[philwelch]

For Node to be a “sluggish Golang” in the first place, it would have to be otherwise functionally equivalent to Golang, which it is not. Writing your own TCP and SSL layers is also kind of nuts if your motivation for doing so is to optimize your Node apps.

[zdware]

This. It's an apples to oranges comparison. People often write in Node for the speed that they can develop. Golang's current language design does not aim for development speed, although I think it's getting better/easier.

Feels similar to comparing C# to C.

[alexhultman]

Node.js is very popular and some companies with lots of I/O still prefer JavaScript, they have their business logic written in it.

[tracker1]

I have to agree... the fact is, Node isn't the best at anything in terms of raw performance and won't be. What it is, however, is good enough for almost everything.

Node/JS offer some serious advantages. An expansive ecosystem of modules for which to build applications quickly. A well-known scripting language that allows for fast development and turn over. A language that allows for less distraction and context switching when going from one layer to another in terms of full stack development. Allows for a complete feature set to be in a single language with less disconnect to the front end.

I won't say there isn't a place for other languages. I will say that applications created with JS front and back using Node as at least the direct API/middle tier tend to be up and running faster, and perform well enough for most tasks if horizontal scaling is already part of the overall design of the application.

It also does well for cross platform scripting and orchestrating CPU intensive tasks.

[philwelch]

If it was just, "I wrote a custom network stack to make your Node apps run faster", that would be something, but Golang is completely irrelevant to the question.

[alexhultman]

That's a good title. Golang is referenced many times in the text though, it's even plotted in the two graphs.