Why Rome Is Rewriting the Frontend Toolchain? Lint Is Dead? Not Quite. The War Has Just Begun.

Linters have become an indispensable part of modern development.

They standardize code style and catch bugs before they ship.

In the JavaScript ecosystem, ESLint has long been the undisputed king.
But a new challenger is quietly shaking the table: Rome.

And Rome isn’t just a linter.
It’s trying to become the frontend platform—with formatting, bundling, testing, and type checking all rolled into one tool.

In this post, we’ll break down why Rome is making waves, how it differs from ESLint, and why the evolution of linting matters more than ever.

ESLint: Dominant but Complex

For nearly a decade, ESLint has been a standard in the JavaScript world.

Every project has a .eslintrc.js
Most teams don’t even check the docs anymore to configure Airbnb, Standard, or Prettier integrations.

It just exists.

But that dominance came at a cost:

• - Complex configuration: Rules, presets, plugins, inheritance... it’s a rabbit hole for newcomers.

• - Sluggish performance: Larger configs = slower runs, especially in big codebases.

• - Dependency chaos: Clashes with Prettier, Babel, TypeScript, and more.

• - Tool fragmentation: Formatting, linting, bundling, type checking—all handled by separate tools.

Rome was born to solve that fragmentation.

Enter Rome: Not Just a Linter, a Platform

Rome started as an internal Facebook project and eventually evolved into its own open-source ecosystem.

Since its revival in 2022, it’s been rebuilt from the ground up with some bold characteristics:

• - Built in Rust: Blazing-fast performance compared to JavaScript-based tools.

• - One CLI to rule them all: Run rome check, rome lint, rome foramt

• - Zero-config by default: Works out of the box, no .rc file circusReplaces both ESLint and Prettier: No need to manage two tools anymore.

• - Plugin-free base rules: Strong defaults mean fewer decisions and fewer dependencies.

Rome isn't just another tool. It's aiming to be a “monotool”—a unified platform to replace a whole suite of dev tooling.

Rome vs ESLint vs Prettier: A Head-to-Head

Rome especially appeals to new projects, indie developers, and startups that care about performance, simplicity, and speed.

Who's Using Rome?

Rome isn’t mainstream yet—but it’s gaining traction among early adopters.

• - Next.js + Rome is becoming a common setup: replacing ESLint with Rome from day one.

• - Easy adoption for Jamstack sites and personal blogs.

• - Philosophically aligned with new runtimes like Bun and Deno.

As of 2025, ESLint + Prettier is still the default stack.
But as dev environments evolve, Rome is quickly closing the gap.

More Than Lint: Rome Signals the Era of Integration

Rome represents more than just a better linter.
It’s part of a broader shift—from a fragmented toolchain to a unified developer platform.

This aligns with major industry trends:

• - The age of speed: Build, lint, format—all must happen in milliseconds.

• - Rust rising: Tools like SWC, Turbo, and Rome are replacing slow JavaScript build tools.

• - DevX over configuration: Developers want zero-setup tools that just work.

Rome is evolving into a lightweight, full-featured frontend toolchain—not just another CLI.

Rome Isn’t a Trend—It’s a Turning Point

Rome doesn’t just want to be a “better ESLint.”
It wants to redefine how we build frontend software.

While some features (like advanced type checking and bundling) are still maturing, Rome’s core vision is clear:
Give developers a fast, simple, integrated way to build.

It may not be the standard—yet.
But for those starting fresh, or looking for speed and simplicity, Rome is already the better choice.

Keep an eye on this one. The future might be spelled in Rust—and its name might just be Rome.