Golang vs Node.js: What's the Difference?

Now before moving into detailed article, Let’s have a look on the basic differences between both:

Go** **is Google’s simple programming language and Node.js is runtime JavaScript code execution. But both works for backend development.

Go writes the code that is executable at the server-side while Node.js creates an environment for JavaScript to execute it’s code on the server side.

Now let’s compare the differences pointwise.

Performance:

Node.js: Node.js has been derived from JavaScript and appears to be slower in writing executable code, but overall with regards to performance it is good to go with.

**Golang: **Golang has similar performance as with C or C++, which is very good.

Concurrency:

Concurrency in very simple terms means that two or more processes (or threads) run together, but not at the same time. Only one process executes at once.

**Node.js: **Node.js handles some of the world’s heaviest, scalable workloads on it’s seemingly ‘single-threaded’ event-loop. Node.js is single-threaded, which means that the execution instructions are performed in sequence. And this may be its Achilles’ heel when it comes to large applications requiring massive scaling with a lot of parallel processes executed at the same time. JavaScript allows some concurrency with event callbacks; however, they are not too effective.

Golang: Golang uses coroutines* *called “goroutines”. Goroutines allow multiple threads to be performed simultaneously with parallel tasks executed easily and reliably.

Learning Curve:

**Node.js: **Since Node.js is available in the industry from a long time. There are so many options available for learning it over the internet.

**Golang: **Go is new in comparison to Node.js with less resources and options to enhance learning for developers.

Error Handling:

**Node.js: Nodejs **uses the traditional throw catch error technique, wherein errors are fixed immediately as soon as they occur.

**Golang: **Go poses a problem for developers with its explicit runtime and compilation time error mechanism.

Scalability:

Node.js: Node.js has a weaker parallel process and is not suitable for larger project development work.

**Golang: **Golang uses Go-routines which allow multiple threads to perform parallel tasks at a single go.

Development Tools:

**Node.js: **Since Node.js is a runtime environment that runs on JavaScript environment, there is a multitude of libraries, frameworks, and tools available for it

**Golang: **Number of libraries, tools, and packages available are very few. So it’s a little bit challenging with Golang developers.

Blockchain Integration:

**Node.js: **Node.js is not suitable for blockchain implementation.

**Golang: **Go language is more agile and simplified for incorporating Blockchain technology.

Community Support:

**Node.js: **Node.js has very huge community support.

**Golang: **Golang is not used widely like Node.js yet, So community support is very less.

Brands Relying:

**Node.js: **Godaddy, Netflix, Linkedin, Paypal, Groupon, Walmart.

**Golang: **Google, BBC, Docker, BaseCamp, Medium, Dropbox.

Conclusion:

Node.js and Go, both have their pros and cons and it is a very tough task to choose one. But you can definitely select it according to your specific project requirements.

Thanks for reading ❤

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