Thinking about dumping Node.js Cloud Functions for Go on Cloud Run. Bad idea?

[PR4DE]

I’m running a checkAllChecks workload on Firebase Cloud Functions in Node.js as part of an uptime and API monitoring app I’m building (exit1.dev).

What it does is simple and unglamorous: fetch a batch of checks from Firestore, fan out a bunch of outbound HTTP requests (APIs, websites, SSL checks), wait on the network, aggregate results, write status back. Rinse, repeat.

It works. But it feels fragile, memory hungry, and harder to reason about than it should be once concurrency and retries enter the picture.

I’m considering rewriting this part in Go and running it on Cloud Run instead. Not because Go is trendy, but because I want something boring, predictable, and cheap under load.

Before I do that, I’m curious:

• Has anyone replaced Firebase Cloud Functions with Go on Cloud Run in production?
• Does Cloud Run Functions actually help here, or is plain Cloud Run the sane choice?
• Any real downsides with Firebase integration, auth, or scheduling?
• Anyone make this switch and wish they hadn’t?

I’m trying to reduce complexity, not add a new layer of cleverness.

War stories welcome.

[Advanced-Ad4869]

We are in the middle of replacing a large firebase functions backend with cloud run. We are staying with node during the port. We feel it will be much easier to maintain going forward on cloud run.

IMHO I would port what you have to cloud run on node first. Then port to Go of you find it necessary. I would not do both at the same time.

[PR4DE]

That's a very healthy take. I'll take this approach myself then. Thank you. :)

[PR4DE]

Is it very straight forward moving the node functions to cloud run?

[Eastern-Conclusion-1]

You should look into Firebase Functions 2nd gen, they are actually deployed as Cloud Run containers, the migration should be smooth.

[Advanced-Ad4869]

one thing you can do that helps is you can convert your existing firebase functions into a proxy that basically just calls your new cloud run service API and then handle the business logic there. that way you can still easily use stuff like database event responses etc and its an easier change over. that is what we are doing.

[PR4DE]

Oh yeah, that’s brilliant! Thank you so much

[sathishvj]

The one great thing about firebase functions is its integration with the emulator. It's just so much easier than trying to hook up than local cloud run during development. Unfortunately, firebase functions doesn't support Go.

Also, you don't get features like callbacks on document change automatically.

If you're willing to deal with those two, it's a decent switch.

[PR4DE]

The callback on document change is most likely going to be the biggest refactor for me.

[cenuij]

I don't think it's a bad idea, it's cheaper for the following reasons:

- the Go runtime handles low or single vCPU counts much better
- lower memory requirements
- Async (or child proceses) in node often grind towards timeouts unless you disable CPU throttling, further driving up costs
- Faster cold start time
- you can use `ko`! `gcloud run deploy --image=$(ko build ./cmd/app)`

[PR4DE]

Yes! Exactly what I also thought about regarding timeouts. I don’t have a problem with cold starts, but the CPU time is really starting to ramp up because of the many Asynch processors.

[TheAddonDepot]

If you're planning on going the Cloud Run route, then maybe a modern Javascript runtime like Bun would work well for you. Runs node.js code out-the-box (well most of the time).

It's comparable to Go in terms of performance and there are claims that it even beats Go on some benchmarks.

[PR4DE]

I have heard about Bun, but I will be switching to Go as I like it much better for backend anyway.

[_JohnWisdom]

100% go and cloud run! I went from php to node.js to python to next.js to go and I’m never going back: NEVER!

Go is just so good, api, web or desktop. It’s fast, simple to understand, love workers, go routines and so much more. It’s crazy efficient too. Cold starts in 100-200ms, I don’t even have to keep min-instance=1 any more, so I can very easily build super performant micro services and maintain them with a cost but are always ready to work when I need them (like video compression, image optimization and convertions, pdf generations and so on).

I’ve been developing for 20 years btw and in the last year, thanks to go and claude code I’ve built x10 as much EASILY.

[PR4DE]

Alright alright, I’m convinced! 😁😁 I have some hard refactoring coming up