Golang Vs Java

Building simpler and faster software application is the need of the hour. This is the right way to be competitive in the market and the front-runner. So, it becomes a great challenge for developers to meet these criteria by choosing effective tools. Before beginning a project, they must confidently choose the correct language or tool by scrutinizing their various choices.

On that note, if you consider Golang and Java, they seem similar in many aspects. But, no doubt they have many differences as well. So, it is essential to know about the languages from the root level to choose the right one. This blog discusses languages in terms of their features, pros and cons, similarities, and differences.

Golang and Java are the two widely used programming languages. They are used to develop robust Web, Server, and Mobile applications. Golang has a low learning curve and is famous for its simplicity,  whereas Java is famous for its flexibility and reusability of codes.

In common, they are cross-platform dependent, have standard libraries, achieve memory management through garbage collection, and perform concurrency. Like to learn more? Let’s continue reading further!

Table of Content - Golang Vs Java

➤ What is Golang? ➤ What are the Key features of Golang? ➤ What are the Advantages and Drawbacks of Golang? ➤ What is JAVA? ➤ What are the Key features of JAVA? ➤ What are the Advantages and Drawbacks of JAVA? ➤ What are the Key similarities between Golang and JAVA? ➤ What are the Main Differences between Golang and JAVA?

What is Golang?

Golang is one of the latest, open-source, compiled, and procedural programming languages. It was developed by Google computer scientists Rob Pike, Robert Griesemer, and Ken Thompson and released in 2009. Golang is a language that is easy to learn, understand, and use.

It has a static typing feature, allowing developers to create maintainable, testable, and lightweight codes quickly. That’s why Golang is famous for its simplicity and scalability. Know that Golang is one of the programming languages highly preferred by software developers since it has excellent features such as concurrency, garbage collection, native binaries, and fast compiling time.

With its built-in testing and benchmarking facilities, you can quickly review and debug Go codes. Golang simplifies deployment by including all dependencies in a single binary file. As a result, you can build large applications seamlessly using Golang.

If you want to enrich your career and become a professional in Golang, then enroll in "Golang Online Training" - This course will help you to achieve excellence in this domain.

Who can use Golang?

Golang is widely used in Web Servers, APIs, Database Servers, and Microservices. Not only that, it can be used for Server-side development, Cloud-native deployment, Distributed services, and Machine Learning applications.

What are the Key features of Golang?

Let’s learn the key features of Golang from the below points:

Statically-typed and Readable Codes: As you know, Golang is a statically-typed language. It has a simple syntax, which allows developers to create neat and safe codes. Even beginners can easily read and understand the codes written in Golang. Not just that, you can maintain and modify Go codes easily. Moreover, the no-type inheritance property of the language improves the clarity of codes.

Multiple Tool-set: Golang comes with many tools that help improve Golang applications' efficiency. You can download these tools from GitHub Repository for Go. This repository has various IDEs, plugins, and editors, which we can use to build and enhance Golang applications.

To name a few, you can use the tools such as Emacs, VSCode, Vim, Atom, Sublime, Eclipse, and IntelliJ. Besides, you can also use a few Cloud IDEs from the repository.

Concurrency: The great thing about Golang is its concurrency feature and it is achieved through Goroutines. Goroutines allow blocks of codes to run simultaneously and independently with the support of multi-core CPUs and Garbage collectors. It’s no wonder that you can run millions of Goroutines in parallel. Another thing is, Channels help Goroutines to communicate with each other and share data safely.

Massive Data Processing: Golang has a high computation speed, and at the same time, it ensures reliability. It allows the processing of a large quantity of data effortlessly. For this reason, Golang is used on YouTube, SoundCloud, and Netflix to deal with tons of data. Note that it is achieved with the support of the database technologies such as cockroach DB and influx DB.

Garbage Collection: It is nothing but a memory management method used in Golang. When data in memory is no longer required, garbage collectors will automatically free it. This process avoids manual memory management and prevents memory leaks and errors. Thus, garbage collector helps to boost the efficiency of application development significantly.

What are the Advantages and Drawbacks of Golang?

