Options for Compiling TypeScript

I’ve seen projects using tsc, ts-loader, or babel-loader for TypeScript builds. Here’s a short comparison so it’s clear what each does.

tsc

The official compiler. It performs type checking (unless you disable it—which defeats much of TypeScript’s value).

ts-loader

Webpack loader that delegates to tsc under the hood. You can configure it to skip type checking for faster builds.

babel-loader

Babel is a general-purpose compiler; TypeScript support is just one plugin. It’s fast but doesn’t type-check, so pair it with tools like ForkTsCheckerWebpackPlugin if you need type safety.

Which Should You Use?

Within our team we use both ts-loader and babel-loader depending on the project. It largely comes down to preference and build requirements.