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Ask HN: Would you chose Node.js, Golang, or Rust for a GraphQL pet project?

1 points by speedgoose ↗ HN
Hi HN,

I have ideas for a new pet project, nothing really important, and I think it's a great opportunity to learn a new stack. I want to use GraphQL and I hesitate between NodeJS, Golang, and Rust. If you have any other suggestions I would gladly hear them.

I'm not deploying on AWS or Azure so I don't really mind ram usage or cpu usage. The database will probably be PostGreSQL because I want a boring (in a good way) database on this project. I will also do some light crypto to play with Merkle trees, but I feel like all languages have acceptable crypto libraries nowadays.

Thanks !

6 comments

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steveklabnik
I don't know much about Go's GraphQL support, but the majority of the ecosystem exists in node today, and Rust has some stuff, but it's not as mature.

I would have other reasons to use Rust here if I were to do this, but Node is the safest choice, imho.

speedgoose
Thanks, I think I will go with NodeJS.
verdverm
If you want cryptos, Merkel tree is not enough. You need consensus for proof of (whatever) unless you are doing single node proof of authority.

Node has a benefit that the frontend is in the same language. You might check out https://apollokit.org

speedgoose
Thanks for your advices. I'm actually planning to have a single node proof of authority, because I don't need high availability. I will have a queue, and a single node signing stuff one by one. The idea is to have something very simple and cost efficient.

Apollo Universal Starter Kit sounds nice, I knew about Apollo but not about this. Thanks !

troyk
I have no experience with GraphQL, but if I were doing a pet project today I'd spin up https://github.com/absinthe-graphql/absinthe and check it out
speedgoose
Elixir and the ErlangVM are a bit too exotic for this project and me, but it does sound interesting. I will probably try it out for something simpler in the future. Thanks.