Best IDEs and Tools For Golang Web Development

Table of Contents

Golang Overview

Go language is a statically typed, compiled programming language designed by Google which aims to provide Python productivity and effortlessness with the ability of the C language. It is syntactically similar to C but offers memory safety, garbage collection, structural typing, and CSP-style concurrency. The ‘Go’ language is often referred to as ‘Golang’ as its domain name was golang.org, but the actual name is ‘Go.’

Coming onto Golang’s inception, it was initially created to make low-level monoliths for Google. Later due to its features like scalability, productivity, and ease of deployment, it became an exceptional choice for service-oriented architectures. It also allows product owners to build simple, reliable, and efficient software that is ideal for businesses.

According to the TIOBE index for September 2022, Golang ranks 12th and is growing tremendously. And the reason behind this popularity is the simplicity of using Go. It is voluntarily a minimalist language with only 25 keywords that are never-evolving. The new functionalities are added to the standard library as new functions and not to the language itself.

Features of Golang

Golang offers many features for product owners; a few of them are:

• Quick compilation irrespective of the data volume of the app; optimally manages multi-core processors;
• Favors simplicity and backward compatibility as it evolves; optimizes memory management;
• Supports backward compatibility; produces executables without dependencies;
• Go guarantees a joint knowledge base among developers, is fast to learn, and is sustainable. As a result, it facilitates long-term maintenance.

Delivering the expected results, even with a bunch of features like Golang, is still a daunting task for product owners. To accomplish this beyond limitations, product owners involve many Top IDEs and Tools for Golang development, which make working in Golang easier, faster, and more efficient. Considering the same, we have consolidated a list of top Golang IDEs and Tools; that can come in handy for your next web app development project.

Best IDEs and Tools for Golang Web Development - Golang IDEs

Golang IDEs are getting a lot of popularity these days. These IDEs are significant as they can help you streamline and navigate your code smoothly if you are into large-scale projects with a broad codebase. You can also examine your code and make edits to your preference. So, let’s have a look at them:

Gogland

Gogland is one of the best IDEs and Tools for Golang, launched by JetBrains. Gogland also possesses an extensive IntelliJ plugin ecosystem in case the requirement arises. It is intended for the Golang language and offers a strong ergonomic environment for Go developers. It entails facilities like code assistance, debugging, and an integrated terminal.

Gogland features include:

• Navigation
• Go to inheritor structures and super interfaces
• Type-aware completion (aka Smart completion)
• Extract function refactoring
• Inspections and quick-fixes
• Sub-tests support (runner, navigation, gutter actions)
• Quick documentation for struct fields
• Semantic highlighting
• SQL auto-injection

GoLand

Goland is not the most modern Golang IDEs but is ideal for Go web development to achieve an ergonomic environment. GoLand is one of the best IDE for Golang, offering functions, plugins, themes, and autocomplete to ensure convenience while performing any developing task. It also provides many code editors and built-in Golang developer tools like debugger, coverage, test runner, and others. It supports TypeScript, Dart, JavaScript, React HTML, and CSS for both back-end and front-end development.

The Goland features include:

• Coding assistance (Smart completion, Inspections & quick-fixes, Refactorings, Quick navigation, Quick popups, Code generation, Detecting recursive calls, Type Parameter, Exit points highlighting, Finding usages and Formatter)
• Code Editor (Parameter hints, Semantic highlighting)
• Built-in tools and integrations (Debugger, Coverage, Test runner, Go tools, Plan9, Version control, Terminal, and Docker)
• Front-end and back-end development (JavaScript, HTML and CSS, and Database tools)
• Plugin ecosystem

Visual Studio Code

Visual Studio Code is a powerful code editor for Windows, macOS, and Linux. Launched in 2015 by Microsoft, VS Code provides debugging, syntax highlighting, intelligent code completion, snippets, code refactoring, and embedded Git.

Integrating the Go extension with Visual code provides exclusive features like IntelliSense, code navigation, symbol search, testing, debugging, and many more that will help you in Go development, making it one of the best IDE for Golang. It also has an active and supportive community of Go developers that contributes regularly. Leveraging different Visual Studio Code plugins help to increase the functionalities.

VS Code is aptly optimized to build and debug modern web and cloud applications. In addition, it has support, native and utilizing complements, for many programming languages, such as JavaScript, TypeScript, Node.js, C ++, C #, Java, Python, PHP, Go. .NET, among others.

The features of Visual Studio Code are:

• Supports Multiple Programming Languages
• Hierarchy Structure for code files and folders that keeps the web application architecture stable and responding
• Improved Code
• Has an inbuilt Command Line Interface
• Has an integrated Git that allows for pulling, committing, and publishing using a simple GUI.
• Has a rich API for enabling tools for debugging
• Intelligent Code completion, code refactoring, and snippets

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LiteIDE

LiteIDE is a free, lightweight and amongst the best Golang IDE to program only Go projects; it is developed by visualfc. It is a simple, cross-platform, open-source, integrated development environment. LiteIDE is one of the most Golang-centric IDE as it offers an ideal Golang building environment management to edit and build projects. It also supports Markdown and Golang Present.

