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Apache Ant VS Travis CI

Compare Apache Ant VS Travis CI and see what are their differences

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Apache Ant logo Apache Ant

Apache Ant is a Java library and command-line tool whose mission is to drive processes described in build files as targets and extension points dependent upon each other.

Travis CI logo Travis CI

Simple, flexible, trustworthy CI/CD tools. Join hundreds of thousands who define tests and deployments in minutes, then scale up simply with parallel or multi-environment builds using Travis CI’s precision syntax—all with the developer in mind.
  • Apache Ant Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-02-08
  • Travis CI Travis CI for Simple, Flexible, Trustworthy CI/CD Tools
    Travis CI for Simple, Flexible, Trustworthy CI/CD Tools //
    2024-10-22

Founded in Berlin, Germany, in 2011, Travis CI grew quickly and became a trusted name in CI/CD, gaining popularity among software developers and engineers starting their careers. In 2019, Travis CI became part of Idera, Inc., the parent company of global B2B software productivity brands whose solutions enable technical users to work faster and do more with less.

Today, developers at 300,000 organizations use Travis CI. We often hear about the pangs of nostalgia these folks feel when they use Travis CI, as it was one of the first tools they used at the beginning of their career journey. We are still much here, supporting those who have stuck with us along the way and remaining the best next destination on your CI/CD journey, whether you’re building your first pipelines or trying to bring some thrill back into work that’s become overloaded with AI and DevSecOps complexity.

Our Mission:

We deliver the simplest and most flexible CI/CD tool to developers eager for ownership of their code quality, transparency in how they problem-solve with peers, and pride in the results they create—one LOC at a time.

Our Promise:

We aim for nothing less than to guide every developer to the next phase of their CI/CD adventure—even if that means growing beyond our platform.

Apache Ant

Website
ant.apache.org
Pricing URL
-
$ Details
Release Date
-
Edit details

Travis CI

Website
travis-ci.com
Pricing URL
Official Travis CI Pricing
$ Details
paid Free Trial $13.75 / Monthly (Per Month, Per User)
Release Date
2011 January
Edit details

Apache Ant features and specs

  • Platform Independence
    Apache Ant is written in Java, making it platform-independent and capable of running on any system with a Java Virtual Machine (JVM).
  • Extensibility
    Ant is highly extensible, allowing developers to create custom tasks and integrate them into the build process, thus providing great flexibility.
  • Integration with IDEs
    Ant can be integrated with various IDEs such as Eclipse and NetBeans, providing developers with a seamless build and deployment experience.
  • XML-Based Configuration
    Using XML for configuration makes Ant scripts easily readable by both humans and machines, which aids in maintainability and collaboration.
  • Wide Adoption and Community Support
    Ant is widely adopted in the industry and enjoys a large and active community, providing ample resources, plugins, and troubleshooting support.

Possible disadvantages of Apache Ant

  • Complexity in Larger Projects
    As projects grow larger, Ant scripts can become complex and difficult to manage, potentially leading to maintenance challenges.
  • Verbose Syntax
    Ant's use of XML can result in verbose and lengthy build files, which might be cumbersome compared to more succinct scripting approaches.
  • Limited Support for Dependency Management
    Ant does not have native support for dependency management, in contrast to tools like Maven or Gradle, requiring additional configurations or plugins.
  • Steeper Learning Curve
    For developers new to build automation, Ant's framework can present a steeper learning curve compared to some alternative tools.
  • Older Technology
    Ant is considered an older technology in comparison with modern build tools like Gradle, which might offer more features out of the box.

Travis CI features and specs

  • Ease of Use
    Travis CI offers a very user-friendly interface and straightforward setup process, making it accessible even for those new to CI/CD.
  • Integration with GitHub
    Seamlessly integrates with GitHub, allowing for automatic builds and tests triggered on pull requests and commits.
  • Wide Range of Language Support
    Supports numerous programming languages out of the box, providing built-in configurations for many common languages such as Python, Ruby, JavaScript, and Java.
  • Extensive Documentation
    Offers comprehensive and well-organized documentation, which can help users troubleshoot and understand complex setups.
  • Build Matrix
    Run your unit and integration tests across any combination of environments for comprehensive automation and absolute quality guarantees on your way to production.

Possible disadvantages of Travis CI

  • Pricing for Private Repositories
    Can become expensive for private repositories and larger teams, especially compared to some competitors that offer more generous free tiers.
  • Performance Issues
    Users have reported occasional performance issues, including slower build times and longer wait periods for queued jobs.
  • Limited Advanced Features
    Might lack some advanced features and customizations that are available in other CI/CD platforms, making it less suitable for very complex workflows.
  • Concurrency Limits
    Has limitations on the number of concurrent builds that can run, which can slow down development cycles for larger projects with many contributors.
  • Complex Configuration for Large Projects
    Configuration can become cumbersome and complex for large projects with intricate dependencies and multiple build steps.

Analysis of Travis CI

Overall verdict

  • Travis CI is a widely used continuous integration service that is generally considered good for many development projects.

Why this product is good

  • Travis CI integrates seamlessly with GitHub, which allows for automated testing and deployment processes. It is simple to set up for open-source projects and supports multiple programming languages and operating systems. The platform's intuitive interface and extensive documentation make it accessible to both beginners and experienced developers.

