Golang
Hacker ApprovedRanked 59 of 163 programming languages by recommenders
Simple, fast-compiling language with a broad standard library, popular for CLIs, backends and tools. Critics say it lacks modern language features and has generics limits.
Simple, fast-compiling language with a broad standard library, popular for CLIs, backends and tools. Critics say it lacks modern language features and has generics limits.
31 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 23
- criticize it
- 8
- approval share
- 74%
Recommended in 11 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 23 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 2.9 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 11 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Fast compiles, few dependencies
“given its fast compile times and I have found it to be much more easier to create no-dependices/fewer-dependencies project”
Comment from 23 Feb 2026 in “Hetzner (European hosting provider) to increase prices by up to 38%” “you add a dependency, run a command, twiddle your thumbs 30 seconds, done.”
Comment from 12 Jul 2026 in “Scarf has moved away from Haskell” “a 15MB no-dependencies binary that has everything”
Comment from 18 May 2026 in “Show HN: Files.md – open-source alternative to Obsidian” Batteries-included standard library
“its standard library is batteries-included with fs & networking”
Comment from 12 May 2026 in “If AI Writes Your Code, Why Use Python?” “since it has one of the most complete standard libraries”
Comment from 13 Apr 2026 in “Someone Bought 30 WordPress Plugins and Planted a Backdoor in All of Them” Few ways to do things
“The number of ways to do things is far lower and there is no real magic behind the scenes”
Comment from 9 Dec 2025 in “Has the cost of building software dropped 90%?” “Golang wins in performance and simplicity and raw ugliness.”
Comment from 11 Jul 2026 in “Scarf has moved away from Haskell” Good for CLIs and backends
“Seems to work really well, plus Golang has community libraries that emulate various UNIX tools”
Comment from 18 Nov 2025 in “The Uselessness of "Fast" and "Slow" in Programming” “gradually moving my stuff from bash/zsh to Golang”
Comment from 9 Feb 2026 in “Stories from 25 Years of Software Development” “I prefer Golang for both Backend and CLIs”
Comment from 13 Feb 2026 in “Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (February 2026)”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Ugly and soulless feel
“Golang wins in performance and simplicity and raw ugliness.”
Comment from 11 Jul 2026 in “Scarf has moved away from Haskell” “Golang feels dead, soulless.”
Comment from 6 Dec 2025 in “Perl's decline was cultural” Missing modern language features
“But bad Golang is full of `any` and turns into a Python in disguise.”
Comment from 11 Jul 2026 in “Scarf has moved away from Haskell” “Golang gives you none of nice features of a modern language”
Comment from 15 Sep 2026 in “Java 27” Generics and arena allocator limits
“you can't actually build an arena allocator that can be used for multiple types in a natural way”
Comment from 10 Dec 2025 in “Golang's big miss on memory arenas” “good luck with Golang pre-1.22 and even then, getting that one last iteration is quirky”
Comment from 10 Nov 2025 in “Zig and the design choices within”
Other programming languages people recommend
The four most recommended other programming languages, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
See all 163 programming languages, rankedWhat people said
37 of the 39 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“take advantage of built-in SIMD support”
“outside of some specific projects that made bad/lazy decisions (thinking Golang here)”
“You may also count Golang and Python.”
“extremely obvious languages like Golang”
“Golang is faster and use way less memory than Java”
“Golang gives you none of nice features of a modern language”
“the example and explanation seem better from quick skim.”
“I would put Golang not terribly far behind.”
“you add a dependency, run a command, twiddle your thumbs 30 seconds, done.”
“Golang wins in performance and simplicity and raw ugliness.”
“But bad Golang is full of `any` and turns into a Python in disguise.”
“I am starting to want to jump to Golang and Rust again”
“I've personally rewritten one hobby and one professional projects from Elixir to Golang and loved the result”
“Golang manages similar preemption semantics without counting that many operations”
“Golang fares a touch better”
“I have supervised, led and authored such projects that are in production to this day.”
“a 15MB no-dependencies binary that has everything”
“its standard library is batteries-included with fs & networking”
“Golang is also an amazing language for LLM use”
“since it has one of the most complete standard libraries”
“it's written in damn Golang”
“For my own test environment I'm relying on Golang and its conventions”
“given its fast compile times and I have found it to be much more easier to create no-dependices/fewer-dependencies project”
“I prefer Golang for both Backend and CLIs”
“golang comes to mind as another example”
“gradually moving my stuff from bash/zsh to Golang”
“Golang is particularly bad here, both because they habitually over-weight the severity of their CVEs”
“i had some sparks of joy tinkering with golang to build ssr stuff”
“Golang is not 100% zero cost close to metal abstraction.”
“Golang can be great too with 1GB of RAM and a simple n270 netbook”
“I've been really enjoying Ebitengine and Golang for game dev”
“you can't actually build an arena allocator that can be used for multiple types in a natural way”
“The number of ways to do things is far lower and there is no real magic behind the scenes”
“Golang feels dead, soulless.”
“I have not been disappointed by any of the 3 PLs above”
“Seems to work really well, plus Golang has community libraries that emulate various UNIX tools”
“good luck with Golang pre-1.22 and even then, getting that one last iteration is quirky”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.