Stacks152

Followers126

+ 1

Votes7

Apache Maven

Stacks2K

Followers1.3K

+ 1

Votes412

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Apache Ant vs Apache Maven: What are the differences?

What is Apache Ant? Java based build tool. Ant is a Java-based build tool. In theory, it is kind of like Make, without Make's wrinkles and with the full portability of pure Java code.

What is Apache Maven? Apache build manager for Java projects. Maven allows a project to build using its project object model (POM) and a set of plugins that are shared by all projects using Maven, providing a uniform build system. Once you familiarize yourself with how one Maven project builds you automatically know how all Maven projects build saving you immense amounts of time when trying to navigate many projects.

Apache Ant and Apache Maven can be primarily classified as "Java Build" tools.

Some of the features offered by Apache Ant are:

The most complete Java build and deployment tool available.
Platform neutral and can handle platform specific properties such as file separators
Can be used to perform platform specific tasks such as modifying the modified time of a file using 'touch' command

On the other hand, Apache Maven provides the following key features:

Simple project setup that follows best practices - get a new project or module started in seconds
Consistent usage across all projects means no ramp up time for new developers coming onto a project
Superior dependency management including automatic updating, dependency closures (also known as transitive dependencies)

"Flexible" is the top reason why over 3 developers like Apache Ant, while over 125 developers mention "Dependency management" as the leading cause for choosing Apache Maven.

Apache Ant and Apache Maven are both open source tools. Apache Maven with 1.74K GitHub stars and 1.28K forks on GitHub appears to be more popular than Apache Ant with 247 GitHub stars and 253 GitHub forks.

According to the StackShare community, Apache Maven has a broader approval, being mentioned in 305 company stacks & 142 developers stacks; compared to Apache Ant, which is listed in 24 company stacks and 12 developer stacks.

Pros of Apache Ant

Pros of Apache Maven

4
Flexible
1
Simple
1
Easy to learn
1
Easy to write own java-build-hooks

137
Dependency management
71
Necessary evil
58
I’d rather code my app, not my build
48
Publishing packaged artifacts
43
Convention over configuration
18
Modularisation
11
Consistency across builds
6
Prevents overengineering using scripting
4
Runs Tests
4
Lot of cool plugins
3
Extensible
2
Runs on Linux
2
Hard to customize
1
Slow incremental build
1
Good IDE tooling
1
Inconsistent buillds
1
Runs on OS X
1
Undeterminisc

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Cons of Apache Ant

Cons of Apache Maven

1
Slow
1
Old and not widely used anymore

5
Complex
1
Inconsistent buillds
0
Not many plugin-alternatives

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What is Apache Ant?

Ant is a Java-based build tool. In theory, it is kind of like Make, without Make's wrinkles and with the full portability of pure Java code.

What is Apache Maven?

Maven allows a project to build using its project object model (POM) and a set of plugins that are shared by all projects using Maven, providing a uniform build system. Once you familiarize yourself with how one Maven project builds you automatically know how all Maven projects build saving you immense amounts of time when trying to navigate many projects.

What companies use Apache Ant?

What companies use Apache Maven?

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What tools integrate with Apache Ant?

What tools integrate with Apache Maven?

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Blog Posts

Scaling Wix to 60M Users - From Monolith to Microservices

May 29 2015 at 9:25AM

Wix

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What are some alternatives to Apache Ant and Apache Maven?

Eclipse

Standard Eclipse package suited for Java and plug-in development plus adding new plugins; already includes Git, Marketplace Client, source code and developer documentation. Click here to file a bug against Eclipse Platform.

Gradle

Gradle is a build tool with a focus on build automation and support for multi-language development. If you are building, testing, publishing, and deploying software on any platform, Gradle offers a flexible model that can support the entire development lifecycle from compiling and packaging code to publishing web sites.

Apache Tomcat

Apache Tomcat powers numerous large-scale, mission-critical web applications across a diverse range of industries and organizations.

Jenkins

In a nutshell Jenkins CI is the leading open-source continuous integration server. Built with Java, it provides over 300 plugins to support building and testing virtually any project.

Make

The GNU Compiler Collection and GNU Toolchain (Binutils, GDB, GLIBC)

See all alternatives

Interest over time

Apache Ant vs Apache Maven