No. 9 of 40 ·Build Automation Software

build2

Windows · Mac · Linux

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Freedom report

Two barsScore 5.6

Free tierNo free tier on record
Open codeNo open-source code on record
Runs widely3 of 6 device platforms
DocumentedPlans, terms and facts published

build2 is ranked #9 of 40 in build automation software on Freedom251. It runs on Linux, macOS, Windows.

Compared on build automation software

Build as code: Yes
Dependency locking: No
Build caching: Yes
Remote execution: Yes
Artifact packaging: Yes
Supported operating systems: multi-platform

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The record

Product: build2 is an open-source toolchain for building and packaging C/C++ projects.
Components: The toolchain includes a general-purpose build system, a package manager, and a project manager.
Package registry: The project describes cppget.org as a central repository or registry for open-source packages.
License: The project identifies build2 as MIT-licensed open-source software.
Package manager: The package manager can fetch, unpack, and configure packages, and release 0.18.1 introduced a fetch cache.
Build performance: Release 0.18.1 included build-system performance improvements, including optimized builds for read-only projects such as dependencies.
Windows and Linux downloads: Release 0.18.1 provides official binary packages for Windows and several Linux distributions, including Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, RHEL, and generic Linux.
Other installation channels: The release announcement says Mac OS packages are available through Homebrew and FreeBSD packages through ports.
Tested systems: Release 0.18.1 was tested on Windows, Linux, Mac OS, and FreeBSD, including x86_64 and aarch64 on Linux and Mac OS.
Compiler support: The release announcement lists testing with GCC, Clang, MinGW GCC, and MSVC.
Package requirements: Package manifests can express requirements such as C++ standards, operating systems, and compiler families or versions.
Testing and installation: The build system manual describes modules that provide test, install, uninstall, and source-distribution operations.
Language scope: The build model is general enough for DAG-based operations and is not limited to C/C++ or compiled languages.
Toolchain: The build2 toolchain includes the build system, the bpkg package dependency manager, and the bdep project dependency manager.

Where it ranks on Freedom251

Best Build Automation Software in 2026#9 of 40

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Sources

github.com/build2· checked 4 Oct 2026
lists.build2.org/archives/announce/2026/000035.html· checked 4 Oct 2026
build2.org/stage/bpkg/doc/build2-package-manager-m· checked 4 Oct 2026
build2.org/stage/build2/doc/build2-build-system-ma· checked 4 Oct 2026
build2.org/build2/doc/build2-build-system-manual-a· checked 4 Oct 2026
build2.org/build2-toolchain/doc/build2-toolchain-i· checked 4 Oct 2026
build2.org/stage/build2-toolchain/doc/build2-toolc· checked 4 Oct 2026