Migrating from Webpack to Vite: Performance Gains and Pain Points

Our team just completed migrating a medium-sized React application from Webpack 5 to Vite, and the results are worth sharing. Cold start times dropped from 45 seconds to under 3 seconds, and hot module replacement became nearly instant. However, the migration wasn’t entirely smooth. We hit issues with CommonJS dependencies that needed special handling, some Webpack-specific plugins had no Vite equivalent, and our CI pipeline needed significant reconfiguration. The build output format also changed in subtle ways that required testing adjustments. I documented our entire migration process, including the workarounds we developed for each blocker. If your team is considering this switch, I hope our experience helps you plan better and avoid the surprises we encountered along the way.