Its first official release was in 2012. Go is now a modern, high-performance programming language. What is Golang used for, and why is it gaining traction in 2025?
Google – the name behind the development of Go – had hoped that Golang applications could empower developers and the systems they worked with.
And for all intents and purposes, this goal continues to be reached as programmers worldwide routinely rely on the language for their projects.
Top Applications of Golang
Many Go projects demonstrate that Golang is commonly used for the following applications:
- Web Development
- Cloud Services
- Data Science
- Networking
- Microservices
From powering large-scale web applications to driving innovation in cloud computing and data science, Go has secured its place as a go-to language for modern development.
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Web Development
Go is a popular option for web development thanks to its speed, simplicity, and scalability.
It allows developers to build high-performance web apps with relative ease.
One of the standout features that make Go particularly suited for web development is its ability to handle a large number of requests at once without breaking a sweat, which is a must-have for web servers, APIs, and microservices.
If you are considering using Golang for this kind of development, we highly recommend checking out Gin, Echo, and Fiber. These frameworks can all help facilitate rapid development.
Gin is exceptionally lightweight and known for its efficiency. Echo comes with built-in middleware support and easy routing. Fiber – which models Express.js – makes things much simpler with its intuitive API.
All of these make great additions to Go’s standard library.
Cloud Services
Go is a favorite among our developers for cloud computing. A big reason for this is the fact that it compiles into a single binary and runs seamlessly on multiple different platforms.
Some well-known cloud technologies that you may be familiar with were all built by Go. This includes Docker, Kubernetes, and even Terraform.
Go’s ability to handle multiple processes at the same time means that these cloud applications can run well, even under very heavy loads.
Data Science
Go is gaining traction in data science as an alternative to Python. Although it can’t be used in all cases, Go’s speed and efficiency make it a great option if you are dealing with massive datasets and need to perform real-time analytics.
Some popular Go libraries you could consider for this kind of work include Gonum (a numerical computing library,) Gorgonia (a deep learning library,) and GoLearn (a machine learning library.)
Networking
If you are building networking applications, you need to focus on reliability, speed, and efficiency, which are all things Go is great at.
Caddy, Traefik, and Maddy are all networking tools that have taken advantage of Go’s features, especially their net/http library, TLS encryption, and more.
Microservices
Microservices are incredibly important for modern software architecture, and we think Golang is one of the best languages to use to build them. Its lightweight nature, fast execution, and built-in support for concurrency make it an excellent choice for developing distributed systems.
We’ve already mentioned how it is well suited for containerized environments like Docker and Kubernetes, which makes the entire process much easier. Below, we’ll cover some companies that have done just that.
What Is GoLang?
Go, often called GoLang, was designed to respond to heated critiques against other languages used at Google. In fact, Go’s designers have a noted animosity towards C++ with a long list of simplifications they developed through Go.
That said, most Go developers come from Python and Ruby, not C++. In addition, many elements of Go are inspired by other languages. For example, Go borrows static typing and runtime efficiency from C and readability and usability from Python and JavaScript.
All the features of Go contribute to its primary benefit – stability. For example, static typing promotes flexibility by not requiring the explicit initialization of variables. This plays into the prevention of runtime errors, improving runtime efficiency.
Syntactically similar to C, you can also find memory safety, garbage collection, structural typing, and concurrency in Go.
Structural typing extends more flexibility towards Go users by determining class via structure rather than declarations. Garbage collection encourages memory safety by cleaning up unused memory.
Concurrency signifies that multiple processes can happen at the same time, meaning programming processes execute with exceptional speed.
Some other perks of Go include its high-performance networking and multi-processing. This also allows for overall faster computing. And, of course, these features stand alongside code that is made to be easy to use and easy to read.
Go produces code that “will continue to compile and run without change, in many environments, on a time scale of years,” according to Andrew Gerrand.
6 Advantages of GoLang
1. Simplicity
Go comes equipped with just about everything you need, such as a basic test library, synchronization primitives, templating, and more. The result is using fewer dependencies while coding in Go.
Forward compatibility is one feature of Golang applications that keeps things simple. The concept ensures that new Go updates don’t cause any broken gears in your programming.
