head to head · open source
Appwrite vs gradle
Appwrite has 57,400 GitHub stars, 5,725 forks, 1,008 open issues and last shipped yesterday. gradle has 18,845 stars, 5,334 forks, 3,494 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Appwrite leads on adoption by 205% (57,400 vs 18,845 stars). Appwrite is written in PHP under BSD-3-Clause; gradle is written in Groovy under Apache-2.0. Appwrite has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, gradle 28%. gradle was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| Appwrite | gradle | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 57K | ★ 19K |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | PHP | Groovy |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.7K | ⑂ 5.3K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Appwrite if
- You weight community size — 57K stars and counting
- You want the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick gradle if
- You want the gradle feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Groovy
- You evaluated both and gradle fits your workflow better
About Appwrite
Appwrite is an open source backend platform that consolidates infrastructure services—authentication, databases, storage, functions, messaging, hosting, and real time capabilities—into a single, unified system. It runs as a self hosted service or via a managed cloud offering (Appwrite Cloud), targeting developers who want to avoid assembling and maintaining disparate backend tools.
read the full Appwrite overview →
About gradle
Gradle is an open source build automation tool distributed under the Apache 2.0 license, hosted at gradle.org and developed in the Groovy language. It is described as a highly scalable build automation tool designed to handle everything from large, multi project enterprise builds to quick development tasks across various languages. Its modular, performance oriented architecture integrates with development environments, and the project has grown over roughly seventeen years to a repository with 18,841 stars, 5,335 forks, and 3,494 open issues. It lives in the JVM tooling ecosystem, with topics covering build tool,…
read the full gradle overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Appwrite or gradle more popular?
Appwrite has 57,400 GitHub stars and gradle has 18,845. Appwrite has the larger community by that measure.
Are Appwrite and gradle free?
Both are open source. Appwrite is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and gradle under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Appwrite and gradle?
Appwrite is written in PHP and gradle in Groovy. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Appwrite or gradle?
Choose Appwrite if you want the larger community (57,400 stars) or its BSD-3-Clause licence terms. Choose gradle if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.