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Gradle

Gradle is a build automation tool for Java, Kotlin, and Android projects, developed by Gradle Inc. It's tied for #18 among the most-used developer tools, reported in roughly 14.4% of developer surveys. It's a newer, more flexible alternative to Maven — using a Groovy or Kotlin DSL script instead of XML — and is the default build system built into Android Studio.

Quick facts
Type: Build automation tool
Made by: Gradle Inc.
License: Free / open-source core (Apache 2.0), paid Gradle Enterprise add-ons
Platforms/Hosting: Cross-platform, runs anywhere the JVM runs
Primary use case: Building, testing, and packaging Java/Kotlin/Android applications
Jump to: ExampleGetting startedBest for

Example

Modern Gradle projects typically use the Kotlin DSL in a build.gradle.kts file to declare plugins and dependencies.

// build.gradle.kts
plugins {
  kotlin("jvm") version "1.9.22"
  application
}

repositories {
  mavenCentral()
}

dependencies {
  implementation("com.squareup.okhttp3:okhttp:4.12.0")
  testImplementation("org.junit.jupiter:junit-jupiter:5.10.1")
}

application {
  mainClass.set("com.example.MainKt")
}

Getting started

Gradle projects ship with a wrapper script so nobody needs Gradle pre-installed — running ./gradlew downloads the correct version automatically.

# run the project via the Gradle wrapper (no install needed)
./gradlew build
./gradlew run

# or install Gradle globally (macOS/Linux via SDKMAN)
sdk install gradle
Best for: Android apps and larger multi-module Java/Kotlin projects where Maven's rigid XML lifecycle feels limiting — Gradle's incremental builds and build-cache make it noticeably faster on big codebases.