Are you a senior software leader in any enterprise looking to undertake a project in web application development?
You could be facing challenges over how to best execute the project given the numerous programming languages available for web development.
The programming languages are crucial for not only frontend development but are viable for backend development as well. Without a doubt, the backend is the most vital part of bringing business logic and operations into life.
It is critical to use tools that make the backend easily scalable and as useful as possible.
There is a vast array of programming languages used today. In this article, we will discuss two up-and-coming backend technologies that are building high-performance applications.
Both caught the eye of web development through different projects. In this article, we make a detailed comparison of Node.js vs. Golang, but we first understand the basics before we do.
Table of Contents
Introduction
What is Node.js?
Node.js was created by Ryan Dahl in 2009, and in just two years, released an open-source version of the environment. Other computer operating systems support.
Node.js framework Built on Chrome’s V8 JavaScript engine, this environment provides excellent libraries that simplify web development.
In the beginning, Node.js used to provide an environment for executing javascript code. Today, however, it simplifies writing code for both frontend and backend web application development since it’s written in javascript. This feature makes it a revolutionary programming language.
Node.js has become one of the most popular programming languages since it features an asynchronous, event-driven, I/O model for developing highly scalable and real-time server-side web applications.
At the time of this writing, in February 2021, javascript has a popularity ranking of 7 among programming languages and has its latest stable release at 15.7.0.
Go, or Golang was first released in 2009 by a team of ambitious software engineers at Google. Ken Thompson, Rob Pike, and Griesemer played a vital role in the rise of Go.
This team studied the C programming language and wanted to retain most of its strengths, such as minimal resource requirements. As far as the structure is concerned, there is a considerable similarity between Go and C languages.
Go enables developers to use memory safely. Other key features include concurrency support, garbage collection, and object management. Golang has since undergone many enhancements thanks to having a vibrant developer community.
As of this writing, the stable release version is 1.15.6, released December 3, 2020.
Golang is the 2nd popular programming language according to the TIOBE index in January 2021. It indeed enjoys vast popularity. Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2019 ranks it as the 13th most popular programming language.
Whenever you think about Node.js’ use of Node.js, creating a high-performance network application comes to your mind first.
This JavaScript-based multi-platform runtime environment enables developers to build server-side and networking applications that are highly scalable.
It might be an excellent choice to choose Node.js for creating real-time web applications that support two-way communication. There is no need for a server to wait for an API response to return data in such applications.
Node.js servers satisfy this requirement because the environment allows asynchronous programming, and Node.js APIs are non-blocking. The event mechanism helps Node.js respond to requests, thus creating scalable applications.
Furthermore, Node.js does not buffer data thus very good in streaming. It creates fast applications backed up by the V8 JavaScript engine by Google Chrome.
What is Golang used for?
Thanks to its powerful features, Go can be used on a wide range of Web app development projects. When you first think of the use of Golang, performance comes to your mind.
It has a compiler and doesn’t have an interpreter, making Golang deliver robust performance. As far as performance is concerned, Go efficiently utilizes system resources making it a popular development language.
Efficient management of allocated memory makes it easier to write reliable applications. Thus, Go enables organizations to develop high-performance web applications.
Go writes APIs and web services because it has proven its utility in machine learning development, big data development, network programming, and systems programming.
In 2017v and 2018, Nod.js was awarded by TechOverFlow survey as first-place winners in the most commonly used language in Frameworks, Libraries, and Tools.
Netflix adopted Node.js, and this saw a reduction of 70% in startup time.
According to the State of the javascript survey, 85% of respondents preferred to use Node.js to develop JS-based web applications.
The following is a list of companies that use Node.js
Golang jumped from the 65th most popular programming language to the 17th most used in just two years.
According to the StackOverflow survey, Go is among the top five “most loved” programming languages.
Go is the fastest growing language, according to Packet pub.
The following is a list of companies that use Golang.
Google
Dailymotion
Twitch
DropBox
SoundCloud
Uber
The following are some of the components of Node.js frameworks
Gin
Iris
Revel
Buffalo
Beego
Echo
Martini
Pros and Cons
Node.js
Advantages
As we have already discussed, Node.js builds highly scalable web applications. Scalability emerges as a critical use case every time you think of the uses of Node.js.
Easy to learn to code. Node.js inherits from javascript, which many developers popularly know.
Node.js is used to write both frontend and backend code; hence it becomes easier for an organization to hire a full-stack developer at once.
Node.js applications have high performance, as we have seen and already explained.
It is easier to catch individual modules.
The fast runtime environment is a perfect choice to create streaming applications for anyone working with Node.js.
Node.js works well with MongoDB and is highly extensible
A very supportive growing community backs up Node.js, giving it two advantages: the first, it has incredible support, and secondly, the presence of many open-source tools and frameworks for Node.js that can assure productivity.
Disadvantages
As we have mentioned, Node.js supports asynchronous programming. Even though it has some advantages, it can pose significant challenges to developers who are not familiar with asynchronous programming, requiring attention to hire only experts with appropriate knowledge.
