Apache Ant vs Deployer: What are the differences?

Developers describe Apache Ant as "Java based build tool". Ant is a Java-based build tool. In theory, it is kind of like Make, without Make's wrinkles and with the full portability of pure Java code. On the other hand, Deployer is detailed as "Deployment Tool for PHP". A deployment tool written in PHP with support for popular frameworks out of the box.

Apache Ant can be classified as a tool in the "Java Build Tools" category, while Deployer is grouped under "Continuous Deployment".

Some of the features offered by Apache Ant are:

• The most complete Java build and deployment tool available.
• Platform neutral and can handle platform specific properties such as file separators
• Can be used to perform platform specific tasks such as modifying the modified time of a file using 'touch' command

On the other hand, Deployer provides the following key features:

• Simple setup process and a minimal learning curve
• Ready to use recipes for most frameworks
• Parallel execution without extensions

"Flexible" is the primary reason why developers consider Apache Ant over the competitors, whereas "Simply to use" was stated as the key factor in picking Deployer.

Apache Ant and Deployer are both open source tools. It seems that Deployer with 6.9K GitHub stars and 982 forks on GitHub has more adoption than Apache Ant with 244 GitHub stars and 255 GitHub forks.

According to the StackShare community, Apache Ant has a broader approval, being mentioned in 24 company stacks & 12 developers stacks; compared to Deployer, which is listed in 7 company stacks and 5 developer stacks.