The best replacement for maven is ant.

The best alternatives to maven are rated as following:
★★★★★  ant
★★★  ivy
★★★  gradle
★★  maven2
★★  jenkins
★  hudson
★  sbt
★  updates are forced
★  svn
★  ant which is better
★  make
★  nuget
  subversion
  cruise control
  grunt
  ivy repository
  goldust
  shelton benjamin
  suzuki apv
  buildr
  apv
  msbuild
  makefile
  ant scripting

Your alternative for maven is not listed? Suggest!
Speaking about maven, one probably shouldn't forget about eclipse.

Other search terms related to maven and their ratings are:
★★★★★ eclipse
★★★ ant
★★★ netbeans
★★★ dependencies
★★ spring
★★ intellij
★★ jenkins
★ testng
★ google app engine
★ nexus
★ tomcat
★ scala
★ junit
android studio
rad
unit tests
cruise control
play framework
flex
You have in mind a companion for maven and it is not yet here? Propose!



Google Trends

Scale is based on the average worldwide traffic of maven in all years. Click on graph for more.
maven
ant
ivy