head to head · open source
nx vs gradle
nx has 29,349 GitHub stars, 3,002 forks, 490 open issues and last shipped yesterday. gradle has 18,845 stars, 5,334 forks, 3,494 open issues and last shipped yesterday. nx leads on adoption by 56% (29,349 vs 18,845 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.
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Side by side
| nx | gradle | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 29K | ★ 19K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Groovy |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| 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
Nx is an MIT licensed monorepo platform for TypeScript and polyglot codebases that caches unchanged work, runs only affected tasks, and ships an integrated CI solution aimed at both developers and autonomous AI agents.
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 nx or gradle more popular?
nx has 29,349 GitHub stars and gradle has 18,845. 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 (29,349 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose gradle if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.