Recommended for

  • Open-source projects
  • Teams looking for easy GitHub integration
  • Projects that require regular automated testing
  • Developers who value extensive community support
  • Projects with varying tech stacks, due to its multi-language support

Apache Ant videos

+ Add

Apache ANT Tutorials for Beginners | ANT Build Process Automation 2

More videos:

Travis CI videos

+ Add

Setting Up Your First Build

More videos:

  • Tutorial - CI/CD Core Concepts
  • Tutorial - How to Get Started with Travis CI in 0 to 5 Minutes

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Apache Ant and Travis CI)

Apache Ant

Travis CI

DevOps Tools
14 14%
DevOps Tools
86% 86
Continuous Integration
11 11%
Continuous Integration
89% 89
Continuous Deployment
13 13%
Continuous Deployment
87% 87
IT Automation
100 100%
IT Automation
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Apache Ant and Travis CI

Apache Ant Reviews

35+ Of The Best CI/CD Tools: Organized By Category
Apache Ant (“Another Neat Tool”) is the oldest tool on this list and it can be considered a precursor to Maven. Just like Maven, it was written entirely in Java. ANT uses XML to define the code build process. While ANT is primarily a JAVA build tool, it can be used to define processes and build C++, C, and C# applications.
Source: www.cloudzero.com

Travis CI Reviews

The Best Alternatives to Jenkins for Developers
Travis CI is another popular cloud-based CI/CD solution that integrates well with GitHub. Known for its simplicity and ease of setup, Travis CI is a great choice for open-source projects or teams that primarily work with GitHub repositories. Its configuration is based on a YAML file, making it easy to define and manage build workflows.
Source: morninglif.com
Top 10 Most Popular Jenkins Alternatives for DevOps in 2024
Travis CI is known for its simple setup, quick parallel builds, and support for multiple architectures, including popular enterprise options like IBM PowerPC and IBM Z. It’s claimed that pipelines require approximately 33% less configurable code than other CI/CD solutions, which helps make the platform more approachable. Use it instead of Jenkins when you want a fast...
Source: spacelift.io
10 Jenkins Alternatives in 2021 for Developers
You might find that Travis CI proudly promotes the fact that they have more than 900,000 open-source projects and 600,000 users on their platform with Travis CI. Automated deployment can be quickly established by following the tutorials and documentation that are currently available on their website.
Source: solutionsuggest.com
The Best Alternatives to Jenkins for Developers
Travis CI is a continuous integration and testing CI/CD tool. It is free of cost for open source projects and provides seamless integration with GitHub. It supports more than 20 languages, like Node.js, PHP, Python, etc. along with Docker.
Source: www.lambdatest.com
Continuous Integration. CircleCI vs Travis CI vs Jenkins
Travis CI is recommended for cases when you are working on the open-source projects, that should be tested in different environments.
Source: djangostars.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Travis CI might be a bit more popular than Apache Ant. We know about 6 links to it since March 2021 and only 6 links to Apache Ant. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Apache Ant mentions (6)

  • Want to Get Better at Java? Go Old School.
    I will not suggest truly old-school Java programming. When I started in Java, we built Java classes with the javac command. This led to writing shell scripts to build complex projects and finally, Makefiles using the Unix and Windows commands make and nmake respectively. I remember being thrilled when the Ant utility came out and we had a pure Java build tool. - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • I am about to write my first code but god has a different plan.
    Didn't know that people still use Ant for building their source code. Source: almost 3 years ago
  • I am about to write my first code but god has a different plan.
    OP is just running this https://ant.apache.org/, nothing to worry about. Source: almost 3 years ago
  • Better CI/CD caching with new-gen build systems
    A build system is a program that orchestrates the execution of underlying tools such as compilers, code generators, test runners, linters and so on. Examples of build systems include the venerable Make, the JVM-centric Ant, Maven and Gradle, and newer systems such as Pants and Bazel (full disclosure: I am one of the maintainers of Pants). - Source: dev.to / almost 3 years ago
  • Build error when running 'nix build', running build steps by hand with 'nix develop' works
    You are missing a dependency: antlr. You have ant instead, which is something completely different. Source: almost 3 years ago
View more

Travis CI mentions (6)

  • Front-end Guide
    We used Travis CI for our continuous integration (CI) pipeline. Travis is a highly popular CI on Github and its build matrix feature is useful for repositories which contain multiple projects like Grab's. We configured Travis to do the following:. - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • Flutter
    CI/CD for autobuild + autotests (Codemagic or Travis CI). Source: over 2 years ago
  • How To Build Your First CI/CD Pipeline With Travis CI?
    Step 2: Log on to Travis CI and sign up with your GitHub account used above. - Source: dev.to / almost 3 years ago
  • What does a DevOps engineer actually do?
    Some other hosted CI products, such as CircleCI and Travis Cl, are completely hosted in the cloud. It is becoming more popular for small organizations to use hosted CI products, as they allow engineering teams to begin continuous integration as soon as possible. Source: almost 4 years ago
  • Hosting an Angular application on GitHub Pages using Travis CI
    1. Let's create the account. Access the site https://travis-ci.com/ and click on the button Sign up. - Source: dev.to / almost 4 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Apache Ant and Travis CI, you can also consider the following products

Gradle - Accelerate developer productivity. Gradle helps teams build, automate and deliver better software, faster. DocsExplore the documentation of Gradle. Find installation ..

Jenkins - Jenkins is an open-source continuous integration server with 300+ plugins to support all kinds of software development

Apache Maven - Apache Maven is a project comprehension and management software tool.

CircleCI - CircleCI gives web developers powerful Continuous Integration and Deployment with easy setup and maintenance.

Codeship - Codeship is a fast and secure hosted Continuous Delivery platform that scales with your needs.

TeamCity - TeamCity is an ultimate Continuous Integration tool for professionals

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