Hexagonal vs Clean Architecture: Which Go Architecture Should You Use?

Both Hexagonal and Clean Architecture are supported by verikt. They share the same core principle — strict inward dependency direction — but differ in vocabulary, directory structure, and how they handle the boundary between business logic and infrastructure.

At a Glance

	Hexagonal	Clean
Complexity	High	High
Best for	Ports & adapters isolation	Entity-centric domain modeling
Dependency rules	Strict	Strict
Team size	Medium / Large	Medium / Large
Directory structure	Complex	Complex

Hexagonal Architecture

Hexagonal architecture, also called Ports & Adapters, structures a Go service around the idea that your application is a hexagon — business logic at the core, and everything external (HTTP, databases, message queues) plugged in as adapters through explicitly defined ports.

domain/              → Pure business logic, no external dependencies
port/                → Interfaces (inbound use cases, outbound repositories)
service/             → Use case implementations
adapter/             → External integrations (HTTP, DB, messaging)
config/              → Configuration loading
platform/            → Cross-cutting concerns
internal/bootstrap/  → Dependency wiring
cmd/<name>/          → Entry point

The dependency rules are enforced by verikt check:

Component	May Depend On
domain	nothing
ports	domain
service	domain, ports
adapters	ports, domain

Adapters never talk to each other. Your domain never knows whether it’s being called from HTTP or a Kafka consumer. That isolation is the whole point.

Clean Architecture

Clean Architecture, from Uncle Bob’s book of the same name, places entities — core business objects — at the innermost ring. Use cases orchestrate those entities. Interface adapters translate between use cases and delivery mechanisms. Infrastructure sits at the outermost ring.

cmd/<name>/                  → Entry point
internal/entity/             → Core business entities (no dependencies)
internal/usecase/            → Application use cases
internal/interface/handler/  → HTTP handlers, adapters
internal/infrastructure/     → Database, external services, config

Component	May Depend On
entity	nothing
usecase	entity
interface	usecase, entity
infrastructure	interface, usecase, entity

The key difference from hexagonal is that infrastructure is explicitly allowed to depend on interface and usecase — it’s the outermost ring that wires everything together, rather than adapters that plug into ports.

Key Differences

Vocabulary: Hexagonal uses ports and adapters; Clean uses entities, use cases, and interface adapters. Same concept, different names.
Infrastructure placement: In Clean Architecture, infrastructure is an explicit outermost layer that wires the whole system. In hexagonal, wiring lives in a bootstrap package.
Interface location: Hexagonal puts all interfaces in port/, making them easy to find. Clean Architecture distributes them more naturally across layers.
Structural explicitness: Hexagonal’s adapter/ directory makes it obvious what external integrations exist. Clean Architecture’s infrastructure/ is broader and less prescriptive about what goes where.

When to Choose Hexagonal

Your service has multiple inbound transports (HTTP + gRPC, or HTTP + Kafka consumer) that should share the same core logic
You want the list of external integrations to be immediately visible in the directory structure
Your team thinks in terms of “what does the domain need from the outside world” (ports) and “how is that satisfied” (adapters)
You’re building an event-driven service where the boundary between triggering and processing is important to make explicit

When to Choose Clean Architecture

Your team is already familiar with Uncle Bob’s Clean Architecture conventions
Your domain modeling centers on entities and their lifecycle, more than on external integration points
You want use cases to be the primary organizing concept — each use case is a discrete file or type
You’re working on a large codebase where enforcing the entity → usecase → interface → infrastructure ring model provides meaningful guardrails

Scaffold Either with verikt

# Hexagonal
verikt new my-service --language go --arch hexagonal

# Clean Architecture
verikt new my-service --language go --arch clean