head to head · open source
nx vs gradle
nx has 29,443 GitHub stars, 2,973 forks, 490 open issues and last shipped yesterday. gradle has 18,913 stars, 5,265 forks, 3,494 open issues and last shipped yesterday. nx leads on adoption by 56% (29,443 vs 18,913 stars). nx is written in TypeScript under MIT; gradle is written in Groovy under Apache-2.0. nx has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, gradle 28%. nx was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (build-tool), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
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 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| nx | gradle | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 29K | ★ 19K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Groovy |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.0K | ⑂ 5.3K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick nx if
- You weight community size — 29K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- 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 nx
Smart Monorepos · Fast Builds Docs • Changelog • Blog • Courses • YouTube Nx is a monorepo solution for TypeScript and polyglot codebases. Built with Rust for performance, extensible via TypeScript. Caches what didn't change, runs only what's affected, and comes with an integrated CI solution. Start simple, scale as you grow. Quick Start Visit the Nx quickstart docs to get started. Why Nx? Incremental by design Run npx nx init in any npm/pnpm/yarn workspace. Nx picks up your existing package.json scripts, caches their outputs, and runs only what's affected. No changes to your setup required…
About gradle
🐘 Gradle Build Tool Gradle is a highly scalable build automation tool designed to handle everything from large, multi project enterprise builds to quick development tasks across various languages. Gradle’s modular, performance oriented architecture seamlessly integrates with development environments, making it a go to solution for building, testing, and deploying applications on Java , Kotlin , Scala , Android , Groovy , C++ , and Swift . For a comprehensive overview, please visit the official Gradle project homepage. 🚀 Getting Started Starting with Gradle is easy with these essential resources. Follow these…
read the full gradle 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 nx or gradle more popular?
nx has 29,443 GitHub stars and gradle has 18,913. nx has the larger community by that measure.
Are nx and gradle free?
Both are open source. nx is licensed under MIT and gradle under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between nx and gradle?
nx is written in TypeScript 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, nx or gradle?
Choose nx if you want the larger community (29,443 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose gradle if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.