Grunt

Windows · Mac · Linux

Freedom report

Three barsScore 6.5

Free tierA free tier is on its own pricing page
Open codeNo open-source code on record
Runs widely3 of 6 device platforms
DocumentedPlans, terms and facts published

Grunt is ranked #8 of 27 in JavaScript build tools on Freedom251. It runs on Linux, macOS, Windows. There is a free plan.

Grunt plans and pricing

All plans

Grunt Free Open-source JavaScript task runner gruntjs.com · 4 Oct 2026

Compared on JavaScript build tools

Free plan: Yes
Plugin API: Yes

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Two bars Rolldown Free tier No. 1Free6.8 Two bars esbuild Free tier No. 2Free6.7 Two bars SWC Free tier No. 3Free6.7 Two bars Rspack Free tier No. 4Free6.6 Two bars Terser Free tier No. 5Free6.6 Two bars Vite Free tier No. 6Free6.6

The record

Purpose: Grunt automates repetitive development tasks such as minification, compilation, unit testing, and linting.
Plugins: The Grunt ecosystem offers hundreds of plugins, and developers can publish their own Grunt plugins to npm.
Task configuration: Projects configure tasks in a Gruntfile using JavaScript, and the configuration can be generated programmatically.
Custom tasks: Projects can define custom tasks in a Gruntfile or in external JavaScript files.
Package management: Grunt and its plugins are installed and managed via npm, the Node.js package manager.
CLI behavior: The globally installed Grunt CLI finds and runs the local Grunt installation associated with a project’s Gruntfile, allowing multiple Grunt versions on one machine.
Plugin directory: The plugin listing is generated from npm, and officially maintained contrib plugins are marked with a star.
Example tasks: The site’s example Grunt output shows linting, QUnit tests, cleaning, concatenation, and JavaScript minification.
Security support: The project says it provides security and bug fixes for the latest version; previous versions are end-of-life and receive neither.
Version status: The support table lists Grunt 1.6 as supported and versions 1.5 through 0.4 as unsupported.
Older version support: HeroDevs provides drop-in replacements for older Grunt versions that it says are kept up to date for security and compliance issues.
Help: The project directs users to Stack Overflow with the gruntjs tag and to GitHub issues for documentation errors.
Users: The site lists projects and organizations using Grunt, including Adobe, jQuery, Mozilla, Bootstrap, WordPress, and Microsoft Visual Studio.
Maintenance note: The Grunt site says its Who Uses Grunt page is not accepting additional entries at the moment.
Price from: Free

Where it ranks on Freedom251

Best JavaScript Build Tools in 2026#8 of 27

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Sources

gruntjs.com· checked 4 Oct 2026
gruntjs.com/configuring-tasks· checked 4 Oct 2026
gruntjs.com/getting-started· checked 4 Oct 2026
gruntjs.com/plugins· checked 4 Oct 2026
gruntjs.com/support· checked 4 Oct 2026
gruntjs.com/help-resources· checked 4 Oct 2026
gruntjs.com/who-uses-grunt· checked 4 Oct 2026