I love building a startup in Rust. I wouldn't pick it again.
For almost two years now, the vast majority of our backend code was written in Rust (aside from a little bit of Python). I love Rust, it’s by far my favorite language. I find myself missing match in pretty much every other language I go to.
However, if I
propelauth.com
I created Beezle Social with Rust as backend language. It took me a looong time to get used to it. Now that I know the language pretty well, I would 100% pick it over any language.
Yeah, I'd say this is pretty accurate but there are going to be exceptions to the rule. There are going to be pros and cons with every programming language so it depends on what you can compromise on. For example, you talk about slow iterations, but that may not be an issue for someone else. Actually building a startup you get to see what works best, so then you're in a better position 2nd time around to decide whether you want to go with the same again. So, I'd say if you're a first time founder and deciding what to choose, don't worry too much about what you'll come up against further down the line, work with whatever is the easiest now.
I'm currently building in anger with Rust. In my case, the requirement of having
to run in constrained devices makes it an obvious choice.
But one of the crucial factors I'd take into account, if I had to start another
project, is how important is software quality upfront. Do you need to prototype
and iterate quickly with your customers to figure out the right product? Then a
"sloppier" language, like JavaScript would be ideal. On the other hand, if the
product is already more or less defined and your customers are particularly
sensitive to bugs and glitches, a more "rigorous" language, like Rust, may be a
better option.
Contrary to popular belief, in many scenarios, most customers can tolerate bugs
as long as you fix them quickly.
The key lesson is: use a programming language (& tech.) that your team is familiar with.
I bet that things would be different if your team was already well versed with Rust & its libraries.
Rust is definitely an amazing language and I agree with all the positives you've mentioned in the article.
From a more operational side, rust devs are scarcer than other mainstream languages too. In my last startup, we had a really difficult time scaling up and getting the balance between quality/experience and price right.
My personal recommendation would be that unless the security aspect is extremely critical to the success of your business, build out prototypes and MVP's in more accessible languages. If you've got the product and business right, you'll be able to fund and successfully migrate to rust later on.
Really interesting feed back. 👍
I think we don't see this type of feedback often enough, where the real reality of things is described with pragmatsim, without falling into the blindness caused by the passion we have for a programming language.
Did you use Rust in standalone or was it within a particular framework?
I am quite curious to know about other long term experiences with this language that seems to be coming more and more popular.
In any case, I agree that for an MVC, it's always better to start with a language that the team already knows well.
As for me, I am currently discovering Elixir with the Phoenix framework. It's all new to me, and it takes time to learn the new syntax and paradigm, but I think that's the nature of any new learning. 🤓
Currently building with C ++. One of the unusual reasons I chose it was actually due to how many developers in my country know it over say Rust, Node etc. I thought, if I need help at any point it will be easier to find someone if I'm building in C.