head to head · open source
gradle vs chalice
gradle has 18,845 GitHub stars, 5,334 forks, 3,494 open issues and last shipped yesterday. chalice has 11,059 stars, 1,011 forks, 495 open issues and last shipped 7 days ago. gradle leads on adoption by 70% (18,845 vs 11,059 stars). gradle is written in Groovy under Apache-2.0; chalice is written in Python under Apache-2.0. gradle has attracted 28% as many forks as stars, chalice 9%. 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.
← all 8884 open source comparisons
Side by side
| gradle | chalice | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 19K | ★ 11K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Groovy | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-11 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.3K | ⑂ 1.0K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick gradle if
- You weight community size — 19K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Groovy
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick chalice if
- You want the chalice feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and chalice fits your workflow better
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 →
About chalice
Chalice is an Apache 2.0 Python microframework from AWS for writing serverless applications that run on AWS Lambda, aimed at Python developers who want to declare API Gateway routes, scheduled tasks, and event handlers with decorators and ship them with a single command line tool.
read the full chalice overview →
More in Developer Tools
Related comparisons
More Build & Deployment projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Build & Deployment field.
Frequently asked questions
Is gradle or chalice more popular?
gradle has 18,845 GitHub stars and chalice has 11,059. gradle has the larger community by that measure.
Are gradle and chalice free?
Both are open source. gradle is licensed under Apache-2.0 and chalice under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between gradle and chalice?
gradle is written in Groovy and chalice in Python. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, gradle or chalice?
Choose gradle if you want the larger community (18,845 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose chalice if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.