Following are the points that developers would definitely like about Golang. Let’s go through them below:

• Golang is well-known for its simplicity. No wonder it has less than 30 keywords
• It has a slight learning curve. That's why it is an easy-to-learn and easy-to-use language.
• It has good forward compatibility. It means that new updates in the language won’t make any conflicts in the development process.
• Golang is faster since it is a compiled language. In a way, it is a language closer to machine language.
• It is platform-independent and allows cross-compiling. In other words, you can compile codes anywhere, whether it is Windows, Linux, or macOS.
• It is the best language for developing Microservices applications
• It has a standard library. So, developers could avoid relying on third-party libraries.

Drawbacks of Golang:

No wonder Golang has a few drawbacks as well. Let’s take a look at them below:

• Golang doesn’t support generic programming.
• It sometimes creates internal inconsistencies since it is too simple.
• It doesn’t support abstractions and inheritance.
• It doesn’t require Virtual Machines to run codes.
• Dependency management is not appreciable in Golang

Related Article: Golang Tutorial for Beginners

What is Java?

Java is an open-source programming language released by Sun Microsystems in 1995. It is a high-level, statically-typed, and OOPS-based language. Not just that, Java is the language that supports generic, concurrent, functional, and imperative programming.

It has many fantastic features and capabilities. Also, Java offers a rich User Interface, versatility, performance, portability, and security. The highlight of Java is that it’s a cost-effective and secure language. What’s more! You can use Java to develop small applications known as Applets.

Who uses Java?

Java is the language that can be used for Android applications, IoT, edge devices, Big Data, gaming applications, and much more. Similar to Golang, it can be used for mission-critical applications. Further, middle-level and enterprise-level IT services companies can use Java for developing software and mobile applications.

What are the Key Features of Java?

Java has many vital features that make it one of the preferred languages. Now, have a look at them:

OOPS Oriented: As we know, Java is an object-oriented language. It supports OOPS concepts such as data abstraction, polymorphism, inheritance, and encapsulation. Java codes are designed similarly to C and C++ codes. Simply put, it allows you to write modular and reusable codes quickly.

Portability: Java follows the Write Once and Run Anywhere (WORA) concept. You can compile Java codes across any platform, avoiding writing cross-compiling codes. The platform could be a server, network, and client machine, but it must have a JVM. Portability is achieved by converting Java codes into intermediate codes. Here, the intermediate codes are known as Java bytecodes. In a way, these bytecodes are close to machine codes.

Multithreading: Know that Java supports multithreading. It means Java allows you to execute the different blocks of a program at the same time. Threads are generally independent and don’t affect each other. With multithreading, you can improve CPU and memory utilization significantly. This is because there is no need to execute codes one by one. Overall, multithreading simplifies complex applications and saves time and cost.

Garbage Collection: Similar to Golang, Java also uses a garbage collector for effective memory management. Garbage collectors automatically and efficiently manage object lifecycles. So, you don't need to manually keep track of object references as well as reallocate memory. Mainly, the Garbage collector automatically recovers memory when it is no longer required. As a result, you can prevent memory leaks and errors.

Standard Library: Java comes with an enriched standard library. The library includes core libraries, UI libraries, plugins, integration libraries, and APIs. For example, one of the Java products, Java SE7, has 4000 standard APIs, which you can use for application development, avoiding writing codes repeatedly.

The core libraries include networking, generics, concurrency, security, functional programming, and XML processing. Similarly, UI libraries include swing libraries, abstract window toolkits, and many more.

Security: Java uses implicit pointers for object references. As a result, it avoids buffer overruns and violations in memory access. Additionally, Java uses bytecodes that are usually not readable by humans. Java runs programs inside a sandbox that restricts changes from unknown sources.

Maintenance: Java demands low hardware requirements. In return, maintenance becomes simpler. For instance, it only requires 64 MB of RAM in a computer installed with Windows XP. Similarly, the Java product, Java ME Embedded, only requires 130 KB RAM along with 350 KB ROM.

Related Article: Differences B/W Golang Vs C++

What are the Advantages and Drawbacks of Java?

There are a lot of advantages that exist for Java. Let’s see them below:

• Java is an easy-to-learn and easy-to-use language
• You can easily maintain and modify Java codes
• Java ecosystem is large
• Java allows code reusability and easy deployment
• With just-in-time compilation, you can increase the execution speed of Java compilers
• You can use Java EE in Cloud. It allows developers to build, test, monitor, deploy, and scale applications on Google Cloud.
• You can use Java for mobile application development because it offers robust security, use of JVM, threading, and so on.
• Java has good documentation.
• It offers high stability.

