To me the beauty of Gradle is the complexity is hidden behind plugins so that the majority of builds are simple. I’d say a basic java build in gradle is simpler

To me the beauty of Gradle is the complexity is hidden behind plugins so that the majority of builds are simple. I’d say a basic java build in gradle is simpler than the equivalent maven xml. The power is there for when you need it, but the basic plugins are easily configured for the basic stuff.