head to head · open source
gradle vs xmake
gradle has 18,909 GitHub stars, 5,264 forks, 3,494 open issues and last shipped yesterday. xmake has 12,286 stars, 964 forks, 255 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. gradle leads on adoption by 54% (18,909 vs 12,286 stars). gradle is written in Groovy under Apache-2.0; xmake is written in Lua under Apache-2.0. gradle has attracted 28% as many forks as stars, xmake 8%. 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 | xmake | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 19K | ★ 12K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Groovy | Lua |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.3K | ⑂ 964 |
| 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 xmake if
- You want the xmake feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Lua
- You evaluated both and xmake fits your workflow better
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 →
About xmake
xmake A cross platform build utility based on Lua Modern C/C++ build tool: Simple, Fast, Powerful dependency package integration Support this project Support this project by becoming a sponsor. Your logo will show up here with a link to your website. 🙏 Introduction (中文) What is Xmake? 1. Xmake is a cross platform build utility based on the Lua scripting language. 2. Xmake is very lightweight and has no dependencies outside of the standard library. 3. Uses the xmake.lua file to maintain project builds with a simple and readable syntax. Xmake can be used to directly build source code (like with Make or Ninja), or…
read the full xmake overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is gradle or xmake more popular?
gradle has 18,909 GitHub stars and xmake has 12,286. gradle has the larger community by that measure.
Are gradle and xmake free?
Both are open source. gradle is licensed under Apache-2.0 and xmake under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between gradle and xmake?
gradle is written in Groovy and xmake in Lua. 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 xmake?
Choose gradle if you want the larger community (18,909 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose xmake if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.