| Ant |
Maven |
| Ant doesn’t has formal conventions such as a common project directory, so we need to provide information of the project structure in build.xml file. |
Maven consists of conventions to place source code, compiled code etc. So we don’t need to provide information about the project structure in pom.xml file. |
| Ant is procedural, we have to specifically order what should have to be done. |
Maven is declarative, it takes care of all the directories once the files are stored in the pom.xml file. |
| Ant does not have a life cycle |
Maven has a life cycle. |
| Ant is a tool box. |
Maven is a framework. |
| Ant is mainly a build tool. |
Maven is mainly a project management tool. |
| The scripts in Ant are not reusable. |
The maven plugins are reusable. |
| Ant is less preferred than Maven. |
Maven is more preferred than Ant. |