Biome – Fast Linter and Formatter Replacing ESLint and Prettier

By Jake Morrison February 28, 2026 2 min read

Biome is a toolchain for JavaScript, TypeScript, JSON, and CSS that handles both linting and formatting in a single tool. Written in Rust, it processes files 20-100x faster than ESLint and Prettier combined. One config file replaces two, one install replaces two, and your CI pipeline runs in seconds instead of minutes.

Why Biome Over ESLint + Prettier

The JavaScript ecosystem has relied on ESLint for linting and Prettier for formatting since the mid-2010s. This works but requires maintaining two configurations, resolving conflicts between them (eslint-config-prettier), and waiting for two separate tools to process every file. Biome eliminates this by handling both tasks in a single pass.

Speed

Biome formats a 2,000-file TypeScript project in under 200ms. The same project takes ESLint + Prettier over 10 seconds. This difference matters in CI/CD pipelines, pre-commit hooks, and editor save actions. On large monorepos, the time savings compound significantly.

Getting Started

npm install --save-dev --save-exact @biomejs/biome
npx @biomejs/biome init

This creates a biome.json config file. Run formatting with npx biome format --write . and linting with npx biome lint . or both at once with npx biome check --write .. Editor extensions are available for VS Code, IntelliJ, and Neovim.

Migration from ESLint

Biome includes a migration command: npx @biomejs/biome migrate eslint that reads your .eslintrc and converts compatible rules to Biome equivalents. Not every ESLint rule has a Biome counterpart yet, but coverage expands with each release. Check the compatibility page before migrating large projects.

What Biome Covers

200+ lint rules for JavaScript and TypeScript (many matching ESLint equivalents)
Formatting for JS, TS, JSX, TSX, JSON, JSONC, and CSS
Import sorting built-in (replaces eslint-plugin-import)
Accessible JSX linting (replaces eslint-plugin-jsx-a11y)
CSS linting with Stylelint-compatible rules

When to Stick with ESLint

If your project relies heavily on custom ESLint plugins (React-specific rules, framework-specific linting), Biome may not cover everything yet. Large teams with deeply customized ESLint configs should evaluate rule coverage before switching. For new projects or projects with standard configs, Biome is the better choice in 2026.