Elixir Vs Golang: See What Suits Your Project Best

Humans have a bizarre thought process. They have this constant urge to compare and reason things based on available facts and figures.  

Instead of focusing on the nucleus, we would rather like to explore unseen dilemmas and try to find solutions to a problem that doesn't even exist. Yes, that’s much like it. 

The constant shifts and changes in the surroundings affect us more than anything. Therefore, if two personalities are doing perfectly fine, we would still find a way to prioritize one over the other, why? Because that’s what we live for and it's an evolutionary mechanism to ensure success in a competitive environment. Therefore, the competition mustn’t stop. 

The same goes for the Elixir and Goland. Both of these languages are the tech giants and create robust solutions but the game of judgment shall continue here as well. 

Comparing Elixir & Go Based On Technicalities

Comparisons can get hard but intensely interesting when dissecting two of the most significant languages of this age. 

Developers today are looking for highly multitasking programming languages and owing to this, they love working with both, Elixir and Golang. 

There could be seen pretty much similarities between these languages, both languages have made important advancements that affect how they can be used. 

Let's closely compare these two based on their backgrounds, history, and current status. Hopefully, after reading this article, you’ll have a deeper knowledge and a better grasp of which programming language suits you best.

Exploring Elixir Insights

Elixir is a dynamic, potently typed programming language built on the top of Erlang’s VM and compiled into Erlang bytecode. It is made to develop robust, scalable, and maintainable web applications.

Elixir shares almost the same scripting style as Ruby, the only difference is that Ruby follows the object-oriented language paradigm, while Elixir follows the functional paradigm.

Due to its concurrency, Elixir can do multi-tasking without falling apart and causing delays. Instead of being a pretty young language, Elixir has a healthy demand and an easy learning curve due to various online tutorials available.

As a whole, Elixir is a strong programming language that puts forth various enticing features along with a vast and enthusiastic developers community. 

More Standout Aspects of Elixir

• The primary focus of elixir always has been to handle concurrency
• Elixir follows the functional programming paradigm
• It aims to make the language easy to write without repetitive code
• Elixir has a dramatic fault tolerance which means it tends to restart when things aint right
• Due to its extensibility, Elixir can also run on a GPU

Big Companies Using Elixir

Here are the most prominent digital powerhouses built on Elixir:

• PepsiCo
• Spotify
• Discord
• WhatsApp
• Allegro Lokalnie
• Lonely Planet
• Pinterest
• Toyota
• BleacherReport
• Bet365
• Moz

Famous Elixir Frameworks

Some of the famous Elixir frameworks include:

• Phoenix
• Sugar
• Plug
• Nerves
• Flowex
• Kitto
• Trot
• Placid
• Maru

Compatible Tech Stack Setups For Elixir

​​Here are some ideal tech stack setups for Elixir:

• Phoenix + PostgreSQL + GraphQL
• Elixir + Phoenix + React + Redux
• Elixir + Phoenix + Elm
• Elixir + Phoenix + Vue.js
• Elixir + Phoenix + LiveView

Elixir Community 

Initially, every programming language has to face the early-stage dilemma and Elixir was no different. But the benefits of Elixir are so enormous that it overcame these challenges in no time. 

Now, Elixir indeed has a vast and dynamic community of developers. One of the major reasons why developers opt for it is because learning Elixir is quite an adventure. Due to its clean syntax and high flexibility, Elixir is one of the most popular and fun to learn programming languages. 

It has an active number of developers who love to work with it and are learning it to make a good living. 

Due to its strong community and support, major companies are using Elixir for various gigantic projects. The language has gained most of its popularity due to its scalable, concurrent, and maintainable nature. Elixir’s community is renowned for its support and welcoming nature. 

Exploring Golang Insights

Golang or Go, is an open-source programming language engineered by Google experts Robert Griesemer, Rob Pike, and Ken Thompson in 2009. Go is expressive, clean, concise, and highly efficient. 

