspack is just one aspect of our broader cooperation with Vercel. The partnership also focuses on improving core technologies such as SWC and Lightning CSS , which are widely adopted in the JavaScript ecosystem.

By jointly enhancing these components we aim to create better developer experience, performance, and reliability for both Rspack and Next.js, benefiting the entire JavaScript community.

To ensure long‑term reliability, next-rspack is integrated into Next.js’s continuous‑integration workflow, allowing early detection of issues and maintaining compatibility. Although still experimental, it has passed roughly 96% of integration tests, giving us confidence for a formal release. You can track its status via arewerspackyet or follow our Twitter for updates.

For teams not ready for Turbopack, next-rspack offers a stable, high‑performance alternative with excellent compatibility and an easy onboarding process.

Current Performance

App Router Users

Using next-rspack in the App Router is currently slower than Turbopack and may even be slower than webpack due to significant overhead from certain JavaScript plugins in the Rust‑JavaScript cross‑language communication layer.

We have experimentally ported these plugins to Rust, dramatically improving performance to be roughly on par with Turbopack, and we continue to investigate long‑term maintenance challenges of deep integration.

Page Router Users

Page Router performance is much more optimistic:

Development mode: ~2× faster than webpack

Production mode: ~1.5× faster than webpack

Projects heavily dependent on the webpack ecosystem will find migration easier.

We have identified bottlenecks that limit performance gains, including the Rust‑JavaScript communication overhead and a slower output‑file tracking implementation. Future improvements are expected to deliver:

5× faster build and HMR in development

3× faster production builds

FAQ

How will support be maintained?

next-rspack is integrated into Next.js’s CI pipeline, enabling early detection of potential issues and ensuring high compatibility. Ongoing collaboration between the Rspack team, Vercel, and the open‑source community will continue to support the plugin.

Who maintains it?

next-rspack is a community plugin, but its development and integration rely on close cooperation between the Rspack team and Vercel.

Does this affect Turbopack? Is Vercel using Rspack?

Rspack does not replace Turbopack. It is intended as an alternative for users with extensive webpack configurations who are not yet ready to migrate to Turbopack.

Known issues

Currently, next-rspack passes about 96% of integration tests. Detailed status can be viewed on arewerspackyet . Known limitations include:

Some edge cases and advanced features may still require temporary work‑arounds.

App Router performance is not yet ideal and has room for improvement.

Because Rspack is not 100% compatible with the webpack API, certain webpack plugins may not work seamlessly.

How to contribute?

We welcome users to try next-rspack, report issues, contribute code or documentation, and join community discussions. Any feedback or contribution is valuable.

Future Plans

Increase test coverage: aim for near‑100% coverage in the next quarter.

Enhance performance: explore native plugins and deeper Next.js integration.

Iterate based on user feedback: continue supporting more community plugins in the Next.js ecosystem.

Improve integration workflow: establish a more robust CI/CD pipeline between Rspack and Next.js.

Better RSC support: provide high‑performance RSC APIs similar to Turbopack.

Module federation support: discuss improvements with the Next.js team.

In 2024, stability and build artifact integrity are the main focuses for Rspack. In 2025, the emphasis will shift to performance enhancements and broader ecosystem adoption.

Stay tuned – our journey is just beginning.