Webpack doesn't have a monopoly on hot reloading, you can do this in browserify too: `npm install browserify-hmr`

With watchify:

  watchify -p browserify-hmr -o bundle.js

With budo:

  budo main.js -p browserify-hmr

If you're using react, you'll only need a tiny wrapper around the root element to opt in to hot reloading: https://github.com/substack/react-starter-hmr/blob/master/ma...

All of this should fit comfortably in a Makefile (or npm run script) and each piece you add is small and comprehensible.