5 top Go web frameworks

2021-09-26•9 min read

Looking for the top Go frameworks for the web? You came to the right place. Go is a multiparadigm, statically-typed, and compiled programming language designed by Google. It is similar to C, and if you're a fan of C, this can be an easy language to learn and use for web development.

1. Gin

Gin is a high-performance micro-framework that delivers a minimalistic approach to building web applications. It's fast, as it's built on top of HttpRouter, and it's perfect for building REST APIs.

Key Features:

  • Fast routing with Radix tree
  • Middleware support
  • Error management
  • Built-in rendering
  • Extensible middleware
  • Crash-free
  • JSON validation
  • Routes grouping
  • Good documentation

2. Echo

Echo is a high-performance, extensible, minimalist web framework for Go. It's highly focused on performance and comes with a lot of built-in features.

Key Features:

  • Optimized HTTP router
  • Middleware support
  • Data binding and validation
  • Static file serving
  • WebSocket support
  • Template rendering
  • Graceful shutdown
  • HTTPS support
  • API documentation with Swagger

3. Beego

Beego is a full-featured web framework inspired by Django. It follows the MVC pattern and can be used for developing enterprise web applications.

Key Features:

  • MVC architecture
  • ORM support
  • RESTful support
  • Built-in admin interface
  • Session handling
  • Cache handling
  • Logs handling
  • Configuration management
  • Built-in development tools

4. Fiber

Fiber is an Express-inspired web framework built on top of Fasthttp. It's designed to ease things up for fast development with zero memory allocation and performance in mind.

Key Features:

  • Express-like API
  • Static file serving
  • Robust routing
  • Middleware support
  • Template engine
  • WebSocket support
  • Rate limiter
  • Low memory footprint
  • API documentation

5. Revel

Revel is a full-featured web framework for Go that's both powerful and easy to use. It comes with a lot of features out of the box.

Key Features:

  • Hot code reload
  • Built-in testing framework
  • Routing system
  • Parameter parsing
  • Session/Flash support
  • Caching
  • Built-in testing framework
  • Templating system
  • Validation

Conclusion

Each framework has its own strengths and use cases:

  • Use Gin for building fast REST APIs with minimal overhead
  • Choose Echo for a balance between features and performance
  • Go with Beego for full-featured enterprise applications
  • Pick Fiber if you're familiar with Express.js
  • Select Revel for rapid development with lots of built-in features

The choice of framework depends on your specific needs, but these are currently the most popular and well-maintained Go web frameworks available.