Should You Leave Prettier? 1.59s vs 0.51s

On a 180-file mixed tree (120 JavaScript, 40 JSON, 20 Markdown; 38,925 bytes unformatted), Prettier 3.9.9 took a median 1,586 ms to write. dprint 0.60.1 took 514 ms. Same machine, interleaved warm runs, write mode after restoring a pristine copy each round.

Short answer: leave Prettier for dprint when CI format time is the pain and you can accept dprint's style defaults (or configure them). Keep Prettier when your team already locked Prettier options, editor plugins, or a shareable config that dprint does not match. No affiliate links in this post.

What I tested

• Machine: 8 vCPU Intel Xeon / 15 GB RAM Linux cloud box, Node 20.19.2, tested 5 Oct 2026 (about 22:55 to 23:10 IST). Shared box; tools interleaved each round.
• Fixture: 180 generated files under src/ (120 messy JS modules, 40 compact JSON docs, 20 short Markdown notes). Unformatted tree size 38,925 bytes.
• Tools: prettier 3.9.9 (--write on **/*.{js,json,md}, printWidth 80, tabWidth 2, semi true, double quotes); dprint 0.60.1 with TypeScript/JSON/Markdown WASM plugins (lineWidth 80, indentWidth 2, semiColons always, preferDouble).
• Timing: five interleaved warm write runs after one warmup each. Each run starts from a fresh copy of the pristine tree. Median wall-clock of the full CLI call.
• Check mode (already formatted trees): Prettier --check median 1,313 ms; dprint check median 455 ms.
• Output bytes after write: Prettier 45,285 B; dprint 44,805 B. Style diff: all 120 JS files differed on arrow-parameter parentheses (Prettier (n) =>, dprint n => with these defaults).
• One surprise: dprint was about 3.1x faster on write and about 2.9x faster on check, but a naive config swap rewrites every JS file's arrow style.
• Not tested: TypeScript/TSX/Vue/Svelte parsers, Prettier plugins (Tailwind, organize-imports), dprint incremental cache across commits, editor save-on-format UX, monorepo ignore globs at scale, Windows/macOS, format-on-stash hooks.

Is dprint faster than Prettier?

Tool	Write median	Write runs (ms)	Check median	Output bytes
dprint 0.60.1	514 ms	468 / 481 / 526 / 515 / 514	455 ms	44,805
Prettier 3.9.9	1,586 ms	1,387 / 1,704 / 1,586 / 1,566 / 1,645	1,313 ms	45,285

On this fixture dprint finished write about 3.1x faster and check about 2.9x faster. Byte totals were close. The leave-Prettier case is strongest when format or --check still costs well over a second in CI and you are willing to adopt dprint's style table.

If you already moved lint to oxlint or Biome, format is often the next slow JS step. The Biome vs ESLint + Prettier post and the oxfmt vs Prettier Markdown post are the related formatter/linter decisions on this site; this post is the multi-language dprint path.

What do you lose leaving Prettier?

Prettier's option surface and plugin ecosystem are larger. Teams that rely on Prettier plugins, a company-wide .prettierrc, or "Prettier as the style guide" will churn on the first PR if arrow parens, trailing commas, or JSX spacing differ. On this run every JS file changed arrow-parameter parentheses under default-ish configs, so a switch is a one-time mass diff unless you tune dprint to match.

Also match the tool to the languages you format. dprint's WASM plugins cover TypeScript, JSON, Markdown, and more, but a Prettier-only plugin for a niche syntax is a hard stop. Re-time your own tree with write and check before rewriting the CI job. The oxlint vs ESLint switch post is the lint-side sibling when CI still pays for both lint and format.

Should you leave Prettier for dprint?

Situation	My pick
CI --check or format still takes over a second on a mid-size tree	Try dprint; measure write and check on your repo
Already on Biome or oxfmt for the same files	Stay consistent; do not add a third formatter
Prettier plugins or a locked shareable config you cannot retune	Keep Prettier
You need one formatter across JS, JSON, Markdown, and other dprint plugins	dprint is the better fit to evaluate
First PR would rewrite thousands of arrow-paren lines	Tune dprint to match Prettier, or keep Prettier

Bottom line: on 180 files, Prettier took 1.59 s to write and dprint took 0.51 s. Who should not switch yet: teams blocked on Prettier plugins or unwilling to take a style mass-diff. Everyone else still paying over a second for format should measure their own tree the same way.

How this was made: I generated the fixture, ran interleaved Prettier and dprint write and check on the ShopperCove test box, and kept the timing JSON; the write-up was drafted with AI help and checked against that output.

Sources

• 01dprint.devhttps://dprint.dev/
• 02prettier.io/docs/en/cli.html
• 03github.com/dprint/dprint
• 04npmjs.com/package/dprint
• 05npmjs.com/package/prettier
• 06plugins.dprint.devhttps://plugins.dprint.dev/

Related

• 01shoppercove.com/blog/oxlint-1-87-react-suggestions-a11y-fixes-october-2026
• 02shoppercove.com/blog/biome-2-5-15-type-inference-nursery-rules-october-2026
• 03shoppercove.com/blog/eslint-10-12-release-october-2026
• 04shoppercove.com/blog/vite-plus-1-0-unified-toolchain-october-2026
• 05shoppercove.com/blog/pnpm-vs-npm-vs-bun