BuildCache vs Ccache
BuildCache
gitlab.comCcache
ccache.devSide by side
| Figure | BuildCache | Ccache |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | Free |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 0 | 1 |
| Spec score · Build Cache Software | 7.3 (#20) | 8.4 (#3) |
| Cache modes | It supports a fast local filesystem cache with preprocessor-based and preprocessorless lookup. | Direct and depend modes can avoid running the preprocessor. |
| Downloads | The README links to prebuilt binaries on the project’s latest releases page. | The download page lists source archives, macOS and Linux binaries, and a Windows x86_64 binary for version 4.14.1. |
| License | The project is licensed under the zlib License. | Ccache is free software released under the GNU General Public License version 3 or later. |
| Operating systems | The README lists Linux, macOS, and Windows as supported operating systems, and says BSD support is probable but untested. | Runtime support includes Linux, macOS and native Windows at support level A, plus Windows with MSYS2 and other Unix-like platforms at level B. |
| Purpose | BuildCache caches and reuses build results to avoid unnecessary recompilations and speed up builds. | Ccache speeds up recompilation by caching previous compilations and reusing results when the same compilation is repeated. |
Plans
In their own words
Ccache
Ccache is a build tool that can reduce repeated compilation work by storing prior results and recognizing when a single-file compilation recurs. It supports compilers such as GCC, Clang and MSVC, and languages including C, C++, assembler, CUDA, Objective-C and Objective-C++, with support varying by compiler and language. Runtime support includes Linux, macOS and native Windows at support level A, and Windows with MSYS2 and other Unix-like platforms at level B. Direct and depend modes can avoid running the preprocessor. Remote caching is possible through adaptable storage backends, with listed helpers for HTTP, HTTPS and Redis protocols. Ccache records cache hit and miss statistics, manages cache size, supports Zstandard compression, and uses BLAKE3 and XXH3 in its hashing and corruption checks. It works with Make, CMake, Ninja and Visual Studio. It is free software under the GNU GPL version 3 or later. Its scope has limits: multi-file compilation, linking and compilations with unsupported flags fall back to the real compiler. The project also cautions that cache misses add overhead and recommends measuring typical workloads.