Protocol buffers compiler maven plugin

This one comes with protoc built-in (it's originally based on igor-petruk/protobuf-maven-plugin, but it comes with protoc binaries bundled for Linux, Mac/OSX, and Windows). At runtime it detects the platform and executes the corresponding binary

https://github.com/os72/protoc-jar-maven-plugin

Here's an example:

<plugin>
    <groupId>com.github.os72</groupId>
    <artifactId>protoc-jar-maven-plugin</artifactId>
    <version>3.11.1</version>
    <executions>
        <execution>
            <phase>generate-sources</phase>
            <goals>
                <goal>run</goal>
            </goals>
            <configuration>
                <protocVersion>2.4.1</protocVersion>
                <inputDirectories>
                    <include>src/main/protobuf</include>
                </inputDirectories>
            </configuration>
        </execution>
    </executions>
</plugin>

A good cross-platform solution is to use the protoc binary artifacts available in Maven Central.

The simple configuration changes needed to your pom.xml are described in the com.google.protobuf.tools: maven-protoc-plugin documentation "Resolving Protoc Artifact From Maven Central Repo"

In case the link disappears, the salient part is:

<project>
  ...
  <build>
    <extensions>
      <extension>
        <groupId>kr.motd.maven</groupId>
        <artifactId>os-maven-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>1.3.0.Final</version>
      </extension>
    </extensions>
    <plugins>
      <plugin>
        <groupId>org.xolstice.maven.plugins</groupId>
        <artifactId>protobuf-maven-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>0.5.0</version>
        <extensions>true</extensions>
        <executions>
          <execution>
            <goals>
              <goal>compile</goal>
              <goal>test-compile</goal>
            </goals>
            <configuration>
              <protocArtifact>com.google.protobuf:protoc:2.6.1:exe:${os.detected.classifier}</protocArtifact>
            </configuration>
          </execution>
        </executions>
      </plugin>
      ...
    </plugins>
    ...
  </build>
  ...
</project>