Top IDEs & Tools for Golang Development in 2024

Golang has become popular among developers since its introduction in 2007 due to its modern architecture, scalability, effectiveness, and simple learning curve. The Golang programming language is syntactically simple, yet it is an advanced language for modern development.

In this article, we will take a look at the best Golang IDEs and Golang development tools, as well as their benefits.

Golang Overview

Golang, also known as Go, is an open-source programming language developed by Google in 2007 and publicly available in 2009. Golang is developed with a central focus on modern architecture, simplicity, efficiency and concurrency.

According to the Stack Overflow developer Survey, Golang has captured 13-15% of the market in popularity and achieved 10th rank among top-paying technologies.

Golang is a statically typed and compiled programming language primarily used by Golang developers for server-side application development, including web apps, system programs and command-line tools.

The following are the key features of the Golang:

• Concurrency Support
• Easy to learn & use syntax
• Garbage Collection Support
• Cross-platform compatibility
• Feature-rich library
• Performance and Scalability

Best IDEs for Golang Development

Golang has become a popular programming language among developers, and the market is filled with various IDEs (Integrated Development Environments) for Golang development. However, choosing an efficient, feature-rich, scalable, and simple IDE is essential so it works well even for large-scale projects.

We're going to take a look at the best IDEs for Golang development, as well as their key features and pros/cons. All the following IDEs are popular and ranked between 4-5 out of 5 according to G2.

1. Visual Studio Code:

Visual Studio Code, also known as VS Code, is an open-source IDE developed by Microsoft that supports Golang development. It became one of the most popular IDEs because it contains a complete package of features necessary for development, such as debugging, testing, syntax formatting and highlighting, hierarchical files and folders, intelligent code completion and much more.

VS Code offers large library support that includes many Go-specific extensions to extend the functionality of VS Code to improve your development experience.

Key Features

• Multiple programming languages support
• Built-in terminal and Git integration
• Support for Go modules
• Multi-platform support
• Debugging and testing support
• Task automation and Live share support

Aside from the listed key features, Vs code provides support for various features to improve the development for the Golang developers.

Pros

• Best Extension Ecosystem.
• Incredible support of the Go Active community and frequent updates.
• Built-in Git and terminal support.
• Compatible with various Operating systems such as Linux, Windows and macOS.

Cons

• Consumes more resources compared to the lightweight editor.
• Limited Golang-Specific Features compared to the dedicated Golang-focused IDEs.
• Requires the installation of extensions.
• Overall, customization can be complex for newbie developers...

2. GoLand by JetBrains:

GoLand is a commercial IDE developed by JetBrains for GoLang development. Goland is not free but comes with reasonable pricing due to its advanced functionalities like code analysis, debugging, smart completion, code refactoring, fast navigation and many more.

GoLand IDE is suitable for intermediate-level developers looking to speed up their development process with a streamlined workflow. GoLand is a comprehensive ecosystem with unique environments to improve the development process with automation tools.

Key Features

• Advanced Code analysis and navigation
• Quick debugging and testing support
• Smart Coding assistance ( Smart code completion, refactoring, Code generation and more)
• Integrated support for Go tools
• Rich extension ecosystem
• Remote development support

Pros

• Feature-rich ecosystem that includes smart coding assistance.
• Integration support for various version control systems such as Git and Mercurial.
• Support for Go-specific tools such as go mode and go generate.
• Advanced Live template support to create a custom code snippet.

Cons

• It consumes more resources while developing larger projects that cause slower performance.
• It is hard to learn for new users because of the overwhelming Interface and features.
• Costly compared to other paid IDE or open-source IDE.
• Limited support for other languages.

3. LiteIDE:

LiteIDE is a lightweight open-source IDE developed by visualfc that supports multiple platforms such as Windows, macOS, Linux, and FreeBSD. It provides a simple user interface with an integrated Golang development environment to edit and create projects.

It offers a wide range of features to improve and boost the development process, such as system environment management, built-in commands, syntax highlighting, intelligent code completion, and more. It also emphasizes efficient project management and high customization.

Key Features

• Advanced code editor and terminal
• Faster navigation, code completion and formatting
• Syntax highlighting with the colour scheme
• File search, replace and revert support
• Built-in debugging tools
• Cross-platform support (Windows, Linux and macOS)

Pros

• Simple and user-friendly interface.
• Supports go-specific features with the Golang development environment.
• Open-source and freely available to use.
• Cross-platform support with an advanced code editor.

