StackShareStackShare
Follow on
StackShare

Discover and share technology stacks from companies around the world.

Follow on

© 2025 StackShare. All rights reserved.

Product

  • Stacks
  • Tools
  • Feed

Company

  • About
  • Contact

Legal

  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Service
  1. Stackups
  2. DevOps
  3. Build Automation
  4. Java Build Tools
  5. Apache Ant vs Octopus Deploy

Apache Ant vs Octopus Deploy

OverviewComparisonAlternatives

Overview

Apache Ant
Apache Ant
Stacks250
Followers151
Votes7
GitHub Stars449
Forks449
Octopus Deploy
Octopus Deploy
Stacks407
Followers493
Votes118

Apache Ant vs Octopus Deploy: What are the differences?

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; Octopus Deploy: Automated deployment for .NET. Octopus works with your build server to enable reliable, secure, automated releases of ASP.NET applications and Windows Services into test, staging and production environments, whether they are in the cloud or on-premises.

Apache Ant and Octopus Deploy are primarily classified as "Java Build" and "Deployment as a Service" tools respectively.

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, Octopus Deploy provides the following key features:

  • Deploy on-premises or to the cloud, securely
  • Built for .NET developers
  • Configuration and scripting

"Flexible" is the top reason why over 3 developers like Apache Ant, while over 26 developers mention "Powerful" as the leading cause for choosing Octopus Deploy.

Apache Ant is an open source tool with 247 GitHub stars and 254 GitHub forks. Here's a link to Apache Ant's open source repository on GitHub.

Starbucks, Olo, and Huddle are some of the popular companies that use Octopus Deploy, whereas Apache Ant is used by LinkedIn, Webedia, and Atmel. Octopus Deploy has a broader approval, being mentioned in 47 company stacks & 15 developers stacks; compared to Apache Ant, which is listed in 24 company stacks and 12 developer stacks.

Share your Stack

Help developers discover the tools you use. Get visibility for your team's tech choices and contribute to the community's knowledge.

View Docs
CLI (Node.js)
or
Manual

Detailed Comparison

Apache Ant
Apache Ant
Octopus Deploy
Octopus Deploy

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.

Octopus Deploy helps teams to manage releases, automate deployments, and operate applications with automated runbooks. It's free for small teams.

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;Scripts are written using plain XML. If you are already familiar with XML, you can learn pretty quickly;Automate complicated repetitive tasks;Interface to develop custom tasks;Can be easily invoked from the command line and it can integrate with free and commercial IDEs
Deploy on-premises or to the cloud, securely;.NET, Java, PHP, Node, Ruby;Full API support;Approvals and manual intervention;Enable self-service deployments;Installs in minutes;Integrates with your build server;Free for small teams
Statistics
GitHub Stars
449
GitHub Stars
-
GitHub Forks
449
GitHub Forks
-
Stacks
250
Stacks
407
Followers
151
Followers
493
Votes
7
Votes
118
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 4
    Flexible
  • 1
    Easy to write own java-build-hooks
  • 1
    Easy to learn
  • 1
    Simple
Cons
  • 1
    Old and not widely used anymore
  • 1
    Slow
Pros
  • 30
    Powerful
  • 25
    Simplicity
  • 20
    Easy to learn
  • 17
    .Net oriented
  • 14
    Easy to manage releases and rollback
Cons
  • 4
    Poor UI
  • 2
    Management of Config
  • 2
    Config & variables not versioned (e.g. in git)
Integrations
No integrations available
Jenkins
Jenkins
Azure DevOps
Azure DevOps
TeamCity
TeamCity
Jira
Jira
Appveyor
Appveyor
Bamboo
Bamboo

What are some alternatives to Apache Ant, Octopus Deploy?

Apache Maven

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.

Gradle

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.

Bazel

Bazel

Bazel is a build tool that builds code quickly and reliably. It is used to build the majority of Google's software, and thus it has been designed to handle build problems present in Google's development environment.

AWS CodeDeploy

AWS CodeDeploy

AWS CodeDeploy is a service that automates code deployments to Amazon EC2 instances. AWS CodeDeploy makes it easier for you to rapidly release new features, helps you avoid downtime during deployment, and handles the complexity of updating your applications.

Pants

Pants

Pants is a build system for Java, Scala and Python. It works particularly well for a source code repository that contains many distinct projects.

Distelli

Distelli

Build, test, and deploy your code from GitHub and BitBucket (or no repository at all) to any server in the world regardless of provider. Distelli customers iterate and ship faster with complete transparency.

JitPack

JitPack

JitPack is an easy to use package repository for Gradle/Sbt and Maven projects. We build GitHub projects on demand and provides ready-to-use packages.

SBT

SBT

It is similar to Java's Maven and Ant. Its main features are: Native support for compiling Scala code and integrating with many Scala test frameworks.

Buck

Buck

Buck encourages the creation of small, reusable modules consisting of code and resources, and supports a variety of languages on many platforms.

Launchdeck

Launchdeck

Deploy code from git to your server the fast and easy way. Launchdeck is our answer to the complicated process of deployment. It’s an automated deployment tool with a super-clear user interface and various smart features.

Related Comparisons

GitHub
Bitbucket

Bitbucket vs GitHub vs GitLab

GitHub
Bitbucket

AWS CodeCommit vs Bitbucket vs GitHub

Kubernetes
Rancher

Docker Swarm vs Kubernetes vs Rancher

gulp
Grunt

Grunt vs Webpack vs gulp

Graphite
Kibana

Grafana vs Graphite vs Kibana