diff --git a/packages/vitest/src/node/plugins/envRelacer.ts b/packages/vitest/src/node/plugins/envRelacer.ts
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..f2e7d6d9775e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/vitest/src/node/plugins/envRelacer.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+import MagicString from 'magic-string'
+import type { Plugin } from 'vite'
+
+// so people can reassign envs at runtime
+// import.meta.env.VITE_NAME = 'app' -> process.env.VITE_NAME = 'app'
+export const EnvReplacerPlugin = (): Plugin => {
+  return {
+    name: 'vitest:env-replacer',
+    enforce: 'pre',
+    transform(code) {
+      let s: MagicString | null = null
+
+      const envs = code.matchAll(/\bimport\.meta\.env\b/g)
+
+      for (const env of envs) {
+        s ||= new MagicString(code)
+
+        const startIndex = env.index!
+        const endIndex = startIndex + env[0].length
+
+        s.overwrite(startIndex, endIndex, 'process.env')
+      }
+
+      if (s) {
+        return {
+          code: s.toString(),
+          map: s.generateMap({ hires: true }),
+        }
+      }
+    },
+  }
+}
diff --git a/packages/vitest/src/node/plugins/index.ts b/packages/vitest/src/node/plugins/index.ts
index 3d7dddf523b3..da461cb54984 100644
--- a/packages/vitest/src/node/plugins/index.ts
+++ b/packages/vitest/src/node/plugins/index.ts
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ import type { ResolvedConfig, UserConfig } from '../../types'
 import { deepMerge, ensurePackageInstalled, notNullish } from '../../utils'
 import { resolveApiConfig } from '../config'
 import { Vitest } from '../core'
+import { EnvReplacerPlugin } from './envRelacer'
 import { GlobalSetupPlugin } from './globalSetup'
 import { MocksPlugin } from './mock'
 
@@ -66,14 +67,6 @@ export async function VitestPlugin(options: UserConfig = {}, ctx = new Vitest())
             // setting this option can bypass that and fallback to cjs version
             mainFields: [],
           },
-          define: {
-            'process.env.NODE_ENV': 'process.env.NODE_ENV',
-            'global.process.env.NODE_ENV': 'global.process.env.NODE_ENV',
-            'globalThis.process.env.NODE_ENV': 'globalThis.process.env.NODE_ENV',
-            // so people can reassign envs at runtime
-            // import.meta.env.VITE_NAME = 'app' -> process.env.VITE_NAME = 'app'
-            'import.meta.env': 'process.env',
-          },
           server: {
             ...preOptions.api,
             open: preOptions.ui && preOptions.open
@@ -99,6 +92,16 @@ export async function VitestPlugin(options: UserConfig = {}, ctx = new Vitest())
         )
         options.api = resolveApiConfig(options)
 
+        // we cannot replace them, because esbuild will throw an error,
+        // so we are removing them to allow reassigning
+        const define = viteConfig.define
+
+        if (define) {
+          delete define['process.env.NODE_ENV']
+          delete define['global.process.env.NODE_ENV']
+          delete define['globalThis.process.env.NODE_ENV']
+        }
+
         // we replace every "import.meta.env" with "process.env"
         // to allow reassigning, so we need to put all envs on process.env
         const { PROD, DEV, ...envs } = viteConfig.env
@@ -125,6 +128,7 @@ export async function VitestPlugin(options: UserConfig = {}, ctx = new Vitest())
           await server.watcher.close()
       },
     },
+    EnvReplacerPlugin(),
     MocksPlugin(),
     GlobalSetupPlugin(ctx),
     options.ui