What Is Vite+ and Why Does It Cost Money?

TL;DR

Vite+ is a unified toolchain that bundles Vite, Vitest, and OXC into one drop-in upgrade, and it is source-available with a paid model: free for open-source and non-commercial use, a flat fee for startups, and custom deals for enterprises. It adds tools like vite lint, vite format, vite lib, vite new, and vite run to the existing dev and build commands.

Transcript

I think we can all agree that VIT's a pretty great piece of software. It's fundamentally changed how a lot of frameworks and tools are built in the JavaScript ecosystem and it's made our experience as developers significantly better whether or not you're using it directly. Do you know what's even cooler than Vit though? Vit plus the unified tool ch... Read More

Key Insights

• Vite+ is a source-available unified toolchain that combines Vite, Vitest, and OXC, positioned as a drop-in upgrade to Vite installed from npm just like Vite itself, adding features beyond the existing dev and build commands.
• The pricing model is tiered: Vite+ is free for open-source and non-commercial use, charges a flat fee for startups, and requires enterprises to negotiate a custom deal, making it source-available rather than fully free open source.
• Void Zero, the company behind Vite and OXC with Evan You as CEO, is VC-backed and has raised startup funding, so Vite+ is its attempt to monetize the essential work it has done centralizing the Vite ecosystem.
• Vite+ adds new commands including vite lint (powered by oxlint), vite format (powered by oxformat), vite lib (powered by tsdown), vite new for scaffolding and codemods, vite run as a monorepo task runner, and vite install.
• Oxlint already has 600 ESLint-compatible rules and is up to 100 times faster than ESLint, offers type-aware linting, and supports plugins written in JS with an ESLint-compatible API.
• Vite install is a convenience wrapper similar to Antfu's ni package, using whatever package manager a project already uses (pnpm, bun, npm, yarn), serving as a replacement for Corepack, which is being removed in Node.js 26.
• Oxformat is Void Zero's equivalent of Prettier, claimed to be 99%-plus Prettier compatible while offering more control and flexibility, and oxlint is already using TypeScript Go (tsgo) for faster type-aware linting.
• Vite run is a monorepo task runner and cache system similar to Turborepo and Nx, targeting the historically poor monorepo tooling experience that the host says has burned developers across Turbo Repo, NX, and Lerna.

Questions & Answers

Q: What is Vite+?

Vite+ is a unified toolchain for JavaScript described as a command line developer tool you can install from npm just like Vite itself. It is a drop-in upgrade to Vite with additional features, combining Vite, Vitest, and OXC. Beyond the existing vite dev and vite build commands, it adds capabilities like scaffolding, linting, formatting, library bundling, and a monorepo task runner in one unified layer leveraged across the open source pieces the team has built.

Q: How much does Vite+ cost and is it free?

Vite+ is source-available and offers a generous free tier. It is free for open-source non-commercial use. Startups pay a flat fee, and enterprises have to do a custom deal. This means it is not fully free open source in the traditional sense but source-available, reflecting the company's need to monetize its work now that Void Zero is a VC-backed startup that has raised money.

Q: Why is Vite+ charging money now?

Void Zero, the company that makes Vite, OXC, and related tools, is VC-backed and has raised money as a startup with Evan You as CEO. Because of this, it is now important for them to figure out how to make money off the important work they have done centralizing on Vite as an ecosystem. The host sees paid Vite+ as a way for an essential project like Vite to be properly funded and supported going forward.

Q: What new commands and features does Vite+ add?

Vite+ adds vite lint powered by oxlint, vite format powered by oxformat, vite test powered by Vitest, vite lib powered by tsdown, vite new for scaffolding and code generation or codemods, vite run as a monorepo task runner and cache system, and vite install. These extend the existing vite dev and vite build commands into a broader unified toolchain covering linting, formatting, testing, library bundling, and monorepo management.

Q: How fast is oxlint compared to ESLint?

Oxlint already has 600 ESLint-compatible rules and is up to 100 times faster than ESLint. It also has type-aware linting, which is described as a very annoying problem to solve, and it supports plugins written in JavaScript with an ESLint-compatible API. Oxlint is already using TypeScript Go (tsgo), and the team is working on tslint that runs 20 to 40 times faster than ESLint plus TypeScript's tslint integration.

Q: What is vite install and how does it relate to Corepack?

Vite install is a convenience method that works like Antfu's ni package. It uses whatever the right package manager is for the project you are in, so running it in a pnpm project uses pnpm, in a bun project uses bun, and similarly for npm and yarn. It is essentially a replacement for Corepack, which is being removed in Node.js 26. If you have the packageManager field in your package.json, it ensures the right package manager version is used. The team is not currently building its own package manager and recommends pnpm.

Q: What is vite format and how does it compare to Prettier?

Vite format lets you format your code using oxformat, which is Void Zero's equivalent of Prettier and is apparently coming out soon. It is claimed to be 99% plus Prettier compatible while offering more control and flexibility. The host notes he does not personally need more control from Prettier, since his configs are minimal aside from things like sort imports, the import order parser plugin, and the Prettier Tailwind plugin with custom Tailwind functions.

Q: What does Vite+ mean for monorepo tooling?

Vite+ includes vite run, a monorepo task runner and cache system similar to Turborepo and Nx. The host says good monorepo support is hellish and that he feels burnt by Turbo Repo, NX, and Lerna, which should have been good but were held back by tooling. He is excited because the Vite team knows monorepos and TypeScript very well, and he hopes they can finally deliver the monorepo experience that has been missing, though he says it remains to be determined.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• Vite+ is announced as a unified toolchain for the web that takes Vite and adds everything developers have been duct-taping together, combining Vite, Vitest, and OXC. It is source-available with a generous free tier: free for open-source non-commercial use, a flat fee for startups, and custom deals for enterprises.

• The move is framed as Void Zero, the VC-backed company behind Vite and OXC led by CEO Evan You, figuring out how to fund and sustain essential ecosystem work. The host is cautiously optimistic, seeing proper funding for a project as important as Vite as a positive direction for the whole ecosystem.

• New commands include vite lint (oxlint, 600 ESLint rules, up to 100x faster), vite format (oxformat, 99%+ Prettier compatible), vite lib (tsdown), vite new for scaffolding and codemods, vite run for monorepo tasks, and vite install as a Corepack replacement since Corepack is being removed in Node.js 26.