Go generally offers superior raw performance due to its compiled nature and static typing, while Node.js provides a faster initial development cycle with its vast ecosystem of JavaScript libraries. Choose Go for compute-intensive, high-concurrency backends where latency matters; choose Node.js for I/O-heavy applications or when leveraging existing JavaScript expertise.
// Go: Compiled, statically typed, high performance
package main
import "fmt"
func main() { fmt.Println("High performance backend") }
// Node.js: Interpreted, dynamic typing, rapid development
console.log("Rapid development backend");