When it comes to the major players in backend development, two programming languages rise above the rest.

You might already be familiar with Node.js, which uses JavaScript in the backend. But Google Go, or Golang, has also gained ground in the backend development industry ever since top companies like Uber migrated to it.

In this article, we’ll compare each language based on performance, scalability, and error handling. Let’s dive in!

Performance

Golang developers stress that Go’s performance is the same as C and C++, which is great because Go compiles its codes directly to machine code without any virtual machine to slow down the compilation process.

There is also a built-in garbage collector in Golang that automatically frees up unused memory spaces, increasing available memory for faster processing. This feature also lowers the risk of security vulnerabilities due to memory leakage.

Node.js, on the other hand, uses a JavaScript engine, called V8. The codes in Node.js are reusable, making it a top choice for event-based applications that update data in real-time. This language is also widely used for instant messaging, video chats, and online gaming.

In 2013, Paypal migrated their codebase from Java to Node.js and reported that their pages were served 200ms faster, and the average response time decreased by 35%.

Statically typed Node.js with TypeScript is generally slower than other programming languages. Unlike Go, Node.js cannot offer CPU and memory-bound tasks performance, meaning that the version of Node.js cannot be as specific — it can perform great or terribly depending on the nature of the app.

Scalability and Concurrency

Google intended to develop a programming language for building heavy and complex enterprise-scale, production-ready applications in terms of scalability.

Go uses goroutines, which allows reliable and easy execution of threads and can be performed concurrently in a smooth manner. These goroutines make Go a perfect scalable programming language. It can process more than 1,000 requests per second using concurrency. This feature alone makes Go superior to Node.js in terms of scalability and concurrency. It’s also worth noting that Node.js is a single-threaded asynchronous JavaScript engine.

In Node.js single-threaded architecture, CPU-bound tasks sometimes block the event loop and slow down your program. Multithreading is not traditionally supported in Node.js. Although, you can still run some operations in parallel by multiprocessing.

Benchmarks

Sometimes, you can determine the best tool or language by running through different tasks or algorithms and calculating the time, speed, etc., it takes each language to perform.

Below, we’ll look at an example that shows the benchmark task performance of Node.js vs. Go for different computer language methods and algorithms.

-Node.js vs Golang benchmarks. (Image source: Intellectsoft)

Error Handling

Node.js traditionally handles errors using the try-catch technique of handling exceptions, where errors are caught just when they occur, and developers can debug errors quickly and faster.

Golang separates compile-time and runtime errors differently. This inconsistency causes confusion between developers and has led to a standard process in handling exceptions.

Difficulty Level

Node.js is easier to learn than Golang since it uses JavaScript, popular among developers of all types and the most widely used programming language globally.

Golang requires developers to learn its specific processes, concepts, rules, pointers, strict typing, interfaces, coroutines, and much more. Golang developers typically face a steeper learning curve.

Most importantly, Golang is a backend programming language only. Therefore, you need to hire a frontend developer separately.

Summary

From the analysis above, it’s challenging to choose which technology is better. We’ve attempted to give you insights into which technology will best fit your project or align appropriately with your company’s culture and processes.

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