Software Alternatives & Startups

Clojure VS Erlang

Compare Clojure VS Erlang and see what are their differences

Clojure

Clojure is a dynamic, general-purpose programming language, combining the approachability and interactive development of a scripting language with an efficient and robust infrastructure for multithreaded programming.

Rating
0 reviews
Pricing
Open source
Erlang

A programming language used to build massively scalable soft real-time systems with requirements on high availability

Rating
0 reviews
Pricing
Open source

Which is more popular?

Based on our record, Clojure seems to be a lot more popular than Erlang. While we know about 43 links to Clojure, we've tracked only 3 mentions of Erlang.

social mentions
43 vs 3
Programming Language popularity
70% vs 30%
alternatives listed
84 vs 55

Base details

Website, pricing, platforms and company facts side by side.

Clojure
Erlang
Website clojure.org erlang.org
Pricing
Open source
Open source
Listed in

About Clojure and Erlang

In their own words, as submitted to SaaSHub.

Clojure
Erlang

We recommend LibHunt Clojure for discovery and comparisons of trending Clojure projects.

Read more about Clojure

We recommend LibHunt Erlang for discovery and comparisons of trending Erlang projects.

Read more about Erlang

Features and specs

What each product offers, as listed by its team.

Clojure 5 features
Erlang 6 features
  • Functional Programming Paradigm
    Clojure emphasizes immutability and first-class functions, which can lead to more predictable and maintainable code.
  • Interoperability with Java
    Clojure runs on the JVM, allowing seamless integration with the vast ecosystem of Java libraries and tools.
  • REPL Driven Development
    Clojure's Read-Eval-Print Loop (REPL) allows for interactive programming, making it easier to test and debug code in real time.
  • Concise Syntax
    Clojure's syntax is minimalistic and expressive, which can lead to more concise and readable code.
  • Concurrency Support
    Clojure provides strong support for concurrent programming with features like Software Transactional Memory (STM) and immutable data structures.

Possible disadvantages

  • Steep Learning Curve
    The functional programming paradigm and Lisp-like syntax can be challenging for newcomers, particularly those from imperative programming backgrounds.
  • Performance Overhead
    Clojure's emphasis on immutability can introduce performance overhead compared to languages that use mutable data structures.
  • Limited Tooling
    While improving, the ecosystem for Clojure is not as mature as for some other mainstream languages, which can pose challenges in finding robust development and debugging tools.
  • Less Mainstream
    Clojure is not as commonly used as languages like Python or Java, which can make it harder to find experienced developers or community support.
  • Verbose Error Messages
    Error messages in Clojure can sometimes be verbose and difficult to understand, which can complicate the debugging process.
  • Concurrency
    Erlang is designed for massive concurrency and supports thousands of lightweight processes, making it ideal for applications requiring multiple parallel operations.
  • Fault Tolerance
    Erlang provides robust support for fault tolerance, with built-in mechanisms for process monitoring and error recovery, leading to high system availability.
  • Distributed Computing
    Erlang's architecture facilitates distributed computing with easy support for building scalable, distributed systems across multiple nodes.
  • Hot Code Swapping
    Erlang supports hot code swapping, enabling developers to update code on a live system without requiring a system restart, which is crucial for continuous operation.
  • Functional Programming
    Erlang’s functional programming paradigm leads to simpler code with fewer side effects, improving maintainability.
  • Strong Community
    Erlang has a strong community, with a wealth of resources, libraries, and frameworks that support developers in building efficient systems.

Possible disadvantages

  • Learning Curve
    Erlang has a steep learning curve, especially for developers who are not familiar with functional programming or its concurrency model.
  • Syntax
    The syntax of Erlang can be unfamiliar and challenging to new users, which may hinder the initial coding experience.
  • Limited Libraries
    Despite having a strong community, Erlang has fewer libraries and tools compared to more popular languages, which may limit development options for certain applications.
  • Performance Limitations
    While Erlang excels in concurrency, its performance for compute-intensive tasks might not match that of languages specifically optimized for such operations.
  • Niche Use Cases
    Erlang's strengths in certain niches like telecoms and real-time systems might not translate well to more general or varied software development tasks, limiting its adoption.

Analysis

An editorial look at what each product does well and who it suits.

Clojure
Erlang

Overall verdict

  • Clojure is generally considered a good programming language, particularly for certain types of development projects.

Why this product is good

  • Clojure is a modern, functional programming language that runs on the Java Virtual Machine (JVM). It is known for its simplicity, expressiveness, and powerful abstractions which can enhance developer productivity. Clojure also emphasizes immutability and offers excellent support for concurrent programming, making it suitable for building robust and scalable applications.

Recommended for

  • Developers looking for a functional language that runs on the JVM.
  • Projects that require scalable and concurrent applications.
  • Those interested in data manipulation and transformation, given Clojure's strong sequence and collection processing capabilities.
  • Developers who appreciate Lisp-like syntax and homoiconicity.

No analysis of Erlang yet.

Videos

Walkthroughs and reviews on video.

Clojure 3 videos + Add
Erlang 2 videos + Add

What is the business value of Clojure?

More videos

  • - Blog in Clojure Code Review
  • - Clojure Web App Code Review

Book Review - Erlang in Anger

More videos

  • - Erlang is getting pretty! - Michal Muskala | Code BEAM SF 20

Category popularity

How often each product is chosen within a category, 0–100% relative to the other.

Score bands 0–20 21–40 41–50 51–60 61–100
Clojure
Erlang
70% 70%
30% 30%
62% 62%
OOP
38% 38%
0% 0%
100% 100%

User comments

Share your experience with using Clojure and Erlang. For example, how are they different and which one is better?

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Social recommendations and mentions

Recommendations tracked on public social media and blogs since March 2021.

Clojure 43 mentions
Erlang 3 mentions
  • Quoting Difficulties
    In my last post I discussed DSLs for database querying in Clojure. These typically take the form of data structures. - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • Ease Comes After
    One of the most famous talks in computer science is Simple Made Easy by Rich Hickey, The creator of the programming language Clojure. In it, he explains that, "simple" and "easy" are not the same thing. He refers to the word origins of... - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • Synchronous Functions in Dart
    This series of post will try to explain a complex topic: concurrent and parallel programming, in Dart. I think the only way to deal with that is using the Erlang VM (BEAM), but Clojure and other functional languages are usually doing... - Source: dev.to / 5 months ago

View more

  • Standalone HTTP Server in Elixir with Bandit
    Writing Elixir code is not really exciting to me, but, to be honest, if someone today wants to create an application from scratch and is looking for a big pool developers and a battle tested distributed infrastructure (the BEAM VM),... - Source: dev.to / 5 months ago
  • Perfect Elixir: Environment Setup
    I’m on MacOS and erlang.org, elixir-lang.org, and postgresql.org all suggest installation via Homebrew, which is a very popular package manager for MacOS. - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • What is Calypso?
    However, as Elixir is inherently tied to the BEAM and Erlang/OTP, it means that it has features like immutable variables (though you can rebind them and have state via process loops, e.g. Agents or GenServers). This also means that OTP... - Source: dev.to / over 5 years ago

Alternatives to Clojure and Erlang

When comparing Clojure and Erlang, you can also consider the following products.