TECH ARTICLE | NEW SOFTWARE

What is Bun? Is the hype real?

Let’s get this decoded —

3 min readNov 24, 2023

What is Bun?

When we mention “Bun,” we’re not referring to the soft, baked goodness often paired with burgers. Instead, we’re diving into the realm of software development. In the coding universe, Bun is not just a snack; it’s a comprehensive toolkit designed to revolutionize how we develop, test, and bundle JavaScript & TypeScript projects. Imagine an all-in-one solution that combines a powerful bundler, a versatile test runner, and a Node.js-compatible package manager — that’s Bun.

The Evolution of Tooling — Bun is a JavaScript runtime.

For many developers, the switch from a familiar tool like Yarn to Bun might raise eyebrows. Here, we explore the reasons behind such a transition. What does Bun bring to the table that prompted the switch?

Bun is a new JavaScript runtime built from scratch to serve the modern JavaScript ecosystem. It has three major design goals:

Speed. Bun starts fast and runs fast. It extends JavaScriptCore, the performance-minded JS engine built for Safari. As computing moves to the edge, this is critical.
Elegant APIs. Bun provides minimal, highly optimized APIs for everyday tasks, like starting an HTTP server and writing files.
Cohesive DX. Bun is a complete toolkit for building JavaScript apps, including a package manager, test runner, and bundler.

How to Install Bun?

Installing a new tool can be a daunting task, but fear not.

$ curl -fsSL https://bun.sh/install | bash

Let me show you a few examples:

Start an HTTP server using Bun with a mandatory “Hello World!!”

const server = Bun.serve({
  port: 3000,
  fetch(request) {
    return new Response("Hello World!!");
  },
});

console.log(`Listening on localhost:${server.port}`);