Node.js, just as is Javascript, is dynamically and weakly typed. Making variable types errors is a standard error when using such language. Inexperienced programmers will therefore find it hard to debug such errors. Thus, any organization should hire experienced professionals.
The numerous changes happening in the APIs of Node.js confuse developers.
Golang
Advantages
The language has a neat clean syntax; hence developers always find it easy to use
Go is a language gaining immense popularity making many developers want to learn it. Hiring Go developers in the future will thus be easy.
Go code is easy to read; therefore, maintaining applications is easy.
There is a considerable similarity between Go and C, C++; hence many developers can quickly learn it.
The Go standard library supports many functions. There is no need for programmers to import complex external libraries. Developers use the standard library to undertake multiple tasks without the need to write complicated code.
Go code is bug-free since it uses static typing, hence reduces room for variable-related errors. Memory management and garbage collection are the features that minimize bug likelihoods in Go.
Go reduces cybersecurity threats since code written has minimal chances of bugs. Attackers are always on the lookout for loopholes in systems to exploit vulnerabilities. A programming language that reduces the chances of errors in code automatically has security advantages.
Excellent documentation is available for go. The language alerts you when you write a program and fail to use sufficient documentation.
Go is a compiled language and does not need an interpreter to deliver high performance and making it a critical factor for Go.
Go supports concurrency, which provides high degrees of parallel processing.
Applications built using Go are highly scalable. Developers can quickly identify bottlenecks that might impact an application’s scalability, providing sufficient time for app optimization.
Developers can test their code using Go API. Programmers use it to run parallel tests.
Go is simple to use. Compared to other programming languages, more code is needed to implement complex functionalities. The lack of complex abstractions that are present in other languages makes it less versatile.
Go does not have a virtual machine (VM); hence massive programs written in require more computing resources.
Significant effort is required to connect your project to the library since Go doesn’t offer its own GUI library.
In comparison to other leading programming languages, Go has a less matured developer community.
Node.js vs. Golang: Head-to-head comparison
It is about time we settle this debate. Although the Go language looks to be the perfect solution for web application development due to easiness to use features, compilation, and popularity among developers, Node.js is still firmly standing its ground.
We can now settle the debate between Node.js and Go by using various approaches.
Simplicity
Javascript is undoubtedly one of the most used programming languages globally, with a huge developer community. Learning Node.js is still comfortable even if you are not familiar with Javascript, given the numerous courses available on the internet.
In Go, developers learn specific concepts, processes, interfaces, coroutines, rules, pointers, and other stuff. Further, Go is for backend development purposes only, so you will probably need to hire frontend developers as well.
Scalability
Go language is perfectly suited for scalability. In other terms, Goroutines allow more effortless execution of parallel threads.
Node.js development, on the other hand, works a little bit differently. Concurrent programming in javascript uses event callbacks, which makes concurrency inefficient.
The system thus gets messy very quickly. Node.js is also single-threaded; therefore, the execution of instructions happens in sequence.
As we have seen, concurrent programming is not as agile and elegant as it should be.
Error handling
In Go language, error handling has a unique approach. It demands a proper code check. As a result, you get better code consistency and flawless work.
Node.js may sometimes have inconsistent error handling but has a better and more explicit error handling than Golang using a common throw-catch error handling technique.
Performance
The drive for building Go was to get better performance than Node.js, and they achieved this goal. Golang’s framework is very light and fast compared to Node,.js.
On the other hand, Node.js is dynamically typed and is an interpreted language slow in execution compared to other compiled languages.
Depending on the web app you are building, performance can either be high or terrible. However, Node.js and Go’s performance is often equal when network communications and database interaction are involved.
Ecosystem
Javascript has been in the industry for over a decade and has a large developer community. No wonder there are all kinds of developer tools available for Node JS development.
On the other hand, the Go language is young and less popular than Node.js.
Truth be told, it will take time for Golang to catch up with Node.js. It is even easier to find a Node.js developer than it is to find a Go developer.
Community
As mentioned earlier, both languages have their communities fully engaged in improving these programming languages.
For example, Node JS has a large and vibrant community aiming to have widespread Node JS adoption.
Microsoft, PayPal, Intel, and IBM are active members of the Node.js foundation.
Node.js has over 57000 stars and over a billion downloads on GitHub.
The Go community, even though small, is growing every year. Google hosts annual GopherCon events that bring together developers from all around the world.
It seems that both Golang and Node.js are growing. However, Javascript is the most popular programming language, according to StackOverflow.
Golang is ranked the top 5 “most loved” programming languages ahead of javascript.
There is no perfect programming language when it comes to programming languages from all this. It is a matter of what kind of web application you want to build.
If you are confused, you can hire a professional web development company because they know which tools and languages to best use for any project.
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Jamsheer K, is the Tech Lead at Acodez. With his rich and hands-on experience in various technologies, his writing normally comes from his research and experience in mobile & web application development niche.