As Lite IDE is specially designed for Golang So, it offers some valuable features like:

• Configurable Build Commands
• An Advanced Code Editor
• Extensive Golang Support
• Code Management
• Gdb And Delve Debugger
• Auto-Completion And Theming With Wordapi
• Mime-Type Based System
• Simple Code Editor
• System Environment Management
• A Plug-In System

These unique features also support file search, revert, replace, and fast open files, commands, and symbols. As expected with a FOSS solution, Lite IDE can run on Windows, macOS, and Linux operating systems. In addition, it is frequently updated and has a loyal community of users.

Vim

Vim is an improved version of the Vi editor for major operating systems, prevalent among Linux users. Web developers are shifting to Vim open-source Go IDE because of its versatility, making it one of the best IDEs and Tools for Golang. Vim is accessible on every major platform and is the same for all the platforms. It is also lightweight and fast in handling large files with everything in one place, offering most native text editors. Regarding its characteristics, Vim stands out mainly for its efficiency and for being highly configurable. Not only that, but it is also widely used for all types of text editing. Vim is the most configurable IDE as it provides almost every plugin, such as autocomplete, syntax highlighting, and many more. It allows you to customize the configuration easily, simply using ~/.vimrc to overwrite it.

The vim-go plugin is free, easy to install, and well-maintained with frequent updates on Github. Upon installation, vim-go will arm your VIM text editor with Go package compilation, folding and syntax highlighting, integrated delve support, and anything else you may need from any Golang IDEs and Tools for web development. Since this is an open-source project, you will need to turn to the community for help when you come across any trouble. You will find most of what you need in the project documentation. Vim offers features like:

• Word Suggestion
• Open Multiple Windows in VIM
• Set Abbreviations
• Fast and Light Weight
• Frequent Editing and Modular Capability
• Influential Key Bindings

Sublime Text

Sublime Text is proprietary software for writing code, available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. It is also one of the best IDEs in the market. In addition, it stands out for its toolkit, user interface, powerful features, and incredible performance.

Sublime Text has GoSublime, an IDE-like plugin for sublime Text, to provide the best Golang development tools. The main features of GoSublime include;

• code auto-completion from GoCode (fork)
• context-aware snippets
• live command output
• lint/syntax check

Zeus IDE

Zeus is a language-neutral programmer’s IDE for Windows, which only a few people know about. Claiming to be “an IDE letting you code like Mozart rather than coding nursery rhymes,” Zeus has quite a bit to offer to Go developers. Zeus IDE supports Golang development tools like gocode for auto-complete, documentation, and code navigation, as well as tools like gofmt and goimports for automatic code formatting. There are also macros for Go Guru, fix, vet, gorename, and gobuild. Recently, Zeus also worked with the Delve debugger.

Zeus IDE offers features like:

• Project/Workspace management
• Support for the Language Server Protocol
• Syntax highlighting for popular languages, including Go
• Accurate syntax highlighting using tree-sitter for languages including Go
• Easily configured to support any programming language and toolset
• Integrated class browser, code completion, code folding, and code navigation
• Compile and build your code without leaving the editor
• Smart indenting and smart pasting
• Support for ligature fonts like Cascadia Code, FiraCode, Hasklig, and Iosevka
• Column editing, virtual whitespace, and rectangular cut copy and paste operations

Eclipse with GoClipse

Eclipse is a renowned open-source platform, and being a famous IDE for Go, many plugins are made for it. GoClipse is one of the best Golang plugins for Eclipse, providing Go source code editing, automatic indentation, configurable syntax highlighting, and brace completion. This Go IDE allows for virtual customization and extension features. Additionally, GoClipse works as a project builder and wizard that creates errors immediately and reports syntax. Other features of this Golang plugin incorporate code support and debugging functionality.

Some exciting features that make Eclipse one of the most popular IDE for Go app developers are:

• Code Insight
• Debugging Tools
• Private Code Repository
• Gets modified and advanced with time
• Easy to use and install
• Provided with a simple UI
• Auto-completion tool
• Maven integration.

Atom with Go-Plus

Atom is a multiplatform code editor (previously an IDE) with Git and GitHub integrations. Like most other configurable text editors, Atom allows users to install packages and third-party themes to customize the features and appearance of the editor. It is a lightweight framework for various plugins that enable most of its functionality. And even less experienced coding people can use this integrated development environment as its operation is relatively easy to use and learn.

For using Atom for Go development, you will need the Go-Plus Golang plugin, which adds to your Atom installation tools, build flows, linters, vet, coverage tools, and other go development tools. You can also use its features for autocomplete, formatting, testing, and documentation. Atom offers features like:

• Autocomplete
• Syntax Checking
• Outline View
• Hover to see additional information about the supported object’s properties
• An easy customization option is available
• Color coding feature is provided
• Debugging and reporting specific errors
• Time-saving and fast function
• It is free to use and access and has an excellent GIT integration.