The best-known features of Go are its simplicity, speed, solidity, and developer-friendly nature. Golang is a programming language that is designed to be efficient, and accessible and build highly scalable web applications. 

Plus, Go is a breeze to learn and a perfect companion for teamwork, with some awesome tools for testing, benchmarking, and profiling. This simplicity makes it easier for developers to write and maintain code, leading to more efficient and reliable software development.

All in all, Go is a versatile and powerful language that's simply amazing for all kinds of modern software engineering needs. 

More Stand-out Aspects of Golang 

• Golang is a developer-friendly language that is rather easy to learn. 
• It offers strong support for concurrent programming.
• Go showcases high productivity and extremely simplified usage.
• It has a remarkable code efficiency, enabling faster development 
• Go doesn't rely on external dependencies, making it easy to create native binaries.

Big Names Using Golang

Some of the big names that use Golang include:

• Google
• Netflix 
• BBC
• Uber
• Docker
• Intel
• Medium
• Baidu
• Alibaba

Famous Golang Frameworks

Some of the famous Golang frameworks include:

• Gin Gonic
• Gorilla
• Martini
• Goji
• Revel
• Beego
• Mango
• Echo
• Kit
• Fiber
• Iris
• Go-zero
• Kratos

Compatible Tech Stack Setups For Golang

​​Here are some ideal tech stack setups for Golang:

• Golang + PostgreSQL
• Golang + MongoDB
• Golang + Redis
• Golang + Elasticsearch
• Golang + RabbitMQ
• Golang + gRPC
• Golang + Docker
• Golang + Kubernetes
• Golang + AWS (Amazon Web Services)
• Golang + GraphQL

Golang Community 

Why learn Golang? Of course, because Golang’s community is a vibrant hub of growth, offering developers a plethora of resources and platforms for communication and collaboration. 

The diversity of this language welcomes developers from multiple backgrounds, creating a community with creative perspectives and expertise.

Overall, the Golang community shows how working together, being open to different ideas, and being welcoming can lead to new developments and growth in the world of technology. As the community grows and changes, it stays an inspiration to developers worldwide, providing a friendly and supportive space for everyone who wants to help make technology better.

Could Elixir And Golang Work Together?

Dissecting each of these languages individually naturally brings up the question “Can they even work together?” 

It possibly appears that Elixir and Golang can indeed complement each other in various ways. 

Despite the major differences in their programming styles and applications, both languages offer distinct strengths that meet different technical needs. For instance, Golang might be more suitable for building standalone microservices, on the other hand, Elixir could be better for constructing multiple microservices under a unified umbrella. 

Moreover, both languages have their package management systems. For example, Go uses the direct go-get command, while Elixir relies on Mix, which integrates with the Hex package manager. 

Notably, Elixir is liked by companies like PepsiCo and SquareEnix, while Golang is favored by tech giants like Google and Uber. Ultimately, the choice between Elixir and Golang hugely depends on the specific demands of a particular project.

Elixir Vs Golang, What Did We Learn Today?

Elixir vs Golang is a long and ever-expanding debate. Developers are often debating whether Elixir or Golang is the better language to choose for their next project. Due to their respective advantages and special qualities, both languages are good fits for various kinds of applications. 

Because of its focus on concurrency and fault tolerance, Elixir, which has its roots in Erlang, provides a stable foundation for creating scalable and fault-tolerant systems. However, Golang, created by Google, is a favorite for creating dependable and effective applications because of its strength in the standard library, speed, and simplicity.

Conclusion

Unless you know what kind of system you’re building or the basic requirements of your project, it's hard to find a potential winner between Elixir and Golang. It is often stated that in terms of speed, Go is faster than Elixir but there is still not a clear idea as it depends on the type of project and technical requirements of what language suits you best. 

As programming languages are a means to build, therefore the right question lies in the fact that which language suits my needs the best. 

Therefore, look into your projects, see what you want, manage your expectations, and then see what language suits your needs the best.