Is there any advantage to use webpack-watcher over webpack-dev-server?

[ytbryan]

Is there any advantage to use webpack-watcher over webpack-dev-server?

Because it seems like webpack-dev-server uses webpack's watch mode by default? https://webpack.github.io/docs/tutorials/getting-started/#watch-mode

[gauravtiwari]

@ytbryan Both are different - https://github.com/rails/webpacker/blob/master/lib/install/bin/webpack-dev-server.tt
https://github.com/rails/webpacker/blob/master/lib/install/bin/webpack-watcher.tt

webpack-dev-server uses https://webpack.js.org/configuration/dev-server/ whereas the watch mode is essentially webpack binary running in watch mode so, it's watching for changes and then compiling on demand.

You can read more about use cases of webpack-dev-server in that link. It serves from memory so, usually faster than any other build modes webpack provides.