Drawbacks of Java:

Of course! Java has a few shortcomings too. Let’s have a look at them below:

• Java syntax has much verbose
• Its execution speed is a bit slower than other programming languages
• The complex and concurrent operations of Java slow down JVM
• The User Interface can be improved better.

What are the Key Similarities between Golang and Java?

Let’s list out the similarities between Golang and Java in the following:

• Golang and Java are the C-family languages and have the same kind of syntax
• Both the languages can be used for server-side programming
• They perform concurrency. It means that they execute blocks of a program simultaneously.
• Both languages are cross-platform dependent. So, they can run on all platforms such as Windows, Linux, macOS, etc.
• They use garbage collectors for memory management.

Related Article: Golang Interview Questions & Answers

What are the Main Differences between Golang and Java?

Undeniably, many differences exist between Golang and Java. Let’s discuss the same below in detail.

Language: We know that Java is OOPS based and comes with classes, objects, and constructors. It allows code reuse and offers flexibility. So, you can develop complex applications. On the other hand, Golang is a procedural language and doesn’t have classes and objects. So, it is simple and not suitable for developing complex applications.

Syntax and Ease-of-coding: As mentioned earlier, Golang is a statically typed language. Its syntax is simple, and it doesn’t use parentheses. So, it allows you to make quick coding that is easy to read and understand. Mainly, Golang uses less than 25 keywords. On the other side, Java syntax is not simple as Golang. You need to use objects and classes while coding in Java. So, coding in Java is a bit more complex than in Golang.

Garbage Collection: Although Golang and Java have garbage collection features, it is strong only in Golang. Moreover, garbage collection is one of the highlights of Golang.

Concurrency: Both languages support concurrency. In this regard, Golang uses goroutines, and Java uses multithreading. However, Goroutines are more efficient than multithreading used in Java. In fact, Goroutines consume low memory than threads. In other terms, Goroutines use only 2 KB of memory space. At the same time, Java uses threads instead of goroutines, and threads take 2 MB of memory space.

Speed: With the support of garbage collectors, Golang automatically frees up unused memories. As a result, execution speed is increased. On the other hand, Java runs on Virtual Machines, decreasing execution speed.

Cross-platform: Both Golang and Java are cross-platform dependents. Golang needs binary files to run on various platforms. On the contrary, Java needs Java bytecodes for the same. However, you must prepare a separate binary file for every platform in Golang, which is time-consuming. At the same time, Java bytecodes can be run on any platform.     

Frameworks: Java has well-established frameworks like Spring, whereas Golang doesn’t have any popular frameworks like Spring.

Pointers and Reflection: Golang uses pointers to help transfer anything through references. On the contrary, Java doesn’t use pointers. Another one, reflection, is usually convenient in Java, whereas it is complicated in Golang. You can use only package reflection because there is no class in Golang.

Error Handling: Java uses exceptions for error handling. On the other hand, Golang doesn’t use exceptions but uses errors only.

Applications: Golang is the best language for microservices and web services. At the same time, Java is the language for mobile application development and complex applications.

Community: Java has a larger community than Golang. This is because Java is a language that is older than Golang. So, users can attain great support from the vast community.

Features	Golang	Java
Language	Procedural, simple	OOPS-based, flexible
Performance	Faster flexible	Slower than Golang since it runs on JVMs
Syntax	No classes and objects	Uses objects and classes
Garbage Collection	powerful	Not so powerful in Golang
Concurrency	- Use goroutines - Consumes less memory space	- Use threads - It consumes more memory space than Golang
Cross-platform	YES Creates binaries	YES Creates Java Byte codes
Use of pointers	YES	NO
Reflection	Convenient	Complicated
Use of exceptions	YES	NO
Applications	Best for Microservices	Best for mobile and complex applications
Community	Small	Large

Conclusion

In short, Golang is the latest, statically typed, and procedural language. On the other hand, Java is the pioneer, OOPS-based, and an imperative language. But, the question is which language is better or which one to choose? The answer is simple. Every language is better than others based on its key features. Based on this point, choosing the correct language depends on the requirements of developers. If you intend to develop a complex application or mobile application development, you can choose Java. If you need to develop a simple, data-processing, and faster application, you can choose Golang. Then, it would be a great deal!