DEV Community

Cover image for Demystifying Go and Python for the new age businesses
Ketan Chavda
Ketan Chavda

Posted on

Demystifying Go and Python for the new age businesses

The increase in the expansion of technology has lead to an even broader landscape of backend languages than one could ever imagine. Python has been an undisputed leader in giving backend development services, but since the last few years, it is facing stiff competition from Golang, widely known as Go.

It is an unwritten rule in the mobile and web development companies to do thorough research before deciding on the best language for a project. Python programming or going for Go language remains a substantial matter of discussion between the developers, as both programming languages run neck to neck in competition.

Thus, how will a company know when to opt for Go programming language and when to go for Python development services for effective business solutions? We’ll give you the apt advice on when to hire python developers and Golang developers for your web app development process.

We'll list down some examples to make it easy for you to understand various aspects.

Decoding the curious case of Golang and Python Programming Language

What is Python Programming Language?

Python is a high-level object-oriented programming language with high-level built-in data structures. It was designed and released in 1991 and was primarily used in Data Science. Python is an interpreted language as the written codes here are not translated into computer-readable format at runtime. Thus, it can be used in trivial web development processes.

What is Golang?

Golang programming language was initially developed to build reliable and straightforward softwares. The open-source programming language was first released in the year 2012, and since then it is astoundingly challenging Python in terms of speed and performance. Go has many features of the modern-day programming language as it was created to eliminate the extra trash of languages such as C++.

After understanding in brief about the programming language, let us head straight and see how Python and Golang fare against each other at different parameters.

Who PERFORMS better?

When it comes to completing a task in a specific time, Golang trumps Python programming language by a huge, huge margin. When it comes to doing multiple mathematical functions, Golang is a real champion.

For example, while solving the N body mathematical equation, it took more than 14 minutes for Python while the equation was computed in 21 seconds by Golang programming language.

The Python programming language has a fantastic set of libraries, and it helps in cutting down the cost in the initial development phase. Python programming can be helpful for Startups as it is widely accessible across the web development landscape.

On the other hand, Go language has a game that is suited for the microservice architecture of the modern-day business world. And this is the reason why Web development companies providing Golang development have grown upto 7% in the past year according to GitHub.

Which Programming Language is more POPULAR?

Due to a broader audience, Python programming language is more popular as compared to Golang. Python is a cloud-native language, and it is used in the top running projects such as Docker and Ethereum.

Python developers have more experience in web development compared to Golang as the former programming language was developed 30 years before the latter one. In the past five years too, there has been a constant increase in the popularity of Python, whereas Golang has seen only a stable growth. If you hire a python developer, it will be suited to develop a plethora of web applications.

Moreover, it is seen that since 2015, there has been a rise in the number of searches for Golang, that establishes a brighter future for the programming language.

Gauging the Scalability

Golang was developed with the very aim of making the process of web development more scalable, and it succeeds in it to a great extent. Golang has an inbuilt process to support concurrent process channeling. Concurrency means that the app is doing well on multiple tasks in real-time simultaneously without any lag.

With Python, the developers find it challenging to implement concurrency, but it can work exceedingly well in applying parallelism through threads with significant effect. Parallelism is a process where the application bifurcates a bigger task into smaller sub-tasks, and the CPU processes them in a parallel manner. Thus, the task execution takes lesser time as the amount of load is less on the CPU.

Application Development

Before getting into the application development through programming languages, we need to understand that each programming language has a specific purpose, and it will be unfair to compare them on a scalar quantity.

Python development service providers cater their services in the field of Artificial Intelligence, Deep Learning, Data Analysis and web application development. The broader range of application is due to the broad set of libraries. Thus, if you hire a Python developer, the process of web development is bound to get more comfortable for your product.

The application of Golang is majorly limited to systems programming. But as Golang is proficient in concurrency, it can be widely used in cluster computing and cloud computing. As Golang has easy to install and powerful libraries, the process of web app development can be done quickly.Thus Golang has found wide acceptance among the developer community.

Who has better Libraries?

Python programming, without a doubt, provides a wide range of libraries that can cover all the aspects of web development. With the increment of web frameworks, the popularity of Python Programming language has gone a notch up which has seen it become one of the leading backend development languages.

Although Golang has a limited set of libraries, it still manages to provide comprehensive web app development as compared to Python. There are inbuilt libraries for various purposes like database handling, concurrency programming, encryption and many more. Thus, it adds value to your business, saves time and maintains the high quality of the end product like Python.

Excelling at Execution

Python is a dynamically typed programming language, whereas Go binds with its variables statically. By working with Go, the developers can identify errors at the compilation time. Thus it gives them the liberty to identify and correct even the most difficult bugs without much hassle.

Python uses an interpreter instead of a compiler. As Python programming is done dynamically, it limits the ability of the developers to build a massive program.

Therefore, if you are looking for a programming language for complex web app development, Go is the ‘way to go’ as the developers will find it easier to handle the codes compared to Python.

Leading the way in Readability

Code readability is paramount before choosing a programming language for web application development services for your product. It is vital to keep the code clean so that the other developers working on the project can understand it and take the project forward.

Hiring Python developers gives you a lot of freedom when it comes to programming as the developers can have multiple approaches. Although, this liberty might turn hazardous as there are high chances of confusion. It can become a hurdle in the development and the future analysis of the product.

Golang comes with a specific approach when it comes to code readability, and it doesn't allow the import of unnecessary libraries or the creation of unimportant variables. Thus, it leads to a better understanding among the developers as they can perform the task without confusion. But not having class inheritance leads to a lot of code copying which, as a result, makes the code less elegant and readable as compared to Python.

What suits your business the best?
After analyzing Python Programming Language and Golang on different parameters, you will become sure regarding the fact that which language suits your business most according to your requirements.

Heed to the fact that both the concerned programming languages are powerful back-end technologies and can maintain the performance and scalability of your web app. Go and Python are not direct competitors. In-fact, they can be used in developing independently deployable microservices that requires high readability levels. You can also use the combination of Go and Python programming and see your product soar high in its genre.

Top comments (0)