head to head · open source
gradle vs style-dictionary
gradle has 18,847 GitHub stars, 5,335 forks, 3,494 open issues and last shipped yesterday. style-dictionary has 4,819 stars, 628 forks, 242 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. gradle leads on adoption by 291% (18,847 vs 4,819 stars). gradle is written in Groovy under Apache-2.0; style-dictionary is written in JavaScript under Apache-2.0. gradle has attracted 28% as many forks as stars, style-dictionary 13%. gradle 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.
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Side by side
| gradle | style-dictionary | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 19K | ★ 4.8K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Groovy | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.3K | ⑂ 628 |
| 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 style-dictionary if
- You want the style-dictionary feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and style-dictionary 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 style-dictionary
Style Dictionary is a JavaScript build system that turns design tokens into cross platform style definitions for iOS, Android, CSS, JavaScript, HTML, and Sketch, aimed at design system teams and developers who need one source of truth for styles instead of hand maintained files per platform.
read the full style-dictionary overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is gradle or style-dictionary more popular?
gradle has 18,847 GitHub stars and style-dictionary has 4,819. gradle has the larger community by that measure.
Are gradle and style-dictionary free?
Both are open source. gradle is licensed under Apache-2.0 and style-dictionary under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between gradle and style-dictionary?
gradle is written in Groovy and style-dictionary in JavaScript. 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 style-dictionary?
Choose gradle if you want the larger community (18,847 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose style-dictionary if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.