How to Build a CRUD REST API in Go (Golang) with PostgreSQL – Step-by-Step Guide

🧑‍💻 Building a CRUD API in Go with PostgreSQL – A Practical Guide

If you're diving into backend development with Go (Golang) and looking for a simple and effective way to manage data, this post is for you. Today, we’ll walk through building a basic CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) REST API in Go, backed by a PostgreSQL database.

Whether you're building a full-stack app or microservice, this guide will give you the solid foundation you need.

🚀 Why Go and PostgreSQL?

Go is known for its performance, simplicity, and strong concurrency support, while PostgreSQL is a powerful, open-source relational database that’s trusted in production environments everywhere. Together, they’re a robust combination for scalable backend services.

🪰 What We'll Use

• Go (v1.20+ recommended)
• PostgreSQL (v13+)
• Gorilla Mux (for routing)
• Standard library (database/sql with lib/pq driver)

📦 Project Structure

go-postgres-crud/
├── main.go
├── db.go
├── handlers.go
├── models.go
└── go.mod

🔧 Step 1: Setup Your Go Project

go mod init go-postgres-crud
go get github.com/lib/pq
go get github.com/gorilla/mux

📃 Step 2: Create the PostgreSQL Table

CREATE TABLE users (
  id SERIAL PRIMARY KEY,
  name TEXT NOT NULL,
  email TEXT UNIQUE NOT NULL
);

🔌 Step 3: Database Connection (db.go)

package main

import (
    "database/sql"
    "log"
    _ "github.com/lib/pq"
)

var db *sql.DB

func InitDB() {
    var err error
    connStr := "user=postgres password=yourpass dbname=cruddb sslmode=disable"
    db, err = sql.Open("postgres", connStr)
    if err != nil {
        log.Fatal(err)
    }

    if err = db.Ping(); err != nil {
        log.Fatal(err)
    }

    log.Println("Connected to database")
}

👤 Step 4: Create a Model (models.go)

package main

type User struct {
    ID    int    `json:"id"`
    Name  string `json:"name"`
    Email string `json:"email"`
}

🧩 Step 5: Build the Handlers (handlers.go)

🚀 Step 6: Start the Server (main.go)

package main

import (
    "log"
    "net/http"
    "github.com/gorilla/mux"
)

func main() {
    InitDB()
    r := mux.NewRouter()
    r.HandleFunc("/users", CreateUser).Methods("POST")
    r.HandleFunc("/users", GetUsers).Methods("GET")
    r.HandleFunc("/users/{id}", UpdateUser).Methods("PUT")
    r.HandleFunc("/users/{id}", DeleteUser).Methods("DELETE")
    log.Println("Server running on port 8080")
    log.Fatal(http.ListenAndServe(":8080", r))
}

🥺 Testing the API

• Create:

  curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"name":"Alice", "email":"alice@example.com"}' http://localhost:8080/users

• Read:

  curl http://localhost:8080/users

• Update:

  curl -X PUT -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"name":"Alicia", "email":"alicia@example.com"}' http://localhost:8080/users/1

• Delete:

  curl -X DELETE http://localhost:8080/users/1

✅ Conclusion

That’s it! You’ve now built a basic Go REST API connected to a PostgreSQL database with full CRUD functionality. This setup is ideal for small apps, microservices, or as a backend for a frontend framework like React or Vue.

Want to take it further? Add JWT authentication, Dockerize the app, or switch to an ORM like GORM or sqlc.

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