Gradle vs Ninja
Gradle
gradle.orgNinja
ninja-build.orgSide by side
| Figure | Gradle | Ninja |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · Build Automation Software | 8.4 (#7) | 8.1 (#13) |
| Integrations | Gradle lists integrations or support for Android Studio, Ant, Maven and Ivy repositories, and Checkstyle, CodeNarc, PMD, and JaCoCo. | GN and CMake can generate Ninja files; the manual also names Premake as a possible fit. |
| Purpose | Gradle Build Tool automates building software of any type, size, or complexity. | Ninja is a small build system designed to evaluate incremental builds quickly. |
Plans
In their own words
Gradle
Gradle Build Tool is a free, open-source system for automating software builds across projects of different types and sizes. Build logic can use either Kotlin DSL or Groovy DSL. Incremental builds, caching and parallel task execution support the build process, while Gradle downloads and manages transitive dependencies from Maven- and Ivy-compatible repositories. The Gradle Wrapper can provision a build environment and specify the Gradle version used by a project. Its ecosystem covers JVM, Android, C/C++, Swift, Objective-C and assembler projects, and it runs on Windows, macOS and Linux. The Tooling API lets IDEs and other tools inspect projects, run builds, receive progress events and cancel operations. Listed support includes Android Studio and Ant, plus Checkstyle, CodeNarc, PMD and JaCoCo. Gradle includes dependency verification. The maker says open-source security fixes are limited by its end-of-life policy; its Security Subscription offers prioritized fixes under SLA and extended maintenance, but does not guarantee a clean scanner report when findings come from third-party libraries.