*Tools which handle the build cycle and dependencies of an application.*

1. [Apache Maven](https://github.com/apache/maven) - Declarative build and dependency management which favors convention over configuration. It might be preferable to Apache Ant which uses a rather procedural approach and can be difficult to maintain. http://maven.apache.org License: [Apache 2](http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0) , [](https://github.com/apache/maven). 

1. [Gradle](http://gradle.org/) - Incremental builds which are programmed via Groovy instead of declaring XML. Works well with Maven's dependency management. License: [Apache 2](http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0) , github's star - 2465. 

1. [Apache Ant](http://ant.apache.org/) - pache Ant is a Java library and command-line tool whose mission is to drive processes described in build files as targets and extension points dependent upon each other. Subproject: [Apache AntUnit](https://projects.apache.org/project.html?ant-antunit) - testing Ant task, [Apache Compress Ant Library](https://projects.apache.org/project.html?ant-compress) - support additional archive formats, [Apache Ivy](https://projects.apache.org/project.html?ant-ivy) - very powerful dependency manager, [Apache IvyDE](https://projects.apache.org/project.html?ant-ivyde) - IvyDE plugin for Eclipse. License: [Apache 2](http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0). 

1. [Facebook Buck](https://github.com/facebook/buck) - A fast build system that encourages the creation of small, reusable modules over a variety of platforms and languages. License: [Apache 2](http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0) , [](https://github.com/facebook/buck).