About Iris Web Framework

Iris is an open-source HTTP/2 web framework written in Go, first released in 2016 and actively maintained by Gerasimos Maropoulos through Hellenic Development. It is licensed under the BSD-3-Clause license.

Key Facts

• GitHub: 25,600+ stars with 2,450+ forks on github.com/kataras/iris
• License: BSD-3-Clause (free and open source)
• Go Version: Requires Go 1.21 or later
• Performance: 238,954 requests/sec in benchmark tests with dynamic parameters and JSON payloads
• Documentation: 70+ pages covering routing, MVC, security, dependency injection, websockets, gRPC, and 17 response formats
• Install: go get github.com/kataras/iris/v12@latest

What Makes Iris Different

Iris provides first-class MVC support with built-in dependency injection — features not commonly found together in Go web frameworks. It includes a powerful JWT implementation supporting 7 signing algorithms (HS256, RS256, ES256, EdDSA, PS256, and more) with token encryption and server-side blocklists. The framework offers 7 distinct middleware registration methods for fine-grained request flow control and ships with support for 17 response formats including JSON, XML, YAML, Protobuf, MessagePack, and Server-Sent Events.

Iris is used by developers worldwide in production environments and is created and maintained by Hellenic Development, a software company specializing in high-performance Go solutions.