go-zero vs Kratos
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 Go framework for building web and RPC microservices, with a code generator called goctl.
Open source · MIT
A lightweight Go framework for building cloud-native microservices.
The short answer
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
Choose Kratos if you need…
- Go developers building a set of backend services that talk over HTTP or gRPC
- Teams that want an API-first workflow starting from Protobuf definitions
- Developers who want a lightweight framework with explicit, composable components
- Teams moving to cloud-native deployments who want pluggable registries and configuration
Side-by-side
| go-zero | Kratos | |
|---|---|---|
| Type | Library | Library |
| Price | Free and open source | Free and open source |
| Licence | MIT | MIT |
| GitHub stars | 33.4k | 26k |
| Setup difficulty | Intermediate | Intermediate |
| How you get it | Install with a package manager | Install with a package manager |
| Main language | Go | Go |
| Last code update | 5 days ago | 4 days ago |
What each one is
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.
Kratos
Kratos is a Go framework for building microservices, the small backend services that together make up a larger application. It provides APIs for handling HTTP and gRPC traffic, middleware, service registry, configuration, logging, and code generation from Protobuf definitions, so developers can focus on business logic. It is maintained as an open-source project under the MIT license.
Best for
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
Kratos
- Go developers building a set of backend services that talk over HTTP or gRPC
- Teams that want an API-first workflow starting from Protobuf definitions
- Developers who want a lightweight framework with explicit, composable components
- Teams moving to cloud-native deployments who want pluggable registries and configuration
Strengths
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
Kratos
- Unified transport layer covering both HTTP and gRPC
- Composable middleware and pluggable components for registry, config, and encoding
- Uses the standard library log/slog for logging, with OpenTelemetry extensions in contrib packages
Not ideal for
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
Kratos
- Developers who do not use Go, since the framework is written for Go only
- Beginners with no Go or Protobuf experience, because the setup requires installing protoc and protoc-gen-go first
- Teams planning to upgrade from v2 without reviewing the migration guide, since v3 changes implicit behavior
Trade-offs
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
Kratos
- Requires several tools to be installed before a first generated service runs (Go 1.25+, protoc, protoc-gen-go)
- The latest release v3.0.0 has no prebuilt binaries, so installation goes through Go tooling
- Upgrading from v2 requires reading the migration guide because v3 changes previously implicit behavior
Getting started
go-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@latestKratos
Install the CLI
go install github.com/go-kratos/kratos/cmd/kratos/v3@latestUpgrade the CLI tooling
kratos upgradeFrequently asked questions
What is the difference between go-zero and Kratos?
go-zero: A Go framework for building web and RPC microservices, with a code generator called goctl. Kratos: A lightweight Go framework for building cloud-native microservices. go-zero suits go developers building rest apis or microservices, while Kratos suits go developers building a set of backend services that talk over http or grpc.
Are go-zero and Kratos free?
go-zero: Free and open source. Kratos: Free and open source.
Is go-zero or Kratos more popular?
go-zero has more GitHub stars (33.4k) than Kratos (26k). Popularity isn't the same as fit — check which one matches your use case above.
What are other alternatives to go-zero and Kratos?
Other options people compare them with include Gin, Echo, Tonic, Orleans, chi.
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.