Cons

• Limited set of features.
• Limited customization and flexibility compared to other IDEs (VS code, GoLand).
• Limited documentation and very little community support.
• Less updates and maintenance support.

4. Sublime Text

Sublime Text is a fast and simple IDE for Golang development that is available for Windows, macOS, and Linux. It offers a user-friendly interface, toolkit, incredible features, and fast performance.

The Sublime text editor functionality can be extended by plugins and packages, such as the GoSublime package, which includes code completion, syntax highlighting, and many other features.

Key Features

• Lightweight, fast and performance-centric
• Auto code completion
• Search and replace functionalities
• Flexibility and Extensibility
• Split editing interface
• Multi-language and cross-platform support

Pros

• Fast, flexible and lightweight with minimum resource consumption.
• Plugins and package support for expanding functionalities.
• Split screen and full-screen mode support.

Cons

• Limited debugging and testing support.
• It requires a paid license.
• Lesser support for some languages.

5. Vim

Vim is a simple, lightweight command-line editor that uses the "Go" plugin to develop Golang projects. It is a highly customizable and performance-focused plugin with a fast IDE to handle large files efficiently.

Vim offers extensive customization, allowing developers to configure their preferences. It offers many features similar to Vs Code and GoLand IDES. Vim also allows various plugins and extensions to extend code completion, refactoring, and many other functions.

Key Features

• Lightweight and fast
• Advanced Customization support
• Auto Code completion support
• Rich support for plugins and extensions
• Multi-language and cross-platform support
• Keyword-driven commands support

Pros

• Powerful customization options.
• Perfectly works with terminal and SSH environments.
• High support of plugins and extensions.

Cons

• More complex learning curve for beginners because of the command line.
• No user-friendly interface.
• Complex customization and configuration setups.

Apart from the IDEs listed above, many other IDEs are also available, such as Eclipse with Goclips, Komodo, Atom and many more. Each of them is unique in characteristics and capabilities. However, they offer many unique functionalities but also lack some important ones.

The IDEs listed above are full packs of perfect functionality with their unique capabilities and variation, which makes them the perfect choice for Golang development among developers.

Best Golang Development Tools

Selecting the right IDE for Golang development is essential, but having the right suite of development tools is equally important. Development tools help developers enhance their development process to create projects quickly and easily.

The following are the most important tools for Golang development:

1. GoVendor:

GoVentor tool is helpful to see the package location from their present conditions. It is useful for handling simple or complex situations and allows cross-platform testing.

It also allows developers to easily copy the current dependencies of the project from the $GOPATH.

2. Go Native

Go native tools allow developers to create Go toolchains with the help of native libraries that can be easily cross-compiled. Additionally, it also allows end-to-end support to solve complex problems.

Apps built with the help of Go Native can be easily rebuilt and maintained to support future iOS and Android updates.

3. Go Swaggers

The GoSwaggers toolkit is quite helpful in Golang development, providing many features and functions, such as code generation with customizable templates. This application of Swagger 2.0 allows serializing and de-serializing Swagger specifications.

GoSwagger allows you to use the Swagger specification document and validate it against JSONSchema. It also provides API creation, code creation, and maximized string formats.

4. Go Callvis

In large projects, the complexity of the codebase increases over time. The Go CallVis toolkit allows visualization of Go program data from call graphs and their connection with various packages.

It is quite helpful in understanding complex and large project code structures. We can easily focus on a particular package inside a program using the Go CallVis tool.

5. GoSimple

GoSimple is a Golang development toolkit used to locate code that can be rewritten, focusing on the latest version of Golang. It will always suggest the simplest way to rewrite the code to avoid complexity with new Go launches.

GoSimple provides CRUD functionality with Golang for simplifying the development of larger projects.

Apart from the development tools listed above, a long list of development tools is available, such as Go Meta Linter, AppCompat, Depth, Checkstyle and many others. These tools help developers to develop Golang projects with a particular functionality.

Conclusion

The Golang IDEs and development tools provide a great way to develop Golang projects; However, choosing the right one will depend on the needs and preferences of each individual. You can use the above article to guide you in building your development ecosystem with the right IDE and development tools.

Once you understand the initial steps, you can also hire Golang developers by choosing our development services to develop pixel-perfect and feature-rich applications for users.