Bun Has a Free JavaScript Runtime That Makes Node.js Feel Slow

Why Bun Is Changing the JavaScript Game If you have been building JavaScript applications with Node.js for years, you probably accepted certain truths: startup times are slow, installing packages takes forever, and you need separate tools for bundling, testing, and transpiling. Bun throws all of that out the window. Built from scratch using Zig and JavaScriptCore (the engine behind Safari), Bun is a complete JavaScript runtime that serves as a drop-in replacement for Node.js — and it is completely free. A friend of mine switched a production API from Node.js to Bun and saw cold start times drop by 4x. No code changes. Just swapped the runtime. What You Get for Free Bun is not just a runtime. It is an all-in-one toolkit: JavaScript/TypeScript runtime — runs .js , .ts , .jsx , .tsx files natively Package manager — bun install is up to 25x faster than npm install Bundler — built-in bundler that replaces webpack/esbuild Test runner — Jest-compatible testing built right in Node.js compatibi