Go Micro vs Micro: What are the differences?

Introduction

In this Markdown document, we will provide a comparison between Go Micro and Micro, highlighting the key differences between the two. Go Micro and Micro are both frameworks for building distributed systems and microservices.

1. Extensibility: Go Micro provides a highly extensible framework that enables developers to easily add their own functionality and customize the system according to their requirements. On the other hand, Micro offers a more opinionated approach, providing pre-defined components and plugins to assist in building microservices, which may limit the level of extensibility.

2. Language Support: Go Micro is primarily focused on supporting applications written in the Go programming language. It provides a Go-centric approach to building microservices, leveraging Go's features and ecosystem. In contrast, Micro aims to be language-agnostic, allowing developers to build microservices using different programming languages such as Go, Python, and Node.js.

3. Service Discovery: Go Micro utilizes service discovery to handle the registration and discovery of microservices within a distributed system. It includes support for various service discovery mechanisms like DNS, Consul, and etcd. Micro, on the other hand, relies on its own built-in service discovery system called "mDNS" (multicast DNS), which enables decentralized service discovery without the need for external dependencies.

4. Transport Protocols: Go Micro provides support for multiple transport protocols, including HTTP, TCP, and NATS. It allows developers to choose the most suitable transport protocol based on their use case. In contrast, Micro emphasizes the use of the HTTP protocol as the primary transport mechanism for communication between microservices.

5. API Gateway: Go Micro does not include an API gateway as part of its core functionality. However, it provides the flexibility to build and integrate an API gateway within the system as per the developer's requirements. On the other hand, Micro offers a built-in API gateway called "Micro API" that allows developers to easily expose microservices as HTTP APIs without additional configuration.

6. Error Handling: Go Micro focuses on providing a pluggable error handling mechanism, allowing developers to define their own error handling strategies for different scenarios. Micro, on the other hand, provides a standardized error handling mechanism that follows the microservices best practices, promoting a consistent error handling approach across services.

In Summary, Go Micro offers a more extensible and Go-centric approach with support for multiple transport protocols and flexible error handling, while Micro provides a more opinionated and language-agnostic framework with its own built-in service discovery system and API gateway.