Goang is the real deal for raw performance and scalability, making it a top choice for platforms like Uber. Its native concurrency and resource management capabilities put it ahead of Node.js, which struggles with CPU-bound tasks. Even though Node.js is popular for real-time apps, Goang’s ease of use and impressive results at Uber show that it’s winning the race. πβ¨ #GoangForTheWin
π Uber’s Platform Transition: Node.js vs Golang
Have you ever wondered which technology stands behind the services we regularly use? Well, it’s a great way to start small talk and transform it into in-depth research. Just like the Jelix teammates did recently as they used to share an Uber to the Jelix office. One of our developers once broke the silence with an interesting question: which platform did Uber developers use to create the app? Interestingly, while most of the Uber app was initially written in Node.js and Python back in 2010, Uber decided to transition its new engineering projects to Golang in 2016. This way, the company expected to optimize Uber’s geofence lookup microservice. Does that mean that Golang is a more suitable case for real-time applications like Uber? What are the benefits that Node.js could not deliver as efficiently that made the Uber engineers opt for Golang? And did Uber eventually make a mistake leaving Node.js behind? Driven by curiosity, the Jelix teammates couldn’t stop thinking about it. So in this video, we’ll be sharing the takeaways from their research findings based on the comparison between the Node.js and Golang platforms. Welcome to another video by Jelix, a software development partner for industry leaders. We post weekly educational videos on Tech in 5 minutes, so sit back, enjoy, and don’t forget to subscribe. Also, use the Super Thanks feature to support our channel and make sure you watch till the end to know which results Uber achieved upon switching the platforms. We promise you they’re really surprising.
π£οΈ Uber’s Platform Performance and Concurrency Comparison
Let’s get into the details and compare the journeys in different platforms and rate two of our drivers: Golang and Node.js. And to make sure we’ve got the entire area covered, we’ll add several stops during the ride: performance, concurrency, scalability, learning curve, and popularity. So buckle up and enjoy the ride.
Let’s drop off at the first stop: Performance.
| Aspect | Golang Rating | Node.js Rating |
|---|---|---|
| Speed | 5 | 4 |
| Memory | 5 | 4 |
| Control | 5 | 4 |
Speaking of Golang, this platform shines in scenarios where raw CPU performance, efficient resource usage, and parallelism are essential. Golang is considered a raw performance leader for a few reasons, including compilation to machine code, efficient memory management, native support for concurrency, strong typing, extensive standard library, low-level control, and robust parallelism capabilities, to name a few. For the Uber case, Golang’s strong static typing and raw CPU performance aligned with Uber’s algorithms, and when compared, Node.js would commonly operate worse for CPU bound tasks because it operates in a single-threaded event loop which can block the event loop and impact overall performance. However, Node.js is known as a strong choice for IO bound tasks and real-time apps due to its non-blocking event-driven architecture. Based on these factors, the Jelix team would rate Golang’s performance as a five and Node.js as a four.
Concurrency:
The data shows Node.js does not match the level of concurrency and efficiency provided by Golang’s concurrency features and that’s all because of its event-driven model. Golang, in turn, offers native support for concurrency with goroutines and channels which makes it more efficient in this aspect.
π Scalability and Usability
Our next stop is Scalability.
| Aspect | Golang Rating | Node.js Rating |
|---|---|---|
| Multi-Core | 5 | 4 |
| Resource Util | 5 | 4 |
| Scalability | 5 | 4 |
The Jelix team would give Golang five stars and four to Node.js. Golang’s goroutines and channels enable it to effectively utilize multi-core processors and efficiently distribute tasks among them, which results in improved parallelism and scalability that Node.js can’t equally match with. And while Node.js is also capable of running and utilizing resources of multi-core environments in a very easy to scale approach using both built-in tools like cluster library or external supervisor, Golang would just be a bit faster and scalable due to its native code compilation.
What about Ease of Use?
The learning curve for Golang is often considered easier than Node.js, especially for newcomers all due to its simplicity, straightforward syntax, and strong typing. Node.js may have a steeper learning curve for those new to asynchronous programming concepts. However, developers with prior experience in JavaScript may find Node.js more familiar and easier to use.
The activeness of the community can tell you a lot so here’s what the Jelix team discovered as per Stack Overflow survey. Node.js remains one of the most used platforms while Golang takes a significantly lower position. But it’s too early to call Node.js a leader yet. The same survey shows the interest in learning Golang outruns Node.js and moreover, even though the Golang community is not as developed as Node.js, almost 92% of developers claim to be either highly or considerably satisfied with Golang. The Golang survey report shows that 68% of those using Golang are ready to recommend it, and 91% would prefer to use Golang in their next project.
As we’re finishing our Uber ride, we can see our drivers and regular passengers, the companies that use these platforms. And there you have it, a report from our trip. We’ve got you covered, the ride is on us. Check out our video dedicated to the best Node.js Frameworks for more insights, and stay tuned, our next videos are coming up soon, so subscribe and like this video to support us. Bye for now.
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