Last Updated on March 7, 2026
Bazel is a software tool used for the automation of building and testing software. It’s a flavor of the tool that Google uses to build its server software internally.
Supported build tasks include running compilers and linkers to produce executable programs and libraries, and assembling deployable packages for Android, iOS and other target environments. Bazel is similar to other tools like Make, Ant, Gradle, Buck, Pants and Maven.
This is free and open source software.
Key Features
- Speed up your builds and tests: Bazel rebuilds only what is necessary. With advanced local and distributed caching, optimized dependency analysis and parallel execution, you get fast and incremental builds. Projects are described in the BUILD language, a concise text format that describes a project as sets of small interconnected libraries, binaries and tests.
- One tool, multiple languages: Build and test Java, C++, Android, iOS, Go, and others . It can be extended to support arbitrary programming languages.
- Scalable: Bazel helps you scale your organization, codebase, and continuous integration solution. It handles codebases of any size, in multiple repositories or a huge monorepo.
- Reproducibility: In BUILD files, each library, test and binary must specify its direct dependencies completely.
- Extensible to your needs: Easily add support for new languages and platforms with Bazel’s familiar extension language. Share and re-use language rules written by the growing Bazel community.
- Cross-platform support – runs under Linux, macOS, and Windows.
Website: bazel.build
Support: GitHub Code Repository
Developer: Google
License: Apache License 2.0
Bazel is written in Java. Learn Java with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
Related Software
| Build Systems | |
|---|---|
| Cargo | Rust package manager |
| gulp | Toolkit to automate & enhance your workflow |
| Bazel | Build and test your multi-language, multi-platform projects |
| Apache Maven | Build automation tool used primarily for Java projects |
| Gradle | Build tool with a focus on build automation and support for multi-language |
| Meson | Next-generation build system |
| CMake | Family of tools designed to build, test and package software |
| Buck2 | Encourages the creation of small, reusable modules |
| Leiningen | Automating Clojure projects |
| Grunt | JavaScript Task Runner |
| Ninja | Small build system with a focus on speed |
| xmake | Cross-platform build utility based on Lua |
| SCons | Software construction tool |
| Pants | Scalable build system for monorepos |
| PHing | Build system based on Apache Ant |
| Rake | make-like build utility for Ruby |
| Apache Ant | Tool for automating software build processes |
| Cabal | Common Architecture for Building Applications and Libraries |
Read our verdict in the software roundup.
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