Build a Real-Time Chat App with Go, Gin & WebSockets

Build a Real-Time Chat App with Go, Gin & WebSockets WebSockets make real-time apps feel alive. In this tutorial we're going to build a fully functional multi-user chat app using Go , Gin , and Gorilla WebSocket — with sent/received message bubbles, a live online user counter, and a zero-dependency vanilla JS frontend. The full source code is on GitHub: keyadaniel56/golang-chatapp What We're Building Multi-user real-time chat over WebSockets Sent messages aligned right (yellow-green), received messages aligned left (teal) Live "N ONLINE" counter in the header that updates instantly on join/leave Join/leave system messages A clean terminal-aesthetic dark UI — no frontend framework needed Prerequisites Go 1.22+ Basic familiarity with Go syntax A terminal Project Structure golang-chatapp/ ├── main.go # All server logic ├── static/ │ └── index.html # Frontend (vanilla JS) ├── go.mod └── go.sum Step 1 — Initialize the Module mkdir golang-chatapp && cd golang-chatapp go mod init chatapp go g