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Business Benefits: Comparing Ruby and Golang for Your Next Project
While there are thousands of programming languages, Ruby and Golang have a fair share of fans in the world. Although the two languages have distinct features, they do share some similarities. Both meet the principles of object-oriented programming (OOP), are suitable for cross-platform development, and have active community support. However, they serve different purposes and are meant for different types of projects. So, if you are not sure whether to hire Golang developers or Ruby developers for your business, this post will dot the i’s for you. Below, we will compare Ruby vs Golang programming languages.
| Golang | Ruby |
| This language was created in 2007 at Google under the supervision of three developers: Robert Griesemer, Rob Pike, and Ken Thompson. | It was created by Yukihiro “Matz” Matsumoto in Japan and released to the public in 1995. The language was built to balance imperative programming with functional programming. |
| It is an open-source, static language. | It is a dynamic, open-source programming language. |
| The language was made to avoid running out of physical memory by carefully recycling it through automated garbage collection. | Features from several languages, such as Perl, Ada, Smalltalk, Eiffel, and Lisp, were incorporated into Ruby. |
| In 2009, it was made available for public use. | In 1995, it was made available for public use. |
| Golang features an in-built testing framework to write tests without installing any additional tools. | Ruby is the ideal choice if testing is required. It provides a solid testing framework RSPec. |
| Golang is faster than Ruby because it is a compiled programming language. | Ruby is relatively slower than Golang since it is an interpreted language and uses many resources. |
| Golang is not an object-oriented language in itself, although it does include functional concepts, interfaces, types, and methods. It follows some OOP principles and mimics them to some extent. | It features object orientation — while programming in this language, everything appears as an object. |
| Automatic memory allocation functions and automatic garbage collection are two of the most unique features offered by Golang. | Its Garbage Collector is built on a mark-and-sweep mechanism. It scans the memory used from time to time and removes unneeded objects. |
| Both complex and simple multithreaded tasks can be handled using this language. For this reason, Golang is mostly used in developing cloud-based solutions. | Ruby is a perfect solution for creating personal pages, commercial projects, MVPs, crawling software, back end system development, etc. |
| Performance and scalability are two main characteristics of Golang. | Ruby is known for its efficiency, simplicity, and development speed. |
| Golang is mostly used for web development, cloud infrastructure, and command-line interfaces. When it comes to server development, it can reduce server costs by letting you do more with less. | The language is mostly used for DevOps, data processing, and automation. |
| Some of the most common platforms made using Golang include Google, Uber, Twitch, Docker, Netflix, etc. Golang was also used to create Dropbox. | The most common web applications that are developed using Ruby include Shopify, Basecamp, Github, AirBnB, Urban Dictionary, and Goodreads. |
Golang vs Ruby Performance-Wise
When judging the performance of any programming language, speed of execution is among the aspects to consider. Golang, being a compiled language, is faster than Ruby. It doesn’t need to be interpreted — it basically produces machine code that is easily (and quickly) understood by a computer. As for Ruby, it is an interpreted language, meaning that it uses an interpreter software to run and convert the code into a machine-readable format. As it reads code line by line, this slows down the process significantly.
Thus, developers need large memory and a robust central processing unit (CPU) to run Ruby properly, especially for building complex apps. Speaking about Golang, its Garbage Collection, although effective, may cause some performance glitches and dubious memory consumption spikes.
Since Ruby has been used for decades, it has assembled an extensive collection of third-party libraries and great tools for various purposes. However, the situation is different with Golang — high-quality libraries may be rare gems.
Ruby and Golang: Compatibility With Your Project’s Software Stack
The integration speed of the programming languages with the rest of the software stack directly impacts how quickly new solutions, features, or enhancements can be added to an existing program. Golang is a relatively new language (with a very promising future) and can be used in a bundle with different stacks like Python&Go or PHP&Go. An open-source server called Go Binary is available to allow non-Go users to install tools and applications written in Golang.
Ruby can be used to build micro-services that communicate with other micro-services written in JavaScript or C/C++. So, both Ruby and GoLang can be used to extend existing applications.
Ruby vs Golang — Which One to Use?
Ruby is an excellent option for businesses expanding and enhancing their online applications. Thanks to its modular architecture and “gems” that add functionality, businesses can quickly build MVPs and release them to the public, making timely changes as per users’ feedback. The “gems” also help developers to write less code while working on complex solutions and focus on the most important tasks. This allows for quick iterations and less configuration needed to set up projects.
Startups and small businesses will benefit the most from using this programming language in their software development of:
- report generators;
- web scraping & crawling software;
- servers;
- parsing, data cleaning & filtering software;
- API clients;
- static website generators;
- command-line media player;
- automation, backup & DevOps tools;
- writing business logic.
As for Google’s Go, it is mainly known for its abstractions and lots of standard libraries, which make it easier for goLang developers to write software for complex applications. Thanks to Go’s concurrency ability, it can run numerous processes at the same time within one program. This makes Golang perfect for building large-scale, high-performance apps. For example:
- web servers;
- APIs;
- data processing pipelines;
- cloud-native software;
- mobile apps with millions of users;
- banking and gaming programs.
Hire Ruby & Golang Developers via Expert Remote
The process of hiring developers via Expert Remote consists of three steps. The first step is a 15-minute call with our sales rep to better understand your needs. Second, we check available developers in our database to find 3–5 best matches. Third, you interview 3–5 candidates the same week and hire the best developer.
When you hire Golang developers or Ruby developers via Expert Remote, you can be sure that you have access to the best industry minds — we accept only 1% of developers who sent a job application to us. Moreover, you get an 8-hour free trial to give the candidate an actual web development or programming task and evaluate how they perform. Once satisfied, you can carry on with the project. Expert Remote is the fastest way to hire top quality engineers.
Frequently Asked Questions About Golang vs Ruby
Is Go Better Than Ruby?
Go and Ruby are both popular programming languages with huge communities. They have different use cases and their advantages and disadvantages. Hundreds of thousands of recommended articles are available on this topic, but to choose between the two, one should analyze the project’s complexity and requirements.
Is Ruby Still a Good Language?
Yes, Ruby is your ideal choice if testing is required. It is highly scalable and can easily handle large amounts of traffic and data.
Why Is Ruby Not Popular?
Ruby is one of the most popular languages.
Is Ruby More Powerful Than Python?
Both Ruby and Python are powerful in their own ways, despite some of Ruby’s weaknesses (limited customization, runtime speed, etc.). They have similar features, including automatic memory management. However, Python has different use cases: ML, data science, scripting, gaming, and so on.
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