I’m currently working on a web-based management system built with Next.js and JavaScript. The backend API is also written in JavaScript using Express framework.
This application runs continuously (24/7) for our company and both the web server and API server are hosted on a Windows 10 virtual machine.
Lately I’ve been experiencing frequent freezing issues with the API server, which seems to be related to performance problems. I’m considering rewriting the backend using a different programming language.
After doing some research, I think Go might be the best choice for my specific requirements and use case.
What do you think? Would switching to Go be worth it in this situation?
I have about 2 years of development experience, so please keep suggestions practical and helpful. Thanks!
Go’s overkill here. With 2 years experience, you’ll debug that frozen Express app way faster than learning Go’s concurrency patterns. Start with your event loop - probably sync operations killing performance. Fire up node --inspect with Chrome DevTools to see what’s freezing. Usually it’s unindexed database queries or middleware doing heavy lifting. Fix the bottleneck instead of rewriting everything.
Been there with Express freezing - it’s a nightmare. But before you rewrite everything, try automating monitoring and diagnostics first.
I had the same issues with a 24/7 system. Turns out most problems weren’t Express limitations - they were memory leaks from unclosed DB connections, API rate limits, and poor resource cleanup.
Here’s what worked: automated monitoring that restarts services when thresholds hit, proper health checks, and performance logging. Automate DB connection pooling, add circuit breakers for external APIs, and set up auto-scaling.
This saved me months of rewrites. Automation handles reliability while keeping your existing code. Plus you’ll get real data on what’s actually causing freezes.
Go’s great, but automation might fix your problems way faster than switching languages entirely. Worth trying first, especially since you want practical solutions at your experience level.
Your freezing issue sounds like Windows resource handling, not Express. I hit the same 24/7 stability problems - API would randomly lock up after days of running. Windows was garbage collecting weird, plus I kept hitting file handle limits. Before jumping to Go, check your process monitoring. Task Manager usually shows Node eating way more memory over time than it should. I fixed it with proper graceful shutdowns, memory alerts, and scheduled restarts every 12 hours during quiet periods. This gave me months to figure out if I actually needed a rewrite. Go’s great for performance, but resource leaks and OS issues will probably bite you there too. The restart strategy kept everything stable while I tracked down the real problems.
I switched from Express to Go about 18 months ago after dealing with constant memory problems and random crashes. It took me 3 weeks to rewrite a moderately complex system, but the performance boost was instant—memory usage dropped 60% and response times improved significantly under load. However, before you decide to rewrite everything, I recommend profiling your Express app first, as most freezing issues stem from memory leaks, unhandled promises, or blocking operations that can be resolved. Tools like clinic.js or proper monitoring can help identify the root cause. If you do make the switch, you’ll find that transitioning to Go isn’t too difficult, especially with a JavaScript background, and deployment becomes hassle-free with single binaries. Be prepared to invest substantial time initially.
Go would definitely fix your performance issues, but try something simpler first. I’ve hit the same Express freezing problems on Windows VMs - the OS is usually the culprit. Windows handles Node.js processes weird compared to Linux, especially memory management and file descriptors. Test your current Express app on a Linux container first. I switched from Windows Server to Ubuntu for a similar project and got instant stability improvements without touching any code. Same Express app, zero freezes - night and day difference. Go’s fantastic for servers and you’ll see major performance gains, but with 2 years experience, debugging production issues will be harder since Go’s ecosystem is way smaller than Node’s. Plus the rewrite could take forever depending on your API complexity. My take: quick Linux test first, then Go if you’re still having problems. Don’t solve an infrastructure issue with a complete code rewrite.