Go vs. Rust: all you need to know!

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Dec 14, 2023

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What is Go?

Go in 2026: Generics, PGO, and runtime improvements

Advantages of Go

Disadvantages of Go

What is Rust?

Rust 2024 edition: Async evolution and language maturity

Advantages of Rust

Disadvantages of Rust

Difference between Go and Rust

Performance: Beyond benchmarks

Simplicity

Memory management and security

Modern concurrency: Goroutines vs. async/await

Ecosystem and tooling in 2026

Choosing the right language: A 2026 perspective

Wrapping Up

Go or Rust? Which language is better? What are the benefits of each? And which one should you learn? While the two languages have their own uses, there are a lot of similarities between them as well. That’s why it’s safe to compare Go and Rust, and it’s also why you might need a little help figuring out which one to prioritize.

In this article, we’ll discuss all the similarities and differences between Gol vs. Rust so that you can better decide which one works best for you. So, without further ado, let’s dive in and explore these two languages.

What is Go?#

Go, also known as Golang, is an open-source programming language launched by Google in March 2012. Since then, it has become widely used among programmers and giant companies like Uber, Dropbox, and Google. Go is an easy-to-learn and straightforward language. Unlike C or C++, it was made with a limited feature set and designed for faster compilation.

Go’s standard library provides robust packages for networking, cryptography, and web development tasks, reducing the need for external dependencies. Additionally, Go’s compilation speed and efficient garbage collection make it suitable for building large-scale applications. With a growing community and continuous improvements, Go continues to evolve as a reliable choice for modern software development.

Go in 2026: Generics, PGO, and runtime improvements#

When Go first appeared, it was known for its simplicity and fast compilation — but it was also criticized for lacking features like generics and for trailing behind in raw performance. That’s no longer the case.

Modern Go (since version 1.18) now supports generics, letting you write reusable, type-safe code without sacrificing readability. Standard library packages like slices and maps now leverage this feature, and it’s quickly become part of everyday Go development.

Go has also gained Profile-Guided Optimization (PGO), allowing you to collect runtime profiling data from production workloads and use it to improve compiled performance — often yielding 2–7% gains with almost no extra work.

Finally, runtime improvements, a smarter garbage collector, and compiler optimizations have all helped Go close the performance gap with lower-level languages while keeping its famously fast build times.

Advantages of Go #

Go is simple, straightforward, and easy to learn—thanks to its limited feature set.
Go uses goroutines, which are lightweight concurrent units of execution. Goroutines enable programmers to write concurrent code without explicitly managing threads, making the process much more efficient.
Go supports cross-platform development and is supported by Linux, MacOS, Windows binary, and also as a docker container.
Go works best with many application types, including cloud-native development, distributed network services, utilities, stand-alone tools, and more.
Go is portable, which means it’s available for various operating systems and hardware.

Disadvantages of Go#

Go’s dependency ecosystem is relatively smaller compared to established programming languages like Java, C, or Python. Although the standard library provides essential packages, the availability of third-party libraries and frameworks might be more limited.
Go supports static typing. And while static typing can be beneficial in some cases, it can also make writing code difficult, more time-consuming, and less flexible.
Go is still young and has a long way to go compared to other mature languages. It does not support generics, which can make the code less precise and lead to runtime errors.

Go (1.19.0)

package main
import "fmt"
func main() {
    // Print "Hello, World!" to the console
    fmt.Println("Hello, World!")
    
    // Variable declaration and assignment
    var x int = 5
    y := 10
    
    // Conditional statement
    if x > y {
        fmt.Println("x is greater than y")
    } else if x < y {
        fmt.Println("x is less than y")
    } else {
        fmt.Println("x is equal to y")
    }
    
    // Loop statement
    for i := 1; i <= 5; i++ {
        fmt.Println(i)
    }
    
    // Function call and result printing
    result := addNumbers(3, 7)
    fmt.Println("Result:", result)
}
// Function that adds two numbers and returns the sum
func addNumbers(a, b int) int {
    return a + b
}

What is Rust?#

Rust is a modern, open-source programming language launched by Mozilla in 2010. Rust is fast, straightforward, and memory-efficient, and it guarantees memory safety. When talking about Rust, we must appreciate the security the language provides. Rust enforces safety through its ownership system and extensive compile-time checks, which prevent common programming errors and ensure memory safety without sacrificing performance.

In Rust, we can’t write the wrong parallel code because the language doesn’t allow it. This significantly reduces the chances of errors. Rust also features a user-friendly compiler that allows programmers to debug code during compile time and saves the code from crashing. As a result, Rust is widely used to write efficient code that allows for the integration of computer hardware and software.

Rust 2024 edition: Async evolution and language maturity#

Rust has evolved rapidly too. The Rust 2024 edition, released in early 2025, introduced several quality-of-life improvements that make the language more approachable and powerful. One of the most significant changes is the stabilization of async fn in traits, which simplifies writing asynchronous code in a clean, idiomatic way — a feature that used to require workarounds.

Async closures and better ergonomics for concurrency make building high-performance, non-blocking applications more straightforward than ever. Combined with the language’s strong memory-safety guarantees, these updates cement Rust’s role as a go-to language for systems programming, network services, and performance-critical applications.

