Gradle
Ranked 6 of 17 build systems by recommenders
Recommended for powerful build automation that handles JVM toolchains and scales across large, long-lived projects. Critics agree it is complex and breaks often between versions.
Recommended for powerful build automation that handles JVM toolchains and scales across large, long-lived projects. Critics agree it is complex and breaks often between versions.
99 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 26
- criticize it
- 73
- approval share
- 26%
Recommended in 12 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 26 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 0.3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 12 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Proven at scale over years
“Standardizing so many ancient build processes into a modern gradle setup was a ton of effort over multiple years, but totally worth it.”
Comment from 20 Jul 2026 in “Minecraft: Java Edition now uses SDL3” “All our products and tools around them are built by using Gradle, for more than a decade now.”
Comment from 7 Oct 2026 in “Friendship ended with Deno, now Node is my best friend” “Gradle did it successfully and it's great now.”
Comment from 28 Apr 2026 in “GitHub Actions is the weakest link” Better than Maven in comparison
“I think I even prefer it to Maven, in a choice between a rock and a hard place type of way.”
Comment from 18 Mar 2026 in “Java 26 is here, and with it a solid foundation for the future” “I always hated Maven, until I started using Gradle”
Comment from 28 May 2026 in “Gradle Is Javamaxxing” “Gradle just works better in comparison.”
Comment from 26 Feb 2026 in “Would you choose the Microsoft stack today if starting greenfield?” - Comment from 3 Dec 2025 in “Anthropic acquires Bun”
Powerful when used well
“Gradle is really powerful if you know what you're doing and you take the time and effort to keep your build optimized”
Comment from 29 May 2026 in “Gradle Is Javamaxxing” “Gradle can do that for you if you know how to wield it”
Comment from 29 May 2026 in “Gradle Is Javamaxxing” Scripted DSL build files praised
“which has its own idiocities (like tending to break the syntax on every second major version, but it's much better with the kotlin DSL)”
Comment from 19 Mar 2026 in “Java 26 is here, and with it a solid foundation for the future” “Using a DSL in a scripting language was a smart move.”
Comment from 29 May 2026 in “Gradle Is Javamaxxing”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Complex and hard to maintain
“Gradle's long list of capabilities can sometimes be as much of a liability (or at least a frustration) as it is a boon”
Comment from 6 Nov 2025 in “Swift on FreeBSD Preview” “you'll have to integrate with Gradle. The result is a complexity clusterf*ck that's a nightmare to maintain”
Comment from 14 Nov 2025 in “Rust in Android: move fast and fix things” “it's very easy for an project with moderate to high complexity to wind up in a huge tangled mess”
Comment from 7 Nov 2025 in “Swift on FreeBSD Preview” Frequent breaking changes between releases
“which has its own idiocities (like tending to break the syntax on every second major version, but it's much better with the kotlin DSL)”
Comment from 19 Mar 2026 in “Java 26 is here, and with it a solid foundation for the future” “Gradle's constant API reshuffling for the sake of it that breaks plugins”
Comment from 26 Nov 2025 in “Reinventing how .NET builds and ships (again)” “toolchains I haven't even chosen to use, like gradle and kotlin, that seem to break everything every release”
Comment from 16 Jun 2026 in “What job interviews taught me about Kubernetes” Slow and heavy in practice
“every time I fire up an old Android project it needs to download 500MB just for gradle upgrades”
Comment from 12 Mar 2026 in “Zig – Type Resolution Redesign and Language Changes” “never felt snappy to use - it is annoying when even doing basic things takes 2+ seconds”
Comment from 1 Jan 2026 in “2026: The Year of Java in the Terminal” Hard for newcomers to learn
“harder to get someone started with than Maven and due to the DSL allows you to invent weirder footguns”
Comment from 18 Mar 2026 in “Java 26 is here, and with it a solid foundation for the future” “Gradles complexity especially with newcomers I believe to be holding back adoption of Kotlin/Native”
Comment from 1 Mar 2026 in “Show HN: Building a Kotlin/Native build tool in Rust: Konvoy”
Other build systems people recommend
The four most recommended other build systems, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bazel | 79 | 41 | 66% | 12 | 3 yrs3 owners | — |
| GNU Make | 76 | 42 | 64% | 12 | — | — |
| CMake | 58 | 93 | 38% | 12 | — | — |
| Apache Maven | 44 | 42 | 51% | 12 | — | — |
| GradleThis page | 26 | 73 | 26% | 12 | — | — |
What people said
40 of the 137 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“that’s the Kotlin ecosystem”
“All our products and tools around them are built by using Gradle, for more than a decade now.”
“The only reason to ever touch it, are Android projects. I try to stay Gradle clean as much as possible.”
“I have to integrate jlink with gradle, which is kind of a pain”
“For Android you can just use gradle (or another build system if you really want)”
“Standardizing so many ancient build processes into a modern gradle setup was a ton of effort over multiple years, but totally worth it.”
“Java Devs will happily execute your malicious maven/gradle/Grovy/whatever that you push to any public repo”
“With e.g. Spring Boot and Gradle you can have large projects with zero xml files needed.”
“No one in DotNet is waging an equivelent holy war about Gradle vs Maven etc...”
“toolchains I haven't even chosen to use, like gradle and kotlin, that seem to break everything every release”
“Idk I think it's pretty good”
“Gradle can do that for you if you know how to wield it”
“Using a DSL in a scripting language was a smart move.”
“Gradle is really powerful if you know what you're doing and you take the time and effort to keep your build optimized”
“I always hated Maven, until I started using Gradle”
“Gradle did it successfully and it's great now.”
“this is super easy with vim and gradle CLI”
“I know them quite well, unfortunately.”
“The standard build system uses gradle, which is either groovy or kotlin, which gets compiled to java which then compiles java.”
“with Gradle it never gets out of sync”
“which has its own idiocities (like tending to break the syntax on every second major version, but it's much better with the kotlin DSL)”
“Gradle has advanced features often missing in Python / Go such as build caching”
“I think I even prefer it to Maven, in a choice between a rock and a hard place type of way.”
“harder to get someone started with than Maven and due to the DSL allows you to invent weirder footguns”
“every time I fire up an old Android project it needs to download 500MB just for gradle upgrades”
“Gradles complexity especially with newcomers I believe to be holding back adoption of Kotlin/Native”
“Gradle just works better in comparison.”
“Erlang BEAM VM, Gradle, Zig Build, Cargo”
“Erlang BEAM VM, Gradle, Zig Build, Cargo, Linux Package Managers, Bazel”
“Gradle can be a pain, but if I look at what our neighbors at the iOS team experience”
“never felt snappy to use - it is annoying when even doing basic things takes 2+ seconds”
“their only real exposure to it is as the DSL of gradle and jenkins”
“Gradle is better from this perspective”
“toolchain resolution makes it so you don't even need to install an appropriate JDK version as it does that for you”
“Gradle's constant API reshuffling for the sake of it that breaks plugins”
“none of those should be putting their stuff (especially temporary junk) directly and unsegmented into $HOME”
“you'll have to integrate with Gradle. The result is a complexity clusterf*ck that's a nightmare to maintain”
“it's very easy for an project with moderate to high complexity to wind up in a huge tangled mess”
“Gradle's long list of capabilities can sometimes be as much of a liability (or at least a frustration) as it is a boon”
“it doesn't inspire much love”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.