Webpack hot reload server solves this problem and provides nearly instant builds.
Yes, production (“non-watch”) builds can take a while. But who cares? You shouldn’t be running a production build after every code change. That’s why the hot reload server is so useful; it only recompiles the code you changed.
It's also very easy to find build bottlenecks with gulp which is very handy if you have a large project with a slow build. It allows you to scale out efficiently.