| Bun 1.3 Adds Frontend Development Support |
| Monday, 12 January 2026 | |||
|
Bun 1.3 has been released with improvements including support for frontend development and increased database support. Bun is a modern JavaScript runtime aiming at similar uses to Node or Deno. The developers describe it as a fast, all-in-one toolkit for running, building, testing, and debugging JavaScript and TypeScript, from a single file to a full-stack application.
The developers say this is the biggest release yet, with highlights starting with a full‑stack dev server (with hot reloading and browser -> terminal console logs) built into Bun.serve(). In practical terms, you can now run HTML files directly with Bun, making use of Bun's native JavaScript and CSS transpilers and bundler to bundle your React, CSS, JavaScript, and HTML files. Hot reloading is supported with built-in support for Hot Module Replacement, including React Fast Refresh. This means developers can test their changes without having to reload the page, and the import.meta.hot API lets framework authors implement hot reloading support in their frameworks on top of Bun's frontend dev server. Bun's bundler can now bundle both frontend and backend applications in the same build, and the team has expanded support for single-file executables to include full-stack apps. The next improvement of note is a built-in MySQL client, alongside the existing Postgres and SQLite clients. The single API supports MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, and SQLite, providing a consistent syntax across all the database adapters. The developers say that while existing npm packages like postgres and mysql2 packages perform well in Bun, offering a built-in API for such common database needs brings performance gains and reduces the number of dependencies your project needs to get started. Bun's built-in PostgreSQL client has been improved with features including a simple query protocol for multi-statement queries; the ability to connect via Unix domain sockets, providing better performance for applications running on the same machine as your PostgreSQL server; and support for dynamic column operations. Bun 1.3 also adds a sql.array helper in Bun.SQL, making it possible to work with PostgreSQL array types. You can insert arrays into array columns and specify the PostgreSQL data type for proper casting. The Redis client has also been improved with better routing, cookies, WebSockets, and HTTP ergonomics. Bun 1.3 is available now.
More InformationRelated ArticlesBun 1.0 Released With Experimental Windows Version Bun JavaScript Runtime Adds Runtime Plugin API To be informed about new articles on I Programmer, sign up for our weekly newsletter, subscribe to the RSS feed and follow us on Facebook or Linkedin. 
Comments
or email your comment to: comments@i-programmer.info |
