Compare CherryPy and web2py

CherryPy allows developers to build web applications in much the same way they would build any other object-oriented Python program. CherryPy has built-in tools for sessions, static files, cookies, file uploads, caching, encoding, authorization, compression, and many more.

web2py was originally designed as a teaching tool, but it gained adoption outside of the academic world. It is a full-stack framework containing all the components needed to build fully functional web applications using the Model View Controller (MVC) pattern. Inspired by the Ruby on Rails and Django. It is not very popular right now but was ranked amongst top Python web frameworks in 2011.

Let's see how CherryPy and web2py compare on various factors and features and which to choose when.

CherryPy

web2py

Overall

Type

Type

A minimalist, object-oriented and popular web framework for Python.

Type

Python full-stack for building web applications.

Author

Author

Sylvain Hellegouarch

Author

Massimo Di Pierro

Release Date

Release Date

2002

Release Date

2007

License

License

BSD License

License

GNU Lesser General Public License version 3 (LGPLv3)

Website

Website

cherrypy.org

Website

www.web2py.com

Adoption and Ease of Use

Popularity [?]

Used by 6,600 projects.

Popularity [?]

Used by 36 projects.

Used by

Used by

Used in production services at Netflix and Hulu

Used by

Not in use at any large company.

Jobs [?]

Jobs [?]

16 job openings which list CherryPy in the job description.

Jobs [?]

8 job openings which list web2py as a requirement.

Performance [?]

Performance [?]

Very fast. Extensions could impact performance adversely.

Performance [?]

Web2py takes a unique approach where models and controllers are executed in a single global environment, which is initialized at each HTTP request. While there are pros to this approach, such as developers never having to worry about cleaning up or avoid conflict between requests, the major disadvantage is that the code is models is executed with every request which carries a performance penalty.

Flexibility

Flexibility

Very flexible and simple. Doesn't force anything on developers.

Flexibility

Not as flexible as microframeworks, but doesn't always get in the way.

Ease of Learning

Ease of Learning

Straightforward and easy to learn. Being around for almost 20 years, it has a good amount of tutorials online.

Ease of Learning

Limited online tutorials and resources, and many are several years old. The best resource for learning is web2py author's own "web2py Complete Reference Manual", which seems to be written in 2013.

Database Support

RDBMS Support

RDBMS Support

Through Plugins or Extensions

No built-in ORM framework. Leaves it up to developers to choose their own such as SQLAlchemy.

RDBMS Support

Built-in

Ships with a Database Abstraction Layer (DAL) which supports MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, and many other relational databases.

NoSQL Support

NoSQL Support

No built-in support for NoSQL databases but developers can use libraries to talk to MongoDB, DynamoDB etc.

NoSQL Support

No built-in support. Very limited support for NoSQL databases. Currently, it only supports Google Datastore on the Google App Engine.

Web & Core Features

Admin Dashboard

Admin Dashboard

Through Plugins or Extensions

No built-in admin panel.

Admin Dashboard

Built-in

Yes ships with a built-in admin panel.

REST Support

REST Support

No built-in support but can be implemented easily. Read this guide to implement.

REST Support

Has some support.

Security

Security

No built-in protection. Must be handled by developers themselves or by using 3rd party extensions.

Security

Built-in protection against input injections, XSS, and common vulnerabilities. Read more here. It has known security vulnerabilities. Please see list here.

Templating Library

Templating Library

Doesn't come with a built-in templating language or package. Developers can use Jinja2, Mako. See full list here

Templating Library

Uses custom web2py templating language out of the box.

Web Forms

Web Forms

No built-in support. Developers can use formencode or any other solution.

Web Forms

Built-in support. Read more here.

Authentication

Authentication

Built-in implementation of HTTP Basic Access Authentication.

Authentication

Includes a Role Based Access Control mechanism (RBAC), which is sufficient for many use cases.

Testing

Testing

Using WebTest and Nose.

Testing

Can be done using Python's unittest framework or using the doctest.

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