This practical Go database/sql tutorial covers 39 lessons spanning core concepts like connection pools, transactions, and isolation levels, compares ORMs (GORM, Bun, XORM) and lightweight tools (sqlx, sqlc, Squirrel), and addresses logging, migration, testing, and production practices using modernc.org/sqlite for runnable examples.
The article curates ten Go quality‑of‑life libraries—sqlc, chi, pgx, slog, testify, alecthomas/kong, go‑task, air, and others—explaining the pain points they solve, the concrete benefits they bring, and providing step‑by‑step code examples so developers can boost productivity while staying true to Go's philosophy.
This article explains how combining Go, PostgreSQL, and sqlc creates a Zero‑ORM architecture that restores SQL to the center of high‑performance, highly controllable, and maintainable backend services, covering design principles, layer responsibilities, schema and query patterns, connection‑pool tuning, transaction handling, observability, and practical best‑practice checklists.
The article explains how Cloudflare’s production stack uses Go, Postgres and sqlc to avoid ORM overhead, presents benchmark data showing sqlc delivering double the throughput and far lower latency and memory usage than GORM, and offers a practical migration and learning roadmap.