Moreover, Go eliminates complex features like manual memory management and class inheritance, reducing cognitive overload and making code easier to maintain.
2. Small Learning Curves
The learning curve for Go is notably shallow. The documentation is easy to read and utilizes a no-frills syntax. Some go as far as to say that you could learn Go in one evening.
There are less than 30 keywords, which might be an indicator of how simple the language is. Creating a small Golang application should be as easy as pie.
Our developers love this feature of Go. They have commented that this strict typing not only makes learning the language easy but also helps you catch errors early and keeps the code clean!
As if that were not enough, new learning resources like Go.dev, Golang’s official website, now provide interactive tutorials and an extensive package library, making onboarding even easier for beginners.
3. Speed, Performance and Efficiency
Go is a compiled language. In contrast to interpreted languages, compiled languages are directly translated to machine code before execution. This means faster and more efficient code.
Golang’s static types and effective garbage collectors also make it a bit more speedy than other high-level programming languages. Even when compared to Java, one of the penultimate programming languages, Go is still faster on almost every benchmark.
Benchmarks from 2024 and 2025 show that Go can handle thousands of simultaneous connections per second with lower CPU and memory usage compared to Java and Python, making it ideal for high-traffic applications.
4. Concurrency and Goroutines
We’ve mentioned several times that Go is fast and lightweight, but we haven’t mentioned why. The answer is Concurrency. Instead of multithreading the traditional way, Go uses goroutines, which allow multiple processes to run at the same time without consuming incredible quantities of resources.
5. Support
You’re all set to build Golang applications on Windows, Linux, and Mac. There are also many integrated development environments (IDEs) and editors that support Go, including the following:
- Emacs
- Vim
- VSCode
- Atom
- Eclipse
- Sublime
- IntelliJ
In addition, Go’s latest version includes enhanced debugging tools and improved support for Visual Studio Code, making it more accessible for developers worldwide.
6. Comprehensive Library and Extensive Tooling
Go’s standard library is one of its most appreciated features. Unlike some languages that require multiple third-party dependencies, Go comes with a robust and well-documented standard library that supports networking, file handling, cryptography, testing frameworks, and concurrency utilities.
However, thanks to its open-source nature, Go is no stranger to tools and modifications that strengthen its usefulness either. Golang’s GitHub repository, for instance, hosts various plugins to enhance your Golang applications.
A couple of tools worth noting are Gotests and Revive. Gotests provides an easy way of generating table-driven tests via core logic. Revive extends a framework for the development of custom rules in Go.
Air, GoReleaser, and Delve are also trending in 2025. Air is a live reloading tool that developers are using to speed up development cycles, while GoReleaser further improves speed by automating build and release pipelines. Delve simplifies bug tracking.
7. Large Talent Pool
According to the 2020 State of Software Engineers report by Hired, Go is among the hottest programming languages being used today. As a result, you’ll have many developers to choose from when you hire someone for your project. And to that same end, quite a few of them will be talented.
The 2024 Developer Survey by Stack Overflow ranks Golang as the thirteenth most-loved programming language, with 13.5% of developers using Go.
What Has Golang Been Used
Golang’s support for concurrency makes it an excellent choice for handling bottlenecks that prevent scalability.
One particular feature of Go, goroutines, offers concurrency by allowing functions or methods to run concurrently with other functions or methods. A complimentary feature, channels, works to link goroutines together.
Backend developers can reap the most benefits from Go. Using the language, developers can handle heavy requests on the server side with minuscule memory usage.
If you want a better idea of how you can use Go, take a look at the following companies using Go right now:
- Uber
- Twitch
- Dailymotion
- Dropbox
- Netflix
- SoundCloud
- BBC
Below are some more specific examples of where Go can be used. Here are seven Golang applications.
Distributed Network Services
Concurrency thrives in any networking environment. Using goroutines and channels, Go is naturally suited for developing network services such as APIs, web servers, and mini frameworks for web applications.
Cloud-Native Development
The same concurrency and networking features align with its high portability across various platforms, making Go an exceptional language for cloud computing. As a matter of fact, many standout cloud platforms like Kubernetes were built with Go. Google Cloud also uses Go to enhance scalability and performance.
