Gradle vs TeamCity: What are the differences?

# Introduction

1. **Build Tool vs Continuous Integration Server**: Gradle is a build automation tool that is used for building, testing, and deploying software projects, while TeamCity is a continuous integration server that assists in automating the build process, running tests, and deploying applications.
2. **Dependency Management vs Build Automation**: Gradle is primarily focused on managing dependencies and automating the build process, ensuring that the project's necessary components are available and correctly compiled. On the other hand, TeamCity is more focused on coordinating the entire development workflow, including integration testing, deployment, and reporting.
3. **Customization and Flexibility**: Gradle provides a high level of customization and flexibility, allowing developers to define their build logic using Groovy or Kotlin scripts, whereas TeamCity offers customization through plugins and various integrations, giving users the ability to extend its functionality as needed.
4. **Scalability and Performance**: Gradle is highly scalable and can efficiently handle large projects with complex dependency graphs, providing optimizations for faster builds, while TeamCity is designed to handle multiple build configurations, parallel builds, and distributed builds across different agents for improved performance.
5. **Community Support and Ecosystem**: Gradle has a strong community backing and a rich ecosystem of plugins and integrations, making it easy to find solutions and resources for various development tasks, while TeamCity is a commercial product with support from JetBrains, offering professional support and resources for users.
6. **Deployment and Integration**: Gradle focuses on building and packaging applications, leaving deployment to other tools or processes, whereas TeamCity facilitates continuous delivery by automating deployment tasks, integrating with various deployment tools, and providing visibility into the deployment pipeline.

In Summary, Gradle and TeamCity offer distinct functionalities with Gradle focusing on build automation and dependency management, while TeamCity serves as a comprehensive continuous integration server with deployment and scalability features.