Advantages of Rust#

Rust is a scalable and concurrent language. That means it’s suitable for building heavy applications to meet the increasing demands of consumers in today’s world.
Rust ensures that memory accesses are always valid and prevents many memory safety vulnerabilities. Its ownership system and borrowing rules enable a strict compile-time that prevents common memory-related errors.
Rust is faster than other languages because it reduces data compilation time and provides better concurrency.
Rust enhances developers’ productivity by offering amazing features like pattern matching, iterators, and a powerful macro system.

Disadvantages of Rust#

Rust is relatively new to the programming world, which is why many limitations and gaps are yet to be addressed. For instance, the compilation time is long when working on larger and more complex projects.
The learning curve is high compared to other programming languages. In order to write code in Rust, you need to learn C++ or any other object-oriented programming language.
Although Rust’s ecosystem has been growing steadily, it may not be as extensive or mature as those of some other languages. Rust’s interoperability with C and other languages can help mitigate this limitation by allowing developers to leverage existing libraries.

Rust 1.57.0

fn main() {
    // Print "Hello, World!" to the console
    println!("Hello, World!");
    
    // Variable declaration and assignment
    let x: i32 = 5;
    let y = 10;
    
    // Conditional statement
    if x > y {
        println!("x is greater than y");
    } else if x < y {
        println!("x is less than y");
    } else {
        println!("x is equal to y");
    }
    
    // Loop statement
    for i in 1..=5 {
        println!("{}", i);
    }
    
    // Function definition
    let result = add_numbers(3, 7);
    println!("Result: {}", result);
}
// Function that adds two numbers and returns the sum
fn add_numbers(a: i32, b: i32) -> i32 {
    a + b
}

Difference between Go and Rust#

Now that we’ve discussed both languages in detail, it’s time to compare them and determine which one stands out. Let’s explore the differences.

Performance: Beyond benchmarks#

It’s easy to claim that “Rust is faster than Go,” but in 2025, the truth is more nuanced. Rust still leads in raw performance for CPU-bound workloads, thanks to its zero-cost abstractions and lack of a garbage collector. But Go has steadily closed the gap, especially for services and network-heavy applications.

Thanks to PGO, runtime improvements, and efficient goroutine scheduling, Go often performs more than well enough for real-world applications — and its developer velocity is hard to beat.

The key takeaway:

Choose Rust when every nanosecond counts or when you need tight control over memory and concurrency.
Choose Go when rapid development, readability, and scalable service performance matter more than micro-optimizations.

Simplicity#

With its limited feature set, Go aims to be a straightforward and easy-to-learn language, making it quick for programmers to pick up. In contrast, Rust is not that easy to learn. In order to adequately grasp Rust, you need to have a basic understanding of an object-oriented programming language. Moreover, Rust’s syntax can be more complex due to its emphasis on memory management and ownership rules.

Memory management and security#

Go utilizes a garbage collector (GC) to automatically manage memory, relieving developers from manual memory allocation and deallocation. This simplifies memory management but also increases runtime overhead. In contrast, Rust employs both a unique ownership system and strict borrowing rules to achieve memory safety at compile time. Rust’s approach ensures that memory is managed efficiently without sacrificing performance, as it avoids the need for garbage collection.

Therefore, compared to Go, Rust provides more enhanced memory safety and security through an ownership system and compile-time checks.

Modern concurrency: Goroutines vs. async/await#

Concurrency has always been one of the defining differences between Go and Rust — but the story has evolved.

Go uses lightweight goroutines and channels, making concurrent programming almost effortless. With the recent fix to the infamous loop variable capture issue in Go 1.22 and the new range-over-func iterators in Go 1.23, writing safe concurrent code is even more intuitive.
Rust uses the async/await model with powerful compile-time checks. It ensures memory safety and prevents data races by design, though it requires more careful planning. Libraries like Tokio and async-std provide rich ecosystems for async workloads, and the language’s guarantees make it particularly appealing for high-concurrency, low-latency systems.

Both approaches are now mature and production-ready — Go focuses on simplicity and developer productivity, while Rust offers precision and control.

Ecosystem and tooling in 2026#

Both ecosystems have matured tremendously, but they now shine in slightly different areas:

Go dominates in cloud-native infrastructure, DevOps tooling, and distributed services. Its standard library, go toolchain, and easy cross-compilation make it ideal for building scalable web servers, APIs, and CLIs.
Rust excels in systems programming, WebAssembly, embedded development, and performance-critical services. The Cargo package manager and crates.io ecosystem provide powerful tooling, while features like bindgen make FFI with C libraries straightforward.

For many teams, the ecosystem will be the deciding factor — not just language features.

Choosing the right language: A 2026 perspective#

If you’re trying to decide between Go and Rust today, here’s a practical rule of thumb:

Choose Go for:
- Web servers, distributed systems, and cloud services
- Developer productivity and rapid iteration
- Large engineering teams with varied experience levels
Choose Rust for:
- Systems programming, compilers, and embedded software
- High-performance applications and low-level memory control
- Use cases where safety, concurrency precision, and control are paramount

There’s no universal winner — the right tool depends on your team’s goals, expertise, and performance needs.

Wrapping Up#

While both languages come with their own drawbacks and benefits, , Go and Rust share numerous similarities as well. Now that you’ve learned so much about both languages, it’s time to make an action plan for learning them.

Educative offers interactive courses for all developers and learners to help them excel in programming. If you’re new to Go and want to learn more about it, we offer a variety of courses to help you ace the Go Language. Similarly, if you’re interested in learning more about Rust, we suggest you Learn Rust to start your path in the right direction. Explore both languages and choose the best one for yourself.

Happy learning!

Written By:

Malaika Ijaz

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