While choosing the tech stack for their next project, a business must carefully consider every aspect of frontend and backend development, especially the latter which is all about data management, scaling APIs, less-user-facing code, and libraries.
Node.js vs. Go
In this article, we are going to debate the capabilities of the two most prominent and popular web development frameworks. First is NodeJS which as the name suggests, is based on JavaScript and another is Google Go or Golang which gained traction for backend development when top companies like Uber started migrating to it.
Here, we are going to go over the basics of NodeJS vs Go, their pros and cons and then we will compare these two most famous programming languages against the common development and industry standards. So, let’s get on with it.
Node.JS
Programmers can use this open-source JS engine to create complex yet straightforward network apps. NodeJS comes with Chrome’s V8 engine that parses and runs all the Javascript code. It also offers feature-rich libraries that can help you develop and deploy cross-platform and scalable server-side apps.
NodeJS was originally designed as an engine that can execute JS code. But since its initial release, it has become capable of full-stack software application development. That’s why it is considered one of the most revolutionary programming languages.
What is Node.JS Used For?
NodeJS can help you develop complex network applications that are more scalable and efficient. As a JS-based runtime environment, NodeJs also enables you to build server-side environments. And if you are thinking about creating a real-time app with two-way connections where the server doesn’t have to wait for the API to return the data then NodeJs is the perfect pick for you.
Pros
- Can cache individual module
- Extremely helpful in creating streaming apps
- A fastest growing community with features and packages released daily
- Used to build scalable web applications
- Easy to learn, easy to use
- Its in-built event loop feature can help create high-performance apps.
Cons
- Debugging is tough
- Makes code errors related to variables
- To use its most advantageous asynchronous programming, you need to have mastery over building scalable apps.
- APIs and packages in NodeJS are subject to frequent updates and changes which creates compatibility issues and confuses developers.
NodeJS companies
- NASA
- Netflix
- eBay
- Medium
- Walmart
- PayPal
- Trello
- Uber
Go
Also known as Golang, Google Go is a compiled, multi-purpose, open-source, cross-platform, and statically typed programming language. A team of developers at Google created this programming language to solve certain problems. Go is made by combining the best of other programming languages.
Go has many similarities to the C language with respect to syntax and speed. Its clear syntax makes the code easily readable as well as maintainable. Go also has adequate handling of concurrent programming, garbage collection, and dynamic interfaces. It is after all a high-efficiency structural language.
What Is Golang Used For?
Golang is used to build various types of applications like a highly modular app system that is focused on speed and security. You can also use this multi-purpose programming language for highly scalable network applications and servers, large-scale distributed systems, and system programming.
You can also see Go used in ML apps, big data, web apps, and cloud-based app development.
Pros and Cons of Golang
Pros
- Readable and maintainable code
- Clean syntax
- Google uses it for all its big projects and also provides support for Golang development to developers around the world.
- Being a statically typed programming language, Go makes fewer code errors related to variables in comparison to other programming languages.
- Go would send alerts if you are writing code without the necessary documentation.
- It’s a compiled language that helps build high-performing applications.
- Test and stretch code with in-built APIs
- Renders GoMetaLinter to conduct static code analysis
- Concurrency supported that helps in parallel processing
Cons
- Even if a developer has to implement a simple feature, they have to write many lines of code to do so.
- Doesn’t support generics
- Code reusability is difficult
- Doesn’t offer a built-in GUI library for developing GUI applications
- For creating complex programs, Go needs more computing resources.
Golang companies
- Uber
- SoundCloud
- Twitch
- Dropbox
- SendGrid
- Dailymotion
Node.JS vs. Golang
Performance
The reason why NodeJS is so popular among developers is because it is a scalable system and performance is an integral part of every scalable system. NodeJS uses caching to improve performance and is also very quick in processing.
Go has its code directly compiled into the machine code. So there won’t be any virtual machine that can slow down your compilation process. Its performance level is often compared to C and C++ languages.
Also, if there is any unused memory space, then it will be automatically freed up by Golang’s in-built garbage collector so that the available memory can help in faster processing. This feature also reduces the chance of memory leakage which further reduces the security vulnerabilities.
NodeJs has usable code and it employs the fastest JS engineer named V8 which is very helpful in building event-based apps as it can update data in real time. It is also the reason why NodeJS is largely used for creating online games, video chats, and instant messaging applications.
