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Compare the six languages

Execution model, memory, concurrency and rough performance tiers, so you can choose the right tool for the job.

	C++	C#	Go	JavaScript	PHP	Python
Execution	Native machine code (AOT)	.NET runtime (JIT) or Native AOT	Single static native binary	V8 / SpiderMonkey / JSC engines (JIT)	Zend Engine, bytecode + OPcache, optional JIT	CPython bytecode interpreter
Typing	Static, strong-ish	Static, strong, nullable-aware	Static, strong, structural interfaces	Dynamic, weak (TypeScript adds static types)	Dynamic with gradual typing (strict_types)	Dynamic, strong, optional type hints
Memory	Manual / RAII, no GC	Generational GC	Concurrent low-latency GC	Garbage collected	Reference counting + cycle collector	Reference counting + cycle GC
Concurrency	Threads, atomics, coroutines (C++20)	Tasks, async/await, channels	Goroutines and channels	Single-threaded event loop, workers	Shared-nothing per request; Fibers (8.1)	asyncio, threads (GIL), multiprocessing
Raw CPU speed
Start-up time
Memory efficiency
Development speed

Tiers are an editorial estimate for typical workloads, not measured results. Real numbers depend heavily on the workload, runtime version and libraries.

These tiers are an editorial estimate, not benchmark results. For measured numbers on small CPU-bound programs, see The Computer Language Benchmarks Game, and keep in mind that results depend on how each program is written and on the runtime version.

Decision guide

Choose when…

C++

Compare the six languages

Choose when…

Game engines and real-time graphics

Enterprise web APIs and back-ends

Cloud-native infrastructure

Web front-ends

Content sites and CMS

Machine learning and data science