Chi

The Go router for developers who think frameworks are overkill. Chi is a lightweight HTTP router that's 100% compatible with net/http — no custom context, no magic, just composable middleware and clean routing. If you want structure without a framework, chi is the answer.

Gin is the popular full-framework choice. Echo adds more batteries. Fiber is the performance king but breaks net/http compatibility. The standard library mux works but lacks middleware composition and route grouping.

Chi's genius is that every handler is a standard http.Handler. Your middleware works with any net/http compatible library. Route groups, URL parameters, and middleware stacking are clean and idiomatic. It's what the standard library router should have been.

The catch: chi is deliberately minimal — no request binding, no validation, no response helpers. You're writing those yourself or pulling in separate packages. The documentation is functional but sparse compared to Gin or Echo. And because it's "just a router," junior developers may feel lost without the guardrails that full frameworks provide.