When Paypal migrated from Java to NodeJS in 2013, they reported serving pages 200ms faster and that their average response time had also reduced by 35%.
But being statically typed, NodeJS with TypeScript is typically slower in comparison to other programming languages. Whether NodeJs would perform well or not would depend on the nature of the app because, unlike Go, this language doesn’t provide memory-bound task performance and CPU.
So, in terms of performance, it is safe to say that Google Go is better than NodeJS as it can quickly compile and execute programs.
Scalability and Concurrency
With scalability as their priority, Google wanted to create a programming language that can help programmers build heavy and complex enterprise-scale production-ready apps.
Goroutines from Go enable you to easily execute the threads and perform concurrently. And this same concurrency helps Go process over one thousand requests per second.
So in terms of scalability and concurrency, Go triumphs over NodeJs with Goroutines alone. It is important to note here that NodeJs is a single-threaded asynchronous JS-based runtime environment. And in the single-threaded architecture, even loops are blocked sometimes which can slow down your application.
Error Handling
NodeJS uses the traditional method of try-catch to manage exceptions and errors. Using this technique, you can catch the errors right when they occur so that the developers can debug them quickly.
Meanwhile, Go has separated the compile time and the runtime errors, this has confused the developers which is why they have to use more standard methods in handling exceptions.
Go claims to make some improvements to error handling and more. But for now, it is quite clear that NodeJS is better at handling errors and exceptions.
Difficulty Level
When a programming language is easy to learn, it’s also easy to use. This means you can get on with your project as quickly as possible.
NodeJS is based on Java Script which is one of the widely used programming languages. So developers can learn it very easily. Also, you can find many courses and content online that can help you learn the language.
On the other hand, Golang is difficult to learn and since it’s just a backend development language, you have to hire a backend developer separately for your team if you decide to go with Go.
In short, Go has a higher difficulty level in both learning and using in comparison to NodeJS.
Community
Open-source tools and technologies always seem to have the support of a large strong community. Both Golang and NodeJs are open-source. So the question goes to how much the developers of these communities contribute to the advancement of the programming language.
NodeJs has become a mature tool because of the support of its large and strong community. The NodeJS Foundation makes efforts for the global adoption of the language and has appointed a team of developers to oversee its LTS or long-term support plan and security.
NodeJS Foundation is filled with many active members like NodeSource, Paypal, Microsoft, IBM, Intel, GoDaddy, and more. Node+JS interactive is another platform where NodeJS developers announce the changes and improvements made to the programming language.
NodeJS has over one billion downloads and 80,300 GitHub stars. Meanwhile, Golang has 87,600 GitHub stars and a larger community in comparison to NodeJS.
Go has the support from Google which hosts GopherCon annually where Go developers around the world gather to discuss new opportunities and changes along with various reasons to migrate to Go.
From this comparison, it can be said that NodeJS has a more active and stronger community.
Development Tools
The availability of development tools and libraries in a particular programming language not only helps out the developer in building various features and functionalities for the application but also cuts down the development cost and time.
NodeJS offers a wide range of development tools. The language can provide a tool for every single task you can think of from a simple one to the most complex tasks in the JavaScript ecosystem. Node Package Manager alone can offer over 800,000 ready-to-use development tools.
On the other hand, Golang seems to be new in the backend development arena. Although it can provide some great development tools to solve specific tasks, they are nowhere near as many as come from NodeJS.
So, in terms of the availability of development tools, both in terms of quality and quantity, NodeJS wins.
Salary and Availability of Developers
If you look around, finding NodeJS developers is easy in comparison to Go developers. It’s because NodeJs is already popular and due to its JavaScript ecosystem, you can find experts to perform different development tasks. But Go is relatively new to the backend, so finding Golang developers is hard. But because of scarcity, the pay scale of Golang developers is higher.
NodeJS pays around 53,000 USD whereas Go pays around 74,000 USD. but the NodeJS demand is high as well as there are more jobs for NodeJS developers in comparison to Golang.
So, it is clear from this survey, that there are more jobs for NodeJS developers but Golang developers are paid more.
Summary
From the comparison above, it might be tough to say which programming language is better. But after a careful analysis of NodeJS vs Go provided in this blog is enough for you to easily derive insights as to which programming language might fit your requirements.
