FASTBuild vs Shake
FASTBuild
fastbuild.orgShake
shakebuild.comSide by side
| Figure | FASTBuild | Shake |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | 8.6 (#6) | 7.8 (#18) |
| Integrations | The download page lists third-party Unreal Engine 4 integrations and Visual Studio and VSCode-related tooling. | Shake can execute Ninja files, allowing integration with CMake and Meson. |
| License | The license permits use for any purpose, including commercial applications, and permits alteration and redistribution subject to stated conditions. | Shake is an open source project under the BSD license. |
| Performance | The maker says FASTBuild can improve build times by 10x or more over other build systems. | Shake supports multicore parallelism, resource constraints, and avoids rebuilding results when dependencies rebuild without changing. |
| Purpose | FASTBuild is an open-source build system for scalable compilation, caching, and network distribution. | Shake is a Haskell library for writing build systems as an alternative to tools such as make, Ant, and Scons. |
| Support | The site directs bug reports, feature requests and questions to GitHub issues and provides online or downloadable documentation. | Users can ask questions through the mailing list or Stack Overflow, and report bugs through GitHub issues. |
Plans
In their own words
FASTBuild
FASTBuild is an open-source build system for compiling software across Linux, macOS and Windows. It runs compilation work across worker threads, can reuse results from local or network caches, and can distribute builds among networked machines when their settings and worker setup are compatible. The maker says caching can accelerate compile times up to 10x. Some compiler settings do not support caching or distribution; FASTBuild handles affected objects without caching or builds them locally. Supported toolchains include MSVC, GCC, SNC, Clang, GreenHills, CodeWarrior and NVCC, plus syntactically compatible command-line compilers. It can combine C++ files into Unity or Blob builds, while allowing writable files to be built individually for quicker iteration. FASTBuild can generate Visual Studio and XCode project files. The maker describes it as a self-contained executable that needs no installation or dependencies beyond compiler tools. It is free, with commercial use and redistribution allowed under license conditions; the license provides the software without warranty. The listed current release is v1.20, released 26-Apr-2026.
Shake
Shake is an open-source Haskell library for writing build systems, positioned as an alternative to make, Ant, and SCons. Build rules can discover dependencies after earlier rules run, including dependencies revealed by generated files. Supported dependency inputs include files, file existence, environment variables, directory contents, and user-defined values. Shake provides parallel and multicore builds, resource constraints, build caching, and avoids rebuilding outputs when dependency changes do not alter results. Profiling reports can include plots, tables, graphs, and explanations of what built and why. It reports estimated completion time and percentage complete, with progress information usable in continuous-integration systems such as Team City. Shake can execute Ninja files for integration with CMake and Meson, and can build projects using mixed languages, including C/C++, Docker, JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. Build definitions are Haskell programs, although the manual targets readers without prior Haskell knowledge. Shake runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows and is licensed under BSD. Installation uses Haskell Stack followed by `stack install shake`.