It’s a very hot topic, which one is better in the case of FastAPI vs Django. Do you know more than 80,000 websites on the internet use Django?
Python is a versatile programming language that has gained popularity in recent years for its use in data science, machine learning, web development, and API development.
In this article, I will compare two of the best Python web development frameworks FastAPI and Django. So let’s start with what’s FastAPI and Django.
What’s FastAPI?
FastAPI is a free and open-source web development framework written in Python that enables developers to create high-performance web applications and RESTful APIs. t is built on top of Starlette, which is a lightweight ASGI framework.
Features: Open-source, automatic documentation (with Swagger/OpenAPI), authentication, and testing.
What’s Django?
Django is a very powerful, accessible, and open-source web development framework written in Python. It follows the MVC (Model-View-Controller) architecture, making it scalable, faster, and more modifiable.
Features: Scalable, fast, built-in admin dashboard, follows DRY (Do not repeat yourself) principle, and RSS feed.
Comparison Table: FastAPI vs Django
| Django | FastAPI |
| 1. Slower than FastAPI | Very fast because it’s new and modern |
| 2. Easy to use | Hard to use for beginner |
| 3. Follows MVC architecture | Based on Python-type hints and the ASGI framework |
| 4. Bigger community support and better documentation | Small community support and hard-to-understand documentation |
| 5. Much more secure than FastAPI | Less secure than Django but considered to be more secure than other frameworks |
What are the Top 5 Differences Between FastAPI and Django
FastAPI and Django both are made using Python, they are quite similar despite they have some differences. Following are some of the differences between FastAPI and Django.
1. Code Run Speed
Even though FastAPI and Django are written in Python, still FastAPI is faster than Django because it’s modern and new. It also increases your website’s speed.
Furthermore, fast websites are also recommended by Google.
2. Ease of Use
Django is quite easy to use than FastAPI because of its well-organized codebase, versatility, and easy-to-understand file structure.
3. Architectures Used
Django uses the MVC architecture while FastAPI is based on the ASGI framework and Python-type hints.
4. Community Support
The community support for Django is more huge than FastAPI. You can find answers to almost every question on different forums like Quora, StackOverFlow, etc.
FastAPI has a growing community of users and developers. The FastAPI website includes documentation and a community forum.
5. Security
Django is much more secure than FastAPI because it comes with a built-in security system and protection from CSRF, SQL injection, and XSS (Cross-site Scripting). But still, FastAPI is also very secure in comparison to other web technologies like Flask or PHP.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Using FastAPI
There are many advantages and disadvantages to using FastAPI. Following are some of the advantages and disadvantages of using FastAPI.
Advantages:
- Code runs very fast
- It’s very easy to learn and use
Disadvantages:
- Not supported by all hosting providers
- More resource consuming
Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Django
There are several advantages and disadvantages to using the Django web development framework. Some of the advantages and disadvantages of using Django are as follows.
Advantages:
- Designed to help developers develop complex, database-driven websites.
- Includes a wide range of built-in features like ORM (Object-Relational Mapper), validation, security system, and admin dashboard
Disadvantages:
- It’s quite hard to learn and use
- Not suitable for smaller sites and projects
- Slow as compared to other frameworks like Express
Use Cases of FastAPI and Django
There are several use cases for FastAPI and Django. They can be used for small applications to big projects. Following are some of the use cases of FastAPI and Django.
Use cases of FastAPI:
FastAPI is used to develop APIs that are fast, scalable, reliable, and maintainable. Secondly, it’s also used to make OpenAPI 3.0 schemas and the asynchronous interfaces.
Use cases of Django:
Django is used to develop bigger projects quickly and easily, or create database-driven websites. Furthermore, it can be used to create a CMS (Content Management System) and much more.
Popular Libraries for FastAPI and Django
Libraries are the pre-written code that a developer can import into his project and start using without caring about writing it from scratch.
There are many popular libraries and modules for both FastAPI and Django. Some of the most popular libraries and modules for FastAPI are Starlette, Uvicorn, and SQLAlchemy.
Some of the most popular libraries and modules for Django are Django Rest Framework, Django Celery, and Django Channels.
Stats of FastAPI
Following are some of the interesting stats of FastAPI.
Stats of Django
Following are some of the interesting stats of Django.
- 293K questions asked on StackOverFlow
- 65.1K stars and 27.4K forks on GitHub
- More than 81K websites use Django.
Companies Using FastAPI and Django
FastAPI and Django are very popular and powerful, that’s why most famous companies use them.
Popular companies using FastAPI:
- Microsoft
- Netflix
- Uber
- Sendcloud
- Postclick
Popular companies using Django:
- Spotify
- Mozilla
- Disqus
Which One to Choose?: FastAPI vs Django
There’s no definite answer to this question. It depends on your needs, which one is best for you. For instance, if you’re developing a big website with a ton of backend functionalities, then go with Django because of its scalability.
But if you want to develop APIs that are fast or automatic documentation with pydantic, use the pydantic model, then go with FastAPI as it’s made specifically for these purposes.
Conclusion
FastAPI and Django are two of the best Python frameworks for web and API development. There are a few key factors to consider when deciding whether to use FastAPI or Django for your web development needs.
In this article, we have discussed the top 5 differences between FastAPI and Django to help you decide which one is better for you.
What do you think which one is better in the case of FastAPI and Django? Let us know in the comments.
