oxc-vs-biome

Overview

Both Oxc and BiomeJS represent the shift toward Rust-based JavaScript/TypeScript tooling, offering dramatic performance improvements over traditional tools like ESLint and Prettier. This comparison helps decide which tool fits different project needs.

Quick Comparison

Oxc: The Speed Champion

What Oxc Includes

Oxc is a modular compiler suite with individual tools:

Oxc Project
├── oxc-parser     ✅ (3x faster than SWC)
├── oxlint         ✅ (50-100x faster than ESLint)
├── oxfmt          🚧 Alpha (30x faster than Prettier)
├── oxc-transform  ✅ (Babel-compatible)
├── oxc-resolver   ✅ (28x faster than enhanced-resolve)
└── oxc-minifier   🚧 Alpha

oxlint Features

• 610+ rules from ESLint, typescript-eslint, React, Jest, Unicorn, JSX-A11y
• Type-aware linting (requires oxlint-tsgolint package, preview mode)
• Multi-core scaling - uses all CPU cores
• Languages: JS, TS, Vue, Astro, Svelte
• ESLint migration: Use eslint-plugin-oxlint to disable overlapping rules

oxfmt (Formatter)

• 30x faster than Prettier
• Prettier-compatible output (aiming for drop-in replacement)
• Current Status: Alpha - not production-ready yet

When to Choose Oxc

1. Vite/Rolldown projects - Native integration in the VoidZero toolchain
2. Performance-critical CI - Fastest available linting
3. Large monorepos - Multi-core scaling provides biggest gains
4. Willing to wait for formatter - Or use Prettier/Biome for formatting

Installation

# Linter only
npm install -D oxlint

# Or run directly
npx oxlint@latest

BiomeJS: The Unified Solution

What BiomeJS Includes

BiomeJS provides a single unified binary:

BiomeJS v2.x
├── Formatter      ✅ (Prettier-compatible)
├── Linter         ✅ (340+ rules)
├── Type-Aware     ✅ (v2.0+)
├── Multi-file     ✅ (v2.0+)
└── Plugins        ✅ (v2.0+)

Key Features

• Zero-config defaults - Works out of the box
• 340+ lint rules from ESLint, typescript-eslint, and custom sources
• Languages: JavaScript, TypeScript, JSX, JSON, CSS, GraphQL
• Framework support: Astro, Svelte, Vue (partial)
• LSP support - First-class editor integration
• No Node.js required - Standalone binary

Biome v2.0 Features (June 2025)

• Plugin system - Extend with custom rules
• Type-aware linting - Without full TypeScript compiler
• Multi-file analysis - Rules can query other files
• Block ignores: // biome-ignore-all and // biome-ignore-start/end

Performance

Formatting 1000 files:
- Biome: 50ms
- Prettier + ESLint: 1-2 seconds

Energy usage (macOS M3):
- Biome uses 70% less energy than alternatives

When to Choose BiomeJS

1. Production projects today - Fully stable formatter + linter
2. Simpler toolchain - One tool replaces ESLint + Prettier
3. Plugin needs - Growing ecosystem with v2.0
4. CSS/GraphQL - Biome supports these; Oxc focuses on JS/TS
5. Lower migration friction - npx @biomejs/biome migrate eslint

Installation

npm install -D @biomejs/biome

# Migrate from ESLint
npx @biomejs/biome migrate eslint .eslintrc.json

Performance Benchmarks

Linting Speed (relative to ESLint)

Formatting Speed (relative to Prettier)

Migration Strategies

From ESLint + Prettier to BiomeJS

# 1. Install Biome
npm install -D @biomejs/biome

# 2. Migrate ESLint config (converts ~70% of rules)
npx @biomejs/biome migrate eslint .eslintrc.json

# 3. Initialize config
npx @biomejs/biome init

# 4. Run
npx biome check --write .

From ESLint to oxlint (keeping Prettier)

# 1. Install oxlint and ESLint plugin
npm install -D oxlint eslint-plugin-oxlint

# 2. Update .eslintrc to use plugin (disables overlapping rules)

# 3. Run oxlint first, then ESLint for remaining rules
npx oxlint && npx eslint .

Hybrid: oxlint + Biome Formatter

For maximum linting speed with production formatting:

npm install -D oxlint @biomejs/biome

# Lint with oxlint
npx oxlint .

# Format with Biome
npx biome format --write .

Recommendation Matrix

Future Outlook

Oxc

• oxfmt moving toward stable release
• Deeper Vite/Rolldown integration
• Part of VoidZero’s coordinated toolchain vision
• Focus on maximum performance

BiomeJS

• Growing plugin ecosystem
• More framework integrations
• Type-aware features expanding
• Focus on unified developer experience

Sources

1. Oxc Project
2. Oxc Linter Documentation
3. BiomeJS
4. BiomeJS GitHub
5. Biome vs ESLint 2025 Comparison
6. Migrating to BiomeJS