Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups
Register | Login

Gradle VS Bazel

Compare Gradle VS Bazel and see what are their differences

ScreenshotMAX
The all-in-one Screenshot API for developers: capture websites, generate PDFs, record videos, and automate it all with powerful, scalable infrastructure. No browser setup, no hassle. Just clean results, fast. featured
Contents:
  1. » Base Details
  2. » Videos
  3. » Reviews
  4. » Alternatives

Gradle logo Gradle

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

Bazel logo Bazel

Bazel is a tool that automates software builds and tests.
  • Gradle Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-05-11
  • Bazel Landing page
    Landing page //
    2024-07-17

Gradle features and specs

  • Performance
    Gradle is known for its high performance, including build caching and incremental builds. It optimizes tasks to avoid unnecessary work and speeds up the development process.
  • Flexibility
    Gradle provides a highly flexible and customizable build automation system. It supports Java, Kotlin, Groovy, Scala, and more.
  • Dependency Management
    Gradle offers robust dependency management, allowing easy handling of complex dependencies and transitive dependencies. It integrates well with repositories like Maven Central and JCenter.
  • Multi-project Builds
    Gradle excels at handling multi-project builds. It supports both monorepo and multi-repo project structures, enabling scalable build configurations.
  • Integration
    Gradle integrates smoothly with popular IDEs like IntelliJ IDEA, Eclipse, and Android Studio, improving the developer experience and productivity.
  • Declarative Builds
    Gradle uses a domain-specific language (DSL) which makes it easier to declare build configurations in a readable format. It supports both Groovy and Kotlin DSLs.

Possible disadvantages of Gradle

  • Complexity
    Gradle’s flexibility can introduce complexity. New users might find it challenging to grasp Gradle’s concepts and DSL, especially for sophisticated build configurations.
  • Configuration Time
    Initial configuration and setup of Gradle can be time-consuming. Fine-tuning the build scripts to optimize performance may also require significant effort.
  • Documentation
    While Gradle’s documentation is comprehensive, it can sometimes be overwhelming. Users might need to rely on community resources or tutorials for certain advanced configurations.
  • Compatibility Issues
    Gradle changes and updates can sometimes introduce compatibility issues with plugins or existing build scripts, requiring adjustments when upgrading.
  • Resource Intensive
    Gradle can be resource-intensive, potentially consuming significant memory and CPU resources, particularly for very large projects.

Bazel features and specs

  • High Scalability
    Bazel is designed to handle large codebases and complex dependency graphs efficiently, which makes it suitable for projects with millions of lines of code.
  • Incremental Builds
    Bazel supports incremental builds by only rebuilding parts of the project that have changed, thus saving time and computational resources.
  • Cross-Platform Support
    Bazel supports different platforms including Linux, MacOS, and Windows, enabling consistent build processes across diverse development environments.
  • Reproducible Builds
    It ensures that the same source code will yield identical build outputs, which is beneficial for debugging and ensuring consistency across different environments.
  • Extensibility
    Bazel is highly extensible, allowing developers to define custom build rules and macros to fit their specific needs.
  • Wide Language Support
    Out of the box, Bazel supports many programming languages such as Java, C++, Python, and Go, with the ability to extend to other languages.

Possible disadvantages of Bazel

  • Steep Learning Curve
    Bazel has a complex configuration language and many internal concepts, which might be challenging for new users to learn and adopt quickly.
  • Limited IDE Integration
    Compared to other build systems, Bazel might have limited or less mature support in certain Integrated Development Environments (IDEs), potentially hindering productivity.
  • Overhead of Remote Caching
    While remote caching is a powerful feature, setting it up and maintaining it can introduce additional overhead and complexity to the build process.
  • Initial Setup Complexity
    Getting a project up and running with Bazel can require significant upfront configuration, especially for projects migrating from another build system.
  • Limited Community Support
    Compared to more established build systems, Bazel has a smaller community, which might result in fewer resources and shared knowledge available online.

Analysis of Bazel

Overall verdict

  • Bazel is a powerful and robust build tool, especially for large-scale projects and organizations that require high build performance and scalability. Its advanced features can significantly improve the efficiency of development workflows. However, there is a learning curve, and the complexity of rules and configurations may not suit smaller projects or those with simpler build requirements.

Why this product is good

  • Bazel is a build tool developed by Google that is designed to support fast and correct builds. It is particularly known for its ability to handle large codebases and complex build dependencies efficiently. Bazel uses a single build language across different platforms, and its build system provides features such as incremental builds, remote build execution, and caching, which make it highly suitable for repetitive and reproducible builds. The tool is capable of handling projects written in multiple languages, such as Java, C++, Python, and more, due to its extensibility with custom rules.

