go-admin vs go-zero
Which should you use? A side-by-side look at what each one does, who it suits, what it costs, how hard it is to set up, and where each falls short.
Open source · MIT
A Gin and Vue starter kit for building admin back-office apps with login, roles, and user management.
Open source · MIT
A Go framework for building web and RPC microservices, with a code generator called goctl.
The short answer
Choose go-admin if you need…
- Go developers who want a ready-made admin backend with login and permissions
- Teams building an internal management tool who want a Vue front end with a UI library they already use
- Students or learners studying how a Gin + GORM + Vue admin system is structured
- Developers who want a code generator to scaffold basic create/read/update/delete pages from database tables
Choose go-zero if you need…
- Go developers building REST APIs or microservices
- Teams that want built-in resilience features like rate limiting and circuit breakers without writing them by hand
- Developers who want code generated from an API description file
Side-by-side
| go-admin | go-zero | |
|---|---|---|
| Type | Framework | Library |
| Price | Free and open source | Free and open source |
| Licence | MIT | MIT |
| GitHub stars | 12.8k | 33.4k |
| Setup difficulty | Intermediate | Intermediate |
| How you get it | Clone and build from source | Install with a package manager |
| Main language | Go | Go |
| Last code update | 10 days ago | 5 days ago |
What each one is
go-admin
go-admin is a starter project for building admin systems, the back-office screens used to manage users, menus, roles and settings. The backend is written in Go using the Gin web framework, and the front end is Vue, with a choice of Element UI, Arco Design or Ant Design. It bundles features such as JWT login, role-based access control through Casbin, a code generator and a form builder so you don't start from scratch.
go-zero
go-zero is a framework for writing web APIs and RPC services in Go. It includes built-in engineering features such as timeouts, rate limiting, circuit breaking and load shedding, meant to keep busy services stable. Its goctl tool generates Go server code and client code in other languages from a simple .api description file.
Best for
go-admin
- Go developers who want a ready-made admin backend with login and permissions
- Teams building an internal management tool who want a Vue front end with a UI library they already use
- Students or learners studying how a Gin + GORM + Vue admin system is structured
- Developers who want a code generator to scaffold basic create/read/update/delete pages from database tables
go-zero
- Go developers building REST APIs or microservices
- Teams that want built-in resilience features like rate limiting and circuit breakers without writing them by hand
- Developers who want code generated from an API description file
Strengths
go-admin
- Covers common admin needs out of the box, including RBAC, JWT authentication and operation logs
- Supports multiple database backends through GORM and offers a SQLite quick start with no separate database install
- Offers a choice of three front-end UI libraries and has a documentation site and video tutorials
go-zero
- Includes resilience features such as rate limiting, circuit breaking and load shedding
- Code generation reduces repetitive setup code
- The README says it is used by sites with tens of millions of users
Not ideal for
go-admin
- People who want a no-code tool; the project requires running a Go backend and a Node front end
- Projects that need proven test coverage, since the README lists unit tests as a TODO
- Non-technical users who only want a finished app to use without any setup
go-zero
- Developers who prefer to write everything by hand or use only the standard library, since go-zero generates a lot of boilerplate and adds its own conventions
- Non-Go teams, because the framework is written for Go
Trade-offs
go-admin
- The README lists unit tests as a TODO, so the code has limited automated test coverage as stated
- Setup involves two separate repositories (backend and UI), a Go toolchain, Node.js and pnpm, and the SQLite path needs a C compiler
- Documentation and tutorials are primarily in Chinese; the English README is brief
go-zero
- Heavy reliance on generated code and its own conventions can make it harder to adopt piecemeal
- The README is truncated, so detailed configuration options are not visible here
- Documentation links point to a separate zero-doc repository and a homepage I could not verify
Getting started
go-admin
Clone the backend repository
git clone https://github.com/go-admin-team/go-admin.gitClone the front-end repository
git clone https://github.com/go-admin-team/go-admin-ui.gitgo-zero
Add the library to your project
go get -u github.com/zeromicro/go-zeroInstall the goctl code generator
go install github.com/zeromicro/go-zero/tools/goctl@latestFrequently asked questions
What is the difference between go-admin and go-zero?
go-admin: A Gin and Vue starter kit for building admin back-office apps with login, roles, and user management. go-zero: A Go framework for building web and RPC microservices, with a code generator called goctl. go-admin suits go developers who want a ready-made admin backend with login and permissions, while go-zero suits go developers building rest apis or microservices.
Are go-admin and go-zero free?
go-admin: Free and open source. go-zero: Free and open source.
Is go-admin or go-zero more popular?
go-zero has more GitHub stars (33.4k) than go-admin (12.8k). Popularity isn't the same as fit — check which one matches your use case above.
What are other alternatives to go-admin and go-zero?
Other options people compare them with include Ant Design Pro, refine, Full Stack FastAPI Template, Gin, Echo.
Keep comparing
Built from our catalogue entries for both products: open-source details come from each project's README (AI-assisted, refreshed weekly) and GitHub data; AI-tool details are editorial. Spotted something wrong? Let us know from either product's page.