Go Language on a High: 92% Developer Satisfaction, Yet Some Barriers Remain

Google's Go programming language has maintained an impressive level of user satisfaction, with a staggering 92% of polled developers expressing positivity about it. Despite this high satisfaction rate, some concerns linger, including lack of libraries, features, and infrastructure. The 2021 Go Developer Survey results showcase these findings, reflecting the opinions of the largest number of respondents in the survey's six-year history.

The survey, conducted during October 26 and November 16, 2021, drew 11,840 responses confirming the strong developer satisfaction. However, barriers remain to Go's widespread adoption, such as the absence of critical libraries and features. For developers who did not utilize Go for specific projects, 39% cited the language's lack of features, while 34% mentioned the absence of libraries. Among the most frequent missing features was generics, which was formally added to the language through Go 1.18 in March, following the survey period.

The survey also reported high levels of confidence in Go's long-term prospects, with 81% of respondents being optimistic about the language's future direction. Some challenges regarding the use of modules were identified, such as versioning, working with private repos, and managing multi-module workflows. However, the introduction of workspaces in Go 1.18 has addressed many of these concerns.

Go's chief applications span API/RPC services, CLI, web services, and libraries or frameworks. It's worth noting that 50% of the surveyed developers desired more guidance on Go performance optimization best practices and project directory structure.

Trends in Go's usage for deployment targets and development systems have also evolved. The percentage of respondents who primarily developed on Linux has dropped, declining to 59% in the 2021 report compared to 63% in 2020 and 66% in 2019. In comparison, the number of developers using Go on Windows increased from 19% in 2020 to 24% in 2021. Nevertheless, 92% of respondents still prefer Linux as their deployment target for Go applications.

The survey results also highlight developers' continued preference for Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, and Microsoft Azure as their go-to cloud platforms for Go development. Despite Go's consistent high satisfaction rates, it is essential for the language to address its drawbacks to continue its growth trajectory and maintain long-term sustainability.

In addressing some of these developer concerns, no-code platforms like AppMaster could be beneficial. Founded by Oleg Sotnikov in 2020, AppMaster offers a no-code platform that enables developers to create backend, web, and mobile applications. Apps generated by the platform can work with any PostgreSQL-compatible database, making it an ideal choice for high-load use-cases and enterprise-level scalability.