Komodo

Komodo is a full-featured Go IDE that supports other programming languages such as Node.js, Python, Ruby, Perl, and more. It is one of the IDEs and Tools for Golang that allows you to write clean code quickly. The great thing about Komodo is that it works great for team collaboration since multiple developers can edit a document simultaneously. Komodo can be installed on Mac, Windows, or Linux with just one license.

Its features include:

• An advanced code editor
• Intelligent code completion
• Syntax checking
• Version control and unit testing
• A Go Code Intelligence that allows code browsing and code hinting.

IntelliJ IDEA

These days, most developers use this popular and robust integrated development environment. A Golang plugin should be installed for IntelliJ IDEA to assist the Go language. This IDE for Go uses a rapid indexing method that offers import suggestions for the IDE and contextual hints on auto-completion object members.

Its basic features incorporate on-the-fly error identification and refactoring. As an ergonomic and competent IDE for JVM, each feature of this IDE is made to boost developers’ productivity and coding experience.

Best IDEs and Tools for Golang - Golang Developer Tools

Now that we know about the Best Golang IDEs. Let’s move forward with the Best Golang Developer Tools that enhance the pace of your web application development and your upcoming projects.

Checkstyle

When talking about the Golang IDEs and Tools Checkstyle bags the top position in the list of the best Go development tools as it helps programmers write Java code that adheres to a coding standard and can check many aspects of your source code. It is efficient in finding class design problems and method design problems. It also can check code layout and formatting issues. It automates the process of reviewing the code. And All these points collectively make it ideal for projects that want to enforce a coding standard.

Golang uses checkstyle to print out the style suggestions of coding. The developers can check file line or function and line or param number, which a user can easily configure.

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Apicompat

Apicompat is a new Golang developer tool that helps developers detect backward, incompatible changes and exported declarations. The most significant advantage is that false positives can be avoided in Apicompat.

Nevertheless, not all backward or incompatible changes can be recognized by Apicompat. The library author should still ponder the swapping argument parameters and other transformations.

Depth

As the name says, it measures the depth of dependency trees by fetching and displaying the Go source code. Before resolving, developers can set appropriate flags on trees.

It can be used as a standalone command-line application or as a particular package within your project. You can add customizations by setting the appropriate flags on the Tree before resolving.

GoVendor

GoVendor helps flatten all the dependency trees to a single level for all the projects. It allows web developers to inspect the current state package locations.

Govender helps handle packages for simple as well as complex cases. It also provides cross-platform test support. Developers can take packages based on their status through Go Vendor.

Go Callvis

Go-callvis is a web development tool that enables visualization of the Go program’s call graph using Graphviz’s dot format. It is beneficial while developing large projects using complicated codebases.

Go Callvis focuses on the specific package in the program. Web and app developers can group functions by package and methods by type using the Go-Callvis web development tool. Go-Callvis provides an interactive view using an HTTP server that serves SVG images containing URLs on packages to change focused packages dynamically.

Moreover, it is helpful when you need to understand other developers’ code structures or recreate somebody else’s project. Using this tool, developers can concentrate on particular packages inside a program, group functions per the package and techniques per the type, and restrict packages to tailor path prefixes and neglect those which comprise them.

GoSimple

GoSimple is a web development tool that detects code that could be rewritten more simply. GoSimple supports CRUD functionalities with Golang, Echo, and Couchbase. This Golang tool focuses on easing Go source code. As it always targets the recent Go version, this tool needs the Go version 1.6 and many more.

If you are in a new Go launch project, Go Simple is a tool that will suggest a simple and easy technique for avoiding complicated structures.

GoNative

GoNative helps build Go Toolchains with the help of native libraries, which can be easily cross-compiled. Gonative keeps the libraries updated by downloading binary distributions for each platform. Launched in 2014, GoNative has helped to develop thousands of web and app solutions for millions of users. The GoNative platform has a 97% approval rate on the app and play store.

Along with product development support, GoNative provides end-to-end support to solve complex problems. All apps and customized mobile apps built using GoNative can be effortlessly rebuilt and maintained to support future iOS and Android updates.

Go Swaggers

GoSwaggers is a Golang development tool that allows various features and functions, such as flexible code generation with customizable templates. Go Swaggers also allows validating JSON data against jsonschema with full $ref support. GoSwaggers supports composed structs out of several embeds and allOf for composed structs as well.

It let the developers generate metadata from package docs, definition entries for models, path entries for routes, responses from structs, and parameters from structs.

Go Meta Linter

Want to run Go lint tools and normalize their output simultaneously? Then use Go Meta Linter. It is utilized with IDE integration or a text editor like the Atom Go-plus package, Sublime Linter plugin, Neovim/Vim, Emacs Flycheck checker, and Visual Studio Code. Moreover, it supports several configuration files and linters like JSON.

Grapes

Grapes are a lightweight Golang developer tool for efficiently deploying commands over Ssh. Yaron Sumel has written and maintained it actively. Soon, Grapes is going to support complete host key validation, so this is something every developer needs to check out.

Conclusion