gradle lets you get something custom working quickly, because it's basically a script with code you want to execute.

For small projects, it works fine, as long as the complexity doesn't grow beyond a certain point for the small project (aka, doesn't grow to a big project), and is maintained by the same person.

For a large project, i do not like gradle at all. Maven is a much better build tool, since standardization is the best thing since sliced bread.