Nx vs Shake
Nx
nx.devShake
shakebuild.comSide by side
| Figure | Nx | Shake |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $29/mo | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 3 | 1 |
| Spec score · Build Automation Software | 8.2 (#11) | 7.8 (#18) |
Plans
In their own words
Nx
Nx is a build system for JavaScript and TypeScript monorepos, with plugins that can extend its work to other languages. It builds project and task graphs, follows task dependencies, and runs work in parallel where possible. Nx Core provides local caching; Nx Cloud adds a remote cache shared by teams and CI, and can distribute tasks across Nx Agents according to CPU and memory use. Plugins can infer tasks, generate or alter code, update dependencies, and provide executors. Documented integrations include Angular, React, Vue, Node.js, Java, .NET, Vite, Webpack, Rspack, Jest, Cypress, and Playwright. Nx also provides CI workflow setup for GitHub, CircleCI, GitLab, Azure Pipelines, Jenkins, and Bitbucket Pipelines. Nx Cloud describes trusted-branch cache writes, artifact traceability, and invalidation of artifacts made with revoked tokens. API communications are encrypted in transit, and task artifacts can be encrypted end to end before remote caching. Hobby is free forever, with monthly credits, contributor and CI-connection limits; Team is $29/month, with additional listed charges for usage, contributors, and connections.
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`.