Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Ninja Build VS AWS CodeBuild

Compare Ninja Build VS AWS CodeBuild and see what are their differences

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Ninja Build logo Ninja Build

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

AWS CodeBuild logo AWS CodeBuild

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  • Ninja Build Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-09-14
  • AWS CodeBuild Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-03-19

Ninja Build features and specs

  • Speed
    Ninja is designed for high performance, making it one of the fastest build systems available. It minimizes the time spent on tasks such as parsing, dependency resolution, and build command execution.
  • Simplicity
    Ninja’s configuration syntax is straightforward and concise, reducing the complexity involved in setting up builds and allowing for a clear overview of build rules.
  • Parallelism
    Ninja excels at handling parallel builds, leveraging multiple cores effectively to decrease overall build times.
  • Incremental Builds
    Ninja efficiently handles incremental builds by only recompiling what is necessary, which significantly speeds up iterative development processes.
  • Integration
    Ninja is often used as the backend for more complex build systems (e.g., CMake), making it a versatile tool within a larger toolchain.

Possible disadvantages of Ninja Build

  • Limited Features
    Ninja is deliberately minimalist, lacking many of the features found in other build systems, such as built-in support for complex dependency management and custom build steps.
  • Learning Curve
    While Ninja itself has a simple syntax, the learning curve can be steep for those unfamiliar with how build systems work or for those coming from more feature-rich environments.
  • Dependency on Generators
    Ninja often requires an external generator (like CMake) to create its build files, which can add to the setup complexity and introduce dependencies on other tools.
  • Limited Scripting Capabilities
    Unlike some build systems that offer extensive scripting support (e.g., Python in SCons), Ninja's functionality is largely limited to what its syntax and predefined rules allow.
  • Less Flexibility
    Due to its minimalist nature, Ninja may not be as flexible as other build systems, potentially limiting its use in more complex or unusual build scenarios.

AWS CodeBuild features and specs

  • Fully Managed
    AWS CodeBuild is a fully managed continuous integration service. Users do not need to worry about provisioning, managing, and scaling their own build servers.
  • Scalability
    CodeBuild automatically scales up and down to meet the demands of your build process, ensuring that builds are completed quickly without manual intervention.
  • Pay-as-You-Go Pricing
    Users only pay for the compute time they consume with CodeBuild, making it a cost-effective solution for many developer teams.
  • Integration with AWS Services
    CodeBuild integrates seamlessly with other AWS services like S3, EC2, and CloudWatch, providing a cohesive environment for your development and deployment pipelines.
  • Custom Environment Support
    Users can define their own build environments with custom Docker images, providing flexibility to meet specific build requirements.

Possible disadvantages of AWS CodeBuild

  • Complex Setup for Beginners
    Setting up projects in CodeBuild can be complex for users who are new to AWS or continuous integration services.
  • Limited Local Testing
    Unlike some CI tools, AWS CodeBuild provides limited options for running builds locally before pushing changes, which can hinder testing processes.
  • Learning Curve
    Users unfamiliar with AWS services may face a steep learning curve when first using CodeBuild as it involves understanding several AWS concepts and configurations.
  • Potential Costs at Scale
    While the pay-as-you-go model is cost-effective for small workloads, costs can accumulate significantly as usage scales up if not managed carefully.
  • Configuration Management
    Managing build spec files and environment configurations can become complex, especially in projects with many different build processes.

Ninja Build videos

FORTNITE STW: HERE IS THE BEST NINJA BUILD (AFTER MONTHS OF TESTING)

AWS CodeBuild videos

AWS CodeBuild Tutorial

More videos:

  • Review - AWS CodeBuild Overview
  • Review - All the AWS CodeBuild You Can Stomach in 45 Minutes

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Ninja Build and AWS CodeBuild)
Front End Package Manager
Continuous Integration
0 0%
100% 100
JS Build Tools
100 100%
0% 0
DevOps Tools
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Ninja Build should be more popular than AWS CodeBuild. It has been mentiond 22 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.

Ninja Build mentions (22)

  • TypeScript's Successor is Waiting, and You'll Never Want to Turn Back
    Under the hood, Rescript uses a build system called Ninja. Ninja is similar to Make, but cross-platform and more minimal/performant. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Using Make – writing less Makefile
    Ninja was super easy to pick up even after using make for some time (10+ years). GN is just a ninja generator that is optional. https://gn.googlesource.com/gn/+/main/docs/quick_start.md https://ninja-build.org/. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Ask HN: What outdated tech are you still using and are perfectly happy with?
    Really? I thought most new projects were switching to ninja[^1] and have never used it. [^1]: https://ninja-build.org/. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • What was used to build C++ programs before Cmake?
    Ninja showed real promise for a while, but then CMake grew up and people stopped seeing a reason to leave it behind. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Building and Running Pidgin and Finch 3
    Now that you have your build system all generated you can go ahead and build everything. By default Meson will use Ninja as the build tool. Ninja is similar to Make but much much faster. You can also generate additional build systems but that's outside of the scope of this post. - Source: dev.to / about 2 years ago
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AWS CodeBuild mentions (13)

  • Low Cost "Overkill" AWS Infrastructure for a Newborn Startup
    Therefore, I used AWS Codebuild and AWS CodePipeline to automate the steps of building and deploying the services. The diagram below depicts all the steps required to continuously deliver the frontend and backend applications:. - Source: dev.to / about 2 years ago
  • How CodeCatalyst compares to other AWS Services related to Development and CI/CD processes
    We treat these services in one  group as they belong together from a strategic point of view. They have been around for a few years and the teams that built these are now involved in CodeCatalyst. CodeCatalyst partly uses them “under the hood”. CodeCommit is a managed git hosting, CodeBuild is a managed “build” system, CodeStar is a “project management” tool. CodePipeline allows combining multiple CodeBuild steps... - Source: dev.to / about 2 years ago
  • Well-Architected Review - Part II - Operational Excellence
    Design for Operations You should implement your entire workload as code. The benefit is that you can apply the same engineering discipline that you use for application code to your infrastructure. Use version control system like AWS Codecommit to enable tracking of changes and releases, and use AWS Cloudformation for your infrastructure templates. It is recommendable to test and validate changes to help limit... - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • DevSecOps with AWS - Multi Environment deployments - Part 2
    AWS CodeBuild: fully managed continuous integration service that compiles source code, runs tests, and produces software packages that are ready to deploy. - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • DEVOPS AS A SERVICE
    AWS CodeBuild is a completely managed service for compiling code, testing quality assurance using automated procedures, and generating software ready for deployment. CodeBuild is incredibly secure, as each client receives a unique set of encryption keys to include in each created artifact. Source: almost 3 years ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Ninja Build and AWS CodeBuild, you can also consider the following products

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.

AWS CodePipeline - Continuous delivery service for fast and reliable application updates

SCons - SCons is an Open Source software construction tool—that is, a next-generation build tool.

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

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

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