The Internet is full of debates. In this blog, we will take one such debate and see whether you should hire Golang developers or Java developers for server side backend programming. Although it involves a lot of parameters, we will try to take a look at the majority of them and come to a conclusion based on it.
Let us begin.
1. Simplicity
- Simplicity is key when it comes to server-side programming. This is due to the fact that scalability and legacy concerns are sure to arise as time passes. The likelihood that developers may have trouble understanding the code increases with the complexity of the code.
- The majority of developers believe that Golang has simpler threading than Java. Even though Java offers important features like dependency injection and annotation approach, it just increases the level of complexity.
- However, Golang is still less developed than Java. You might not be able to get all the feature requests you want from the Go language. For instance, there are fewer packages and libraries than in Java.
2. Types
- Golang is an AOT-compiled, statically typed language. This demonstrates how quick the programming language is. It is cross-platform and open-source as well. As a result, you have free access to Golang and all of its features. If you write a program in Windows you may execute it on Linux or macOS.
- The Golang language’s automatic garbage collection functionality is much appreciated by programmers. The Tricolor Mark and Sweep algorithm was added by the Golang developers in order to simplify things for the developers. It functions simultaneously and in unison with the write barrier.
- Java is another example of open-source language with statically typed syntax. Additionally, it demonstrates characteristics of both interpreted and compiled languages simultaneously. It provides cross-platform features apart from garbage collection. If you install the Java Virtual Machine, you can execute the code anywhere.
Meanwhile, if you are working on a distributable server or a web or mobile application, and you stumble upon an issue, you should hire Golang developers.
3. Concurrency
- One of the most intriguing aspects of Golang, along with parallelism, is concurrency. With the aid of goroutines, Golang utilizes OS threads. Java, on the other hand, uses green threads to execute activities in parallel while utilizing OS threads.
- Goroutines are typically lightweight threads that communicate with one another over channels. Golang also makes it feasible to accomplish concurrency and multi-threaded parallelism.
- Java, on the other hand, manages multithreading using the Thread class. Java now offers high-level concurrency APIs with version 5.0.
- Golang’s concurrency surpasses Java’s concurrency in terms of performance. Concurrency in Java happens between independent threads, which are very heavy to create and maintain and can only communicate with one another through return values or shared (volatile) variables.
- The strategy is considerably different in the case of Golang. The idea of memory sharing through conversation is visible in this language. Go subprocesses (goroutines) can write into an unbuffered channel and wait for another goroutine to take up the written data, or they can fill their buffer when the channel is buffered.
4. Errors and Panics (Go) vs Exceptions (Java)
- In Golang, there is a mechanism that takes the form of errors and panics. The error code is used to indicate an abnormal state in Golang. Errors are essentially little data objects in the Go programming language that implement the Error interface.
- Predefined errors improve signaling and help us pinpoint the precise error that occurred. Mistakes can be wrapped to give function call tracing via enough context (similar to a stack trace).
- Error management is therefore quite simple in Golang. To check for errors, all you need are if statements. Then, you can send the error as the final value and choose what to do with it.
- A key element of Java is exception handling, which is used to deal with runtime issues like IOException, ClassNotFoundException, SQLException, etc. Unchecked exceptions in Java are problematic and dangerous. Checked exceptions, however, can be controlled effectively.
- Exceptions are often what cause crashes and failures in Java production scenarios. The majority of developers dislike the exceptions since they are inconvenient.
5. Microservices
- Due to the numerous advantages microservices have to offer, the majority of businesses have clients that wish to work with them. A software must be divided into services that communicate with one another over an API interface in order to support such an architecture. With this strategy, the development process is more flexible.
- With the microservices approach, you may alter only one service rather than the entire app. As a result, implementation goes more quickly and there is less possibility of error.
- Going straight to the source of a potential problem is made easier by segmenting the structure. Go is perfect for that since it has a smaller memory footprint and starts up more quickly.
- However, it is advised to continue with Java for complex applications, especially when just one server is needed. This is simply because Java had the chance to progress and fix the problems over a long period of time.
6. Memory Management
- Golang consists of built-in memory management, which helps in the speeding up of the programming language. The automated garbage collection does not lead to a delay in cases of extraneous object referencing.
- The garbage collector is rather poor in Java when compared to Golang. This is despite the fact that developers’ lives are made simpler by Java since they don’t have to incorporate memory management logic into their programs. Furthermore, automatic garbage collection in Java is carried out by the JVM.
7. Features
- Golang is not an object-oriented language, but Java is. Java supports both reflection and inheritance. But in Golang, you cannot do it. Java programs have the ability to do self-reflection during the runtime phase as a means to check for the different errors.
- In Golang, you won’t be able to find the class concept. However, programmers can use the struct embedding. This is a concept by which struct can be used to create other objects, rather than extending it. This phenomenon is known as composition.
- Golang has quite a potent and modern standard library. Even though Java has a lot of packages and libraries, developers still have to use 3rd party libraries. Meanwhile, you get access to http support, JSON support, html templates, etc. in Golang.
8. Community
- Java has a larger community in comparison to Java, as Java appeared in 1995, while Golang came into the scene in 2009.
- Despite the small size of the Golang community, the developers are quite active and they help out each other with the development process.
As you can see, in most of the cases, Golang outclasses Java. Although if you look at the usage, you will find that most developers opt for Java, but the scenario is changing in favor of Golang. So, it depends upon you, which language you feel is better suited for server side programming.
