--- title: Gin is a very bad software library | daily.dev description: Gin is criticized as an overly complex Go web framework with massive bloat compared to the standard library. The framework requires over 1 million lines of... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/ahfn7cael twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Gin is a very bad software library | daily.dev og:description: Gin is criticized as an overly complex Go web framework with massive bloat compared to the standard library. The framework requires over 1 million lines of... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/ahfn7cael og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/aHFn7cAEl.png og:image:alt: Post cover image og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Gin is a very bad software library **[Go Developers](https://daily.dev/sources/golangnuts)** · [@func25](https://daily.dev/func25) · 16 upvotes · 5 comments ## Summary Gin is criticized as an overly complex Go web framework with massive bloat compared to the standard library. The framework requires over 1 million lines of code and 55MB of dependencies to accomplish what net/http does in 25,000 lines. Its API design violates Unix philosophy with enormous interfaces (gin.Context has 100+ methods), creates unnecessary abstraction layers that obscure control flow, and makes migration away nearly impossible once adopted. The article demonstrates how Gin's complexity provides no real benefit over using Go's standard library directly, while significantly increasing binary size, compilation time, and cognitive overhead. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@daverobertson** · 1 upvotes > What is then the tonic ? **@sjpwarren** · 1 upvotes > I always hated that it took you away from the standard library so you could not use other middleware. **@andradei** · 0 upvotes > and the documentation is lacking. The only thing I like about it is the pretty command line I see once a year. **@byteoutlaw** · 0 upvotes > Gin is not my favorite alcohol either! **@cmanish049** · 0 upvotes > Is stdlib the best option we have? ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Popular Go Web Frameworks: A Practical Guide for Developers](https://daily.dev/posts/popular-go-web-frameworks-a-practical-guide-for-developers-wi0jn69sw) · JetBrains · 28 upvotes · 0 comments - [Issue \#608: Gin: 12 years, 88K stars, and zero broken APIs — Go Weekly](https://daily.dev/posts/issue-608-gin-12-years-88k-stars-and-zero-broken-apis-go-weekly-xsmofobss) · Golang Weekly · 12 upvotes · 2 comments - [Just Fucking Use Go](https://daily.dev/posts/just-fucking-use-go-5rdt9b0j2) · Lobsters · 93 upvotes · 14 comments - [Go Doesn't Force Clean Architecture. That's Your Job.](https://daily.dev/posts/go-doesn-t-force-clean-architecture-that-s-your-job--8z5n2fyww) · Awesome Go · 59 upvotes · 7 comments --- Tags: [#webdev](https://daily.dev/tags/webdev), [#architecture](https://daily.dev/tags/architecture), [#golang](https://daily.dev/tags/golang) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/ahfn7cael) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"DiscussionForumPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https://daily.dev/posts/ahfn7cael","headline":"Gin is a very bad software library","text":"Shared: Gin is a very bad software library","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/ahfn7cael","datePublished":"2025-12-15T14:15:19.009Z","dateModified":"2025-12-15T14:15:19.018Z","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Phuong Le","url":"https://daily.dev/func25","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--HbVBqLGd--/f_auto,q_auto/v1697862633/avatars/avatar_s1rxG2e5sEfVSY1wCzdr8","interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"EndorseAction"},"userInteractionCount":8525}},"image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--0_ODbtD2--/f_auto/v1722860399/public/Placeholder%2008","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":16},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":5}],"sharedContent":{"@type":"WebPage","url":"https://api.daily.dev/r/8MxgLPldH"},"comment":[{"@type":"Comment","text":"What is then the tonic ?","datePublished":"2025-12-17T07:38:34.966Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/aHFn7cAEl#c-mqeQrwCo2","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Dave Robertson","url":"https://daily.dev/daverobertson","image":"https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a/ACg8ocKKCgHj7aBI7pH2F3SMbZDNB7wbEgrXMvALOhjr1QxnzQcVQAmBlA=s96-c"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"I always hated that it took you away from the standard library so you could not use other middleware.","datePublished":"2025-12-15T21:27:30.274Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/aHFn7cAEl#c-swzKNzTo3","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Scott","url":"https://daily.dev/sjpwarren","image":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/1023515?v=4"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"and the documentation is lacking. The only thing I like about it is the pretty command line I see once a year.","datePublished":"2025-12-15T23:24:02.677Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/aHFn7cAEl#c-KzMNvLqIQ","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Isaac de Andrade","url":"https://daily.dev/andradei","image":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/2653546?v=4"}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Gin is not my favorite alcohol either!","datePublished":"2025-12-16T07:41:47.600Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/aHFn7cAEl#c-32NVlNAsm","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Jacob B. 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