Replacements for Existing Infrastructure
Many old infrastructures were rewritten using Go in an attempt to modernize what’s become obsolete over time. A new version of the Network Time Protocol (NTP) – an internet protocol for clock synchronization among networks – relies on Go.
Utilities and Stand-Alone Tools
Since Go is fully functional with little to no dependencies, the language is well-suited for building small tooling items. These can launch quickly and be packaged for redistribution at a moment’s notice.
News Outlets
The British Broadcasting Corporation, more commonly known as simply BBC, has been using Go on its backend for some time now. It’s probably safe to assume Go’s capacity for multithreading to maximize CPU usage helps more often than not when it comes to managing a massive multimedia website.
Media Platforms
Similarly, YouTube, SoundCloud, and Netflix all run on Go. Capable data processing is one of the main advantages of Go, so it’s no surprise that these online platforms, which control tons of data to distribute to their patrons, have chosen to work with Go.
On-Demand Services
The busy bustle of everyday life requires technology that can accommodate the everyday person who needs fast and reliable service. The best example of a service like this is Uber, which uses Go to get to users in the nick of time for just about every request.
What Are the Limitations of GoLang?
Despite its simplicity, Go still has some setbacks. Perhaps because Go is so simple, it is less descriptive than other languages. What can be accomplished with a few lines of Python may take several lines in Golang applications. Developers may feel that their code is a bit disorganized as a result.
Go is also extremely young. Before its official release, the language was publicly announced in 2009 after being developed, however, in 2007. Thus, the language is over a de old. But this is relatively new compared to the most traditional languages like Java and Python, which were released in the 1990s.
The downside to this youth is that Go can be difficult to implement with older platforms that aren’t quite ready for it, so to speak. And programmers using the language may not be as well-adjusted either.
Yet another pitfall is that you can’t build generic functions in Go. This severely limits code reusability and efficiency. Developers must take extra time to think about workarounds for this issue.
Golang vs. Other Languages
We’ve already mentioned Java and Python a couple of times. In many cases, Go would be your alternative to one of these options. So, let’s look at the differences to help you decide when to use which.
Golang vs. Python
Python is known for being simple and readable, with an extensive ecosystem. It’s often used for data science, automation, and AI.
The issue with Python is its execution speed, making Go the better option (as a compiled language instead of interpreted) if you are working with high-performance applications.
However, if you are working in scientific computing and AI, you may still want to use Python, the more adopted language in these fields, and make use of its libraries like NumPy, TensorFlow, and Pandas.
Golang vs. Java
Java is popular for its ecosystem, object-oriented programming model, and large-scale application support. All of this makes it widely used in banking, finance, and enterprise systems. However, Java is very complex and might not always be necessary.
Go is very lightweight and efficient, thanks to its single binary, instead of Java’s JVM (Java Virtual Machine), which can introduce greater resource demand.
This makes Go a better option if you need something fast that can consume minimal resources, while Java is often the better option for enterprise-level applications that need long-term maintainability.
How To Hire the Right Go Developer
When it comes to hiring developers, there is always more brunt work than expected. Hiring developers, whether they be Go developers or something else entirely, requires enough technical expertise to understand what exactly you will need for your development project and recognize which developers can provide that.
Thankfully, Trio offers several resources explaining how to do just that. Check out the Trio blog for a complete guide that will take you through the steps and important tidbits to remember about hiring a software engineer.
Conclusion
Hopefully, the information you learned today not only answered, “What is Golang used for?” but also gave you some insight into future Golang projects for your business.
Go can garner many advantages, namely concurrency and simplicity. You can use Golang in any environment where speed and networking power are priorities. It goes without saying that nearly every tech company would treasure these abilities.
The one snag with Go, or any technology for that matter, is hiring professionals who have the skills to use it to its full potential. If hiring developers on your own proves to be too strenuous, don’t.
Trio has a team of highly qualified Go developers who are ready to meet your project’s requirements when you need them. Tell us all about it, and we’ll get you started with a free consultation!
