When to Choose the GO Programming Language for Your Software Project?

For over a decade, the Go programming language has been disrupting the software development world. It may be new, but it has grown from a curiosity for geeks to one of the top ten primary languages of professional developers. They particularly appreciate its speed and efficiency. 

Go is used primarily to program web services, utilities, IT infrastructure, and libraries. It’s great for coding web servers and microservices, it works perfectly with scalable projects where concurrency is a must and so it is becoming the most important language for cloud-based projects.  What’s behind this growing popularity? 

This article gives you everything you need to know to decide if Go is a good choice for your new software project. More specifically, we explain:

• What is Go?
• What are some of the most popular use cases of Go?
• The benefits of Go software development,
• The disadvantages of using Go you should be aware of,
• When Golang is the best choice for your next software project.

Go programming language – what is it?

Go, or Golang is a programming language designed for Google by cloud engineers Robert Griesemer, Rob Pike, and Ken Thompson back in 2007. They wanted to create a language that would speed up their work on cloud-centric projects. Thus, they began to develop a statically typed language that would be as easy to use as dynamically typed languages while maintaining a similar level of expressiveness.

They achieved this by “combining” static typing and runtime efficiency from C with readability and usability known from Python or JavaScript. As a result, Go has elements from both statically and dynamically typed languages, but it doesn’t introduce anything completely new. Eventually, Go language became open-source and was released publicly in 2012.

Go is often called “a new C++” due to fast compilation, simple deployment, easier syntax, and useful tools such as a highly effective Garbage Collector and testing functions. At the same time, it places a strong emphasis on interfaces in contrast to classes, making the Go language similar to JavaScript.

What are the main features of Go?

• A modern and powerful standard library packages
• Package management
• Static typing
• Built-in testing library
• Cross-platform support

Go is all about reducing the amount of typing. It reduces clutter and complexity, which makes the developer’s work much easier. If you’re considering Go for your next software project, contact us directly and we can advise if this is the right choice for your case. 

Popular use cases of Go

Go language keeps growing in popularity because developers can use it for a variety of applications – from cloud-based and server-side apps to DevOps automation, command-line tools, and many more. These are our top three products written in Go:  

Docker: an open-source platform for building and managing software delivered in packages called containers.

Kubernetes: an open-source container orchestration system. It is compatible with Docker. Kubernetes containers allow for automating application deployment, scaling, and management.

Ethereum: an open-source blockchain cryptocurrency and decentralized computing platform. Ethereum generates Ether, a popular cryptocurrency.

Go is a relatively young programming language, compared to other popular languages like C++, released in 1983, Python (1991), Java (1995), or even C# (2000), which can offer greater library support. Nonetheless, Golang has already earned the deserved trust in the software development industry. Apart from Google, it’s currently used by giants like Microsoft, Uber, Twitch, Slack, Shopify, Dropbox, Facebook, Netflix, Paypal, and American Express.

The advantages of Go language

By choosing Go, you benefit from regular updates, a modern feel, simplicity, agility, and high performance. Go code is perfect for developing cloud apps and microservices because of the following advantages: 

• Simplicity

Since Go mimics Python and C++, developers experienced in these technologies will find it easy to pick up. However, Go is easy to learn also for beginners. Coders can digest the entire specification document in one day – it’s just 50 pages, whereas the specification for JavaScript is over 750 pages. With only 25 keywords, the syntax of this language is very simple, which boosts developers’ productivity. Unlike Java, Go applications don’t need a virtual machine to run. 

• Ease of use 

Static typing guarantees type safety— typing errors are signaled during compilation rather than when running the code, so developers can easily avoid certain problems in the production environment and perform code refactoring safely. At the same time, the static type features guarantee conciseness, expressiveness, and readability. 

• Backed by Google 

Golang was created by Google, so it’s very unlikely it will cease to exist. Companies investing in this technology can be certain they won’t have to change it soon. In addition, Google typically updates Go twice a year, which, in comparison to other programming languages, is rather frequent (e.g. Python is updated once a year, C# once every one to two years). 

• Cross-platform nature

Go is cross-platform, which means that the code will work on different operating systems, including Windows, Linux, and macOS. Go also offers numerous built-in language features that enable easy development across different platforms. There are also plenty of libraries to support interacting with hardware, and building GUI applications. 

• Concurrency

While concurrent programming is typically complex, Go has built-in concurrency features that make the language very efficient at running multiple tasks simultaneously. That’s why Go is great for building large enterprise platforms that have to handle multiple users at one time.

• Scalability

A Go app is easy to scale and develop as your business evolves. Owners can actually move from small business to enterprise-level using the same technology stack and they won’t create unmanageable technical debt. 

• Error handling

Go handles errors rigorously, which saves a lot of time and money for coding. Of course, errors will occur, but the syntax and compiler checks make it pretty clear where they are before compilation, which makes fixing them a lot easier. 

