head to head · open source
vite vs gradle
vite has 82,861 GitHub stars, 8,745 forks, 767 open issues and last shipped yesterday. gradle has 18,845 stars, 5,334 forks, 3,494 open issues and last shipped yesterday. vite leads on adoption by 340% (82,861 vs 18,845 stars). vite is written in TypeScript under MIT; gradle is written in Groovy under Apache-2.0. vite has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, gradle 28%. 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
| vite | gradle | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 83K | ★ 19K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Groovy |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 8.7K | ⑂ 5.3K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick vite if
- You weight community size — 83K 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 vite
Vite is a build tool for modern web projects, distributed as a set of npm packages and licensed under MIT. It is written in TypeScript and lives in the JavaScript and frontend tooling ecosystem, where it sits alongside the bundlers and dev servers that compile application source into browser ready assets. The project describes itself as next generation frontend tooling and has been maintained for roughly six years, with the most recent push recorded in September 2026.
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 vite or gradle more popular?
vite has 82,861 GitHub stars and gradle has 18,845. vite has the larger community by that measure.
Are vite and gradle free?
Both are open source. vite is licensed under MIT and gradle under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between vite and gradle?
vite 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, vite or gradle?
Choose vite if you want the larger community (82,861 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose gradle if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.