Compare Django and CherryPy

Django is Python web framework that encourages rapid development. It is based model-template-view (MTV) design pattern. It follows a "batteries included" philosophy and ships with many tools that are needed by application developers such as ORM framework, admin panel, directory structure and more.

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.

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

Django

CherryPy

Overall

Type

Type
Python all-inclusive, megaframework for building web application.
Type
A minimalist, object-oriented and popular web framework for Python.

Author

Author
Adrian Holovaty - Author of Django
Adrian Holovaty and Simon Willison.

Release Date

Release Date
2005
Release Date
2002

License

License
BSD License

Website

Website
cherrypy.org
Adoption and Ease of Use

Popularity [?]

Popularity [?]
5 Stars
Used by 367,000 projects.
Popularity [?]
1 Star
Used by 6,600 projects.

Used by

Used by
Instagram, Pinterest, Coursera, Udemy.
Used by
Used in production services at Netflix and Hulu

Jobs [?]

Jobs [?]
5 Stars
2074 job openings which list Django as a requirement.
Jobs [?]
0.5 Star
16 job openings which list CherryPy in the job description.

Performance [?]

Performance [?]
4.5 Stars
Not as fast as compared to bare-bones Flask or other microframeworks, but for many real-world use cases, the difference is negligible.
Performance [?]
5 Stars
Very fast. Extensions could impact performance adversely.

Flexibility

Flexibility
4.5 Stars
Django expects things to be done in a certain way unlike microframeworks (e.g. Flask) which have no opinion on how developers structure things. However, It does this without compromising on flexibility. Django has been used to build a variety of things from content management systems to social networks to scientific computing platforms.
Flexibility
5 Stars
Very flexible and simple. Doesn't force anything on developers.

Ease of Learning

Ease of Learning
5 Stars
Has a learning curve especially for those who are not familiar with other web frameworks. But there are some great online resources, courses tutorials and YouTube videos.
Ease of Learning
5 Stars
Straightforward and easy to learn. Being around for almost 20 years, it has a good amount of tutorials online.
Database Support

RDBMS Support

RDBMS Support
Built-in Support
Built-in
Django ships with a built-in ORM framework for developers to start using out of the box.
Verdict ORM is one of the best features of Django, loved by developers.
RDBMS Support
Through Plugins or Extensions
Through Plugins or Extensions
No built-in ORM framework. Leaves it up to developers to choose their own such as SQLAlchemy.

NoSQL Support

NoSQL Support
NoSQL databases are not officially supported by Django. There are open source projects like PynamoDB or Django MongoDB Engine, Django non-rel to support NoSQL. Some of these extensions support specific Django versions and don't interplay well with Django ORM.
Verdict Using NoSQL database with Django is not recommended.
NoSQL Support
No built-in support for NoSQL databases but developers can use libraries to talk to MongoDB, DynamoDB etc.
Web & Core Features

Admin Dashboard

Admin Dashboard
Built-in Support
Built-in
Django ships with a web-based admin site that has a friendly UI. It allows you to quickly perform CRUD operations against your models from your browser to test things out.
Admin Dashboard
Through Plugins or Extensions
Through Plugins or Extensions
No built-in admin panel.

REST Support

REST Support
While not built-in, REST development is supported via the popular and active Django REST Framework project. It provides support for API versioning, Browsable API for interacting with APIs through web browser, authentication (OAuth1 and OAuth2) and serialization support for both ORM and non-ORM sources.
REST Support
No built-in support but can be implemented easily. Read this guide to implement.

Security

Security
Built-in protection against several common attack vectors like CSRF, XSS, and SQL injection. When