• Garbage collection

Go excels at allowing control of memory allocation. The garbage collection system automatically frees the no longer used memory of programs and doesn’t sacrifice too much performance. The recent versions of the language (Go 1.16 and beyond) have improved the performance optimizations as well.

• Fast compilation

Go code compiles fast to native machine code and doesn’t require any virtual machine or interpreter. This short compilation time guarantees a high speed of development.  It’s much faster than in Java or Python.

• Open-source language

Go is an open-source programming language, so it undergoes constant simplification and improvements. In case of problems or questions, developers can benefit from a growing community of users. 

• Powerful standard library packages

Many developers claim the standard Go library packages are powerful enough to focus on the logic of the app rather than low-level details. Of course, most programming languages have their own standard libraries, but the ones in Golang are designed to maximize productivity. Developers can typically achieve a lot using just the standard library packages, which saves development time and personnel costs.

• Availability of talent

Go is trendy and is growing in popularity among developers. The 2020 Stack Overflow survey indicates that Go is the third most wanted language among developers who aren’t yet familiar with it. It has also moved from 10th to the 5th preferred language by current users. This popularity certainly suggests that the number of Go coders will continue to grow.

When to choose Go for your next software project?

When will opting for Go help you maximize business benefits? Consider the below scenarios – if at least two of them are your requirements, then Go will be an excellent direction to go: 

• When building in the cloud

That’s actually what Go was created for. Microservice-based architectures are perfect for this programming language because Go is incredibly lightweight, allows managing memory safely, and compiles fast. Go applications use less RAM (a lot less than ones written in e.g. Java), so your cloud usage bills will be reduced. In addition, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform all give Go first-class support as a major language. 

• When you need to release fast

Golang is faster than other programming languages like JavaScript or Python thanks to the concurrency model and small syntax, which guarantees simplicity. The amount of code that developers have to go through is limited, making their work easier and faster. The availability of numerous tools makes coding more efficient as well, so businesses can definitely use Go if they want to optimize their costs.  

• When you need to cut development costs

As a programming language, Golang is simple to use, fully concurrent, and minimizes the probability of bugs, which means that developers can actually focus on coding rather than debugging. That’s a plus for any business that is looking to cut costs. In most cases, development teams will spend less time coding in Go than in any other language. However, Go developers are among the highest-earning coders globally, so owners must keep that in mind when budgeting their projects. 

• When versatility and flexibility is a must

Golang is certainly among the most flexible programming languages. It’s a great option when you first create an MVP and intend to scale your app over the years. Go can be used to write web applications, cloud services, streaming platforms, news portals, and on-demand services – the application spectrum of this language is wide.  

• When you can’t compromise on reliability

Go was designed for creating complex, yet high-performing applications accessed by millions of users at one time. It can manage social networks, streaming platforms, and cloud hosting for large files stably and consistently. It’s easy to scale as well, which is particularly useful for startups and enterprises alike, and any company at the growth stage.

When not to opt for Go?

Just like any other programming language, Golang isn’t perfect, so it won’t suit every software development project. The choice should always be made on a case-by-case basis. Consider the below situations:

When you have a tight budget: in most cases, opting for Go allows companies to cut software development costs in the long run. However, Go developers are among the highest-earning coders globally, so owners must keep that in mind when budgeting their projects. C++ that supports the .NET framework typically allows companies to optimize software production costs.

When you want to build a complex application fast: large applications with robust functionalities may require a different programming language when they need to release fast. Also, the simplicity of Go may sometimes work against it – it may actually require more time and effort from developers.

For object-oriented programming: although Golang enables an object-oriented style of programming, it doesn’t have a type hierarchy. Instead of class inheritance, known from the most popular object-oriented programming languages, Go enables type composition. That requires a different structure and modeling of such applications, which may increase the time spent on the development of enterprise applications. Also, Go may be not the best choice for mobile applications, as the support for mobile devices is still experimental. 

When you need to start building immediately: Go may be the most popular language developers want to learn (over 36% declare their interest), but the current pool of experts is rather limited. Golang hasn’t yet made it to the top ten of the most widely known languages. You may be struggling to find specialists for your project if you need to hire them quickly.

Consider building a Go project

It’s not surprising that more and more businesses are considering Go to build their next tool. It’s a versatile programming language designed to meet the demands of the modern, competitive software engineering market.

Go is easy to learn and use. You can use Go to build a variety of programs and apps faster than in other programming languages. It’s equipped with a set of tools that simplifies and speeds up writing the code. As an open-source programming language, Go undergoes constant evolution, improvements, and users’ growing community.

Coding in Go is typically faster than in other programming languages thanks to fast compilation. It guarantees great performance thanks to concurrency support. An app or program written in Go is lightweight and uses little memory, which also reduces cloud usage costs. What more can a business need?

Every project has its nuances, so before you delve into building a Go application or solution, consult an experienced outsourcing provider to see if this technology is the right fit for the task. You can contact us directly here to arrange an initial consultation.

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