I’ve long loved Flutter for building sleek, modern front ends, and Go for reliable, single-binary backends. But there’s a friction I kept bumping into: Python ended up being the “everything” language in my stack—useful, but not the one I actually wanted to center my full‑stack work around. So I started experimenting with Rust. The result: Rust isn’t just a replacement — it’s a powerful complement that fills gaps that both Go and Python leave open.

Why Rust?

  • Compiled, single-binary distribution: Like Go, Rust gives me compact, fast, single-binary builds that are a pleasure to ship and deploy.
  • Performance and safety: Rust’s zero-cost abstractions and borrow checker mean I can write high‑performance code that’s also memory-safe — no surprises at runtime.
  • Great for GUIs: Unlike Go, which has limited GUI options, Rust has multiple modern GUI frameworks that let me build native-feeling interfaces across platforms.
  • An ecosystem that’s maturing fast: Crates for everything from async web servers to GUI toolkits mean I rarely need to drop into C or rely on heavyweight runtimes.

How Rust fits into my mental model For a long time my stack looked like:

  • Flutter — UI/Front end
  • Go — backend, APIs, single-binary deploys
  • Python — everything else that touched both front and backend (glue, automation, scripts)

What Rust lets me do is collapse that “everything else” into the same compiled, strongly-typed world as my backends, while giving me the option to build real desktop/native GUI apps when I want to — without sacrificing the predictability of a single binary.

GUI options that caught my eye If you’re coming from Flutter’s declarative style, several Rust GUI projects are worth checking out:

  • egui — immediate-mode GUI that’s easy to prototype with and runs in native and WebAssembly.
  • Iced — inspired by Elm/React, a declarative UI framework for building cross-platform apps.
  • Druid — data-driven, native widget toolkit with strong focus on ergonomics and performance.
  • Tauri — while not a Rust-only GUI framework, Tauri lets you build lightweight desktop apps using web front-ends, with Rust powering the backend logic and bundling a tiny binary.

These frameworks make it practical to build desktop apps that feel native — something Go’s ecosystem doesn’t do as naturally.

Practical benefits I experienced

  • One binary to ship: Builds that are easy to distribute, update, and run across platforms.
  • Faster, safer native apps: Less runtime overhead and more predictable performance compared to a Python or Electron-based app.
  • A happy middle ground: I can keep Flutter for polished, cross-platform mobile/desktop UI, use Go where it excels in simple server-side tooling, and adopt Rust for parts that need native speed, safety, or a richer native UI story.

When to reach for Rust vs Go vs Flutter

  • Flutter: When I need the fastest route to a beautiful cross-platform UI (especially mobile).
  • Go: When I want simple concurrency, quick compile-and-deploy servers, and small binaries for backend microservices.
  • Rust: When I need maximum performance, guaranteed memory safety, native GUI capability, or a compiled single-binary alternative for desktop tooling.

Wrapping up Rust is not a replacement for Flutter or Go in my toolkit — it’s the missing piece I’ve been looking for. It lets me write native GUIs that Go struggles to deliver and gives me the confident, single-binary deployment model I love from Go. Best of all, it frees me from relying on Python as my “everything” language without sacrificing ergonomics or developer experience.

If you’re tired of juggling runtimes and want a compiled, safe, and increasingly ergonomic language that can handle both UI and systems work — give Rust a try. I’m excited where this will take SarahsForge.Dev next.

— Sarah Rose (SarahsForge.Dev)