Difference between Maven and Ant

Last Updated : 23 Jul, 2025

1. Maven :
Maven is a powerful project management tool based on the Project Object Model. It helps in managing project builds, documentation, dependency, releases, etc.

2. Ant :
Ant is a command-line toolbox without any coding conventions or project structures, making it flexible and more manageable to use. It is most commonly used to build Java applications.

Differences between Maven and Ant :

	Maven	Ant
Definition	It is a framework based on the concept of POM.	It is a Java library and command-line toolbox.
Convention	It has built-in conventions to place source code, compiled code, etc.	It does not have any formal conventions.
Project structure Info	It does not require information about the project structure to be provided in the pom.xml file.	It requires information on the project structure to be provided in the build.xml file.
Lifecycle	It has a lifecycle.	It does not have a lifecycle.
Nature	It is declarative in nature (only source should be present in the default directory).	It is procedural in nature (manually tell exactly what to do and when to do it).
Type	It is primarily a project management tool.	It is primarily a project management tool.
Dependency	It can self download the dependencies from a central repository for building projects.	It has no built-in support for dependency management.
Reusability	It consists of reusable plugins.	It consists of scripts that are not reusable.
Preference	It is less preferred.	It is more preferred.
Complexity	It is more complex.	It is simple and reliable.
Flexibility	It is less flexible and maintainable.	It is more flexible and maintainable.
Reports	It creates reports.	It does not create reports.
Interface	It provides common interface.	It does not provide common interface.
Naming Conventions	It has standard naming conventions.	It does not have standard naming conventions.
Popularity	It is more popular in users.	It is less popular in users.
Scripts	Scripts are not complicated.	Scripts are complicated.
Ease of Use	It is easy to use for developers.	It is complex to use at first for developers.
Documentation	It has more documentation.	It has less documentation.
Reliability	It is not reliable.	It is more reliable than Maven.
Conflicts	Conflicts are not handled for the same library.	Conflicts are handled for the same library.