Bun on ARM Devices

🧠 Bun on ARM Devices — Lightweight Power Unleashed

Running Bun on ARM devices like Raspberry Pi or Apple Silicon Macs is not just possible—it's highly efficient! Thanks to Bun’s native performance and minimal footprint, it’s a perfect fit for edge computing, IoT, and portable development environments. In this blog, we’ll explore how to get started with Bun on ARM architectures, highlight challenges, and walk through real-world use cases ⚙️.

📦 Why Use Bun on ARM?

ARM-based systems are energy-efficient, cost-effective, and increasingly powerful. Combine that with Bun’s native speed, and you get a developer experience that’s fast even on minimal hardware. Reasons to go with Bun on ARM include:

• 🚀 High performance on limited hardware
• 📉 Low memory and CPU usage
• 🌱 Ideal for embedded systems, dev boards, and edge services
• 💻 Great support for Apple M1/M2 chips and Raspberry Pi 4/5

🔧 Installing Bun on ARM Devices

Bun provides prebuilt binaries for Linux ARM64 and macOS ARM64. You can install it easily using the install script:

curl -fsSL https://bun.sh/install | bash

Make sure your device has the necessary dependencies installed:

• build-essential, libstdc++, libc6
• Node.js (optional, only for fallback compatibility)

After installation, confirm the setup:

bun --version

🧪 Bun on Raspberry Pi (Case Study)

Let’s run a simple web server on a Raspberry Pi using Bun:

// server.ts
Bun.serve({
  port: 3000,
  fetch(req) {
    return new Response("Hello from Raspberry Pi 🍓!", {
      headers: { "Content-Type": "text/plain" }
    });
  }
});

Now run it:

bun server.ts

You now have a fast, production-ready HTTP server running on a Pi in under 10 MB of memory usage. Incredible, right? 😎

💡 Optimizing for Resource-Constrained Devices

• Minimize third-party dependencies by using Bun’s standard library
• Use TypeScript sparingly unless needed—compilation overhead is low but still present
• Disable hot reload in production or use it carefully to save memory

📡 Real-World Use Cases

Bun on ARM opens doors to innovative projects:

• 🌐 Lightweight IoT dashboards (e.g., real-time sensors)
• 📦 Local network servers or proxies using Bun.serve()
• 🔒 Running secure API endpoints on local devices
• 🎛️ Edge-based configuration tools with embedded UIs

🚧 Known Limitations

While Bun supports ARM well, keep these caveats in mind:

• Older ARMv6 or ARMv7 boards may not work (e.g., Raspberry Pi Zero)
• Some native dependencies may need ARM-compatible builds
• Bun’s compatibility with all npm packages is still evolving

🔐 Running Securely on ARM

You can configure Bun to run with HTTPS and proper headers on ARM devices, perfect for embedded edge services:

Bun.serve({
  fetch(req) {
    return new Response("Secure!", {
      headers: {
        "Strict-Transport-Security": "max-age=31536000",
        "Content-Type": "text/plain"
      }
    });
  },
  tls: {
    key: Bun.file("server.key"),
    cert: Bun.file("server.crt")
  },
  port: 443
});

🎯 Final Thoughts

Running Bun on ARM devices is not just a neat hack—it’s a serious strategy for lightweight, scalable, and modern backend development. Whether you’re hacking on a Pi or building edge computing platforms, Bun delivers top-tier performance on modest hardware with elegance 💪.

Try it today, and unlock a new level of performance in your portable projects with Bun on ARM 🚀.