Recommended for

  • Large-scale and complex software projects
  • Organizations that utilize monorepos
  • Developers needing cross-platform support
  • Teams looking to leverage remote build execution
  • Projects with complex dependencies across multiple programming languages

Gradle videos

+ Add

Gradle project properties best practices (don't be that guy)

More videos:

  • Review - Gradle Demystified - Josh Allen
  • Review - Working With Gradle in IntelliJ IDEA

Bazel videos

+ Add

Kebenaran dari Powerbank Bazel 450 Series

More videos:

  • Review - BazelCon 2019 Day 2: Half-Day Bazel Bootcamp (Part 1)
  • Review - What's new in Bazel build and Gerrit Code Review

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Gradle and Bazel)

Gradle

Bazel

DevOps Tools
80 80%
DevOps Tools
20% 20
Front End Package Manager
47 47%
Front End Package Manager
53% 53
Continuous Integration
80 80%
Continuous Integration
20% 20
JavaScript Package Manager
0 0%
JavaScript Package Manager
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using Gradle and Bazel. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
Log in or Post with

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Bazel should be more popular than Gradle. It has been mentiond 67 times since March 2021. 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.

Gradle mentions (42)

  • Top 5 Essential Build Tools for Modern Development
    Emerging as a strong contender and often seen as a modern alternative to Maven, Gradle offers unparalleled flexibility and performance. While also deeply rooted in the Java ecosystem, Gradle's versatility extends to various languages and platforms, including Android, C++, and more, making it a favorite for diverse development environments. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • Android Studio Ladybug broke my build.
    First off, Gradle is the build system selected by the Android team at Google as the official tool for generating Android APKs, Bundles, or libraries. Gradle exists outside Android and can be used with other technologies. - Source: dev.to / 11 months ago
  • Tutorial: Build a Java SDK based on OpenAPI Spec
    Gradle: Gradle offers more flexibility and faster build times, especially for larger Projects. It can be useful if your SDK requires more advanced build customizations or if you prioritize build performance. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • My Journey with AWS CDK and Java: What You Need to Know
    From what I’ve seen, adopting the CDK in Java is relatively easy for most of these teams as they already understand the language and the ecosystem. Integrating the CDK with their existing build tools like Maven and Gradle is well documented, which leaves them with the learning curve of understanding how to work with infrastructure as code, how to structure a CDK project and when to use L1, L2 and L3 constructs. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • Rapyd API Request Signatures in Java
    To begin, create a new Java project with the Gradle build option using IntelliJ IDE. Gradle is a build automation tool that supports compiling, testing, packing, and deploying applications, and it also helps seamlessly manage dependencies. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
View more

Bazel mentions (67)

  • Swift and Cute 2D Game Framework: Setting Up a Project with CMake
    I really recommend Bazel (https://bazel.build). - Source: Hacker News / 4 months ago
  • Why Is This Site Built with C
    Agree regarding easiness of building rust (`cargo build`), extremely satisfying (git clone and cargo build...) Does anyone have any comments on Bazel[1] because I'm kind of settling on using it whenever it's appropriate (c/c++)?.. [1] https://bazel.build/. - Source: Hacker News / 6 months ago
  • 7 Ways to Use the SLSA Framework to Secure the SDLC
    To achieve reproducibility, your build process must control for environmental differences like timestamps, file ordering, or machine-specific configurations. Tools like Bazel or Nixprovide deterministic build systems that lock down these variables. For instance, Bazel uses a content-addressable cache, meaning the same source code and dependencies always result in the same build outputs, even when run on different... - Source: dev.to / 11 months ago
  • Contributing To Open Source - C++ Edition
    Despite following all the steps (on both Windows and Unix), I couldn't get the cmake build to succeed. After several hours of debugging, I decided to try another build method provided by the project, using bazel, which was much simpler. - Source: dev.to / 12 months ago
  • How to effectively work in big codebases
    Many big companies have built their own tools to reign in this complexity and make it easier and faster for developers to work on large, multi-language code bases. Meta has buck, Amazon has brazil, and Google has bazel. But from my experience, especially, with brazil, these tools also have some rough edges, so understanding how they work can go a long way. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Gradle and Bazel, you can also consider the following products

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

Ninja Build - Ninja is a small build system with a focus on speed.

GNU Make - GNU Make is a tool which controls the generation of executables and other non-source files of a program from the program's source files.

CMake - CMake is an open-source, cross-platform family of tools designed to build, test and package software.

Meson - Meson is an open source build system meant to be both extremely fast, and, even more importantly...

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.

Loading...