Bazel vs Premake
Bazel
bazel.build
Premake
premake.github.ioSide by side
| Figure | Bazel | Premake |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · Build Automation Software | 8.8 (#3) | 7.5 (#26) |
| Extensibility | Users can write custom Bazel rules and macros in Starlark, a language that is a subset of Python. | Add-on modules can extend Premake with support for additional languages, frameworks, and toolsets. |
| IDE integrations | The official IDE integration page lists plugins for IntelliJ, Android Studio, CLion, and Visual Studio Code, plus integration options for Xcode. | Community modules list support for Android Studio, Code::Blocks, Eclipse, NetBeans, SlickEdit, and Qt Creator/qmake. |
| Languages | Bazel supports languages including C++, Java, Kotlin, Python, Go, and Rust. | Premake 5.0 can generate projects for C, C++, and C#. |
| Purpose | Bazel is an open-source tool that automates software builds and tests. | Premake reads a scripted software project definition and generates project files for toolsets such as Visual Studio, Xcode, and GNU Make. |
| Support | The project directs users to its discussion group, GitHub issue tracker, Slack, and Stack Overflow. | The site links users to community Discussions and Stack Overflow for help. |
Plans
In their own words
Bazel
Bazel is a free, open-source tool for automating software builds and tests across languages and platforms. Projects define targets in BUILD files using Starlark, which can also be used to create custom rules and macros. Bazel caches prior work and rebuilds what needs to change, while running tasks in parallel. It supports languages including C++, Java, Kotlin, Python, Go, and Rust, with outputs for desktop, server, Android, and iOS. Bazel runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows, and the documentation describes builds with 100,000 or more source files across multiple repositories. Sandboxing can make builds and tests more hermetic, and failures return a non-zero exit code for basic CI integration. Teams can share outputs through a remote cache, but must select and maintain its backend and secure access because it can contain binaries. IDE options include plugins for IntelliJ, Android Studio, CLion, and Visual Studio Code, plus Xcode integration. Bazel is not well suited to uncached deployment steps that change cloud configuration.