# Mill build tool

9 Hacker News commenters recommended Mill build tool and 2 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 5 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Scala build tool praised for clean, declarative project setup and good results in hobby projects; critics say it has a learning curve and confusing errors.

## Why people recommend it

- Praised as good and improving (3 comments): "Check out mill from the link. It’s quite good." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47421910)) "Nowadays Mill is even better in many cases." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46113486)) "Mill build tool and thinks it is fantastic" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48862504))

## What people warn about

- Struggles with JavaFX and complex packaging (2 comments): "TIL Mill, I've been in build hell trying to package a javafx GUI gradle project" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47426391)) "Even his own build tool struggles there despite the technical merits" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49086335))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Bazel](https://hackerapproved.com/p/bazel.md): 79 recommend
- [GNU Make](https://hackerapproved.com/p/gnu-make.md): 76 recommend
- [CMake](https://hackerapproved.com/p/cmake.md): 58 recommend
- [Apache Maven](https://hackerapproved.com/p/maven.md): 44 recommend
- [Ninja build system](https://hackerapproved.com/p/ninja.md): 37 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Mill build tool", https://hackerapproved.com/p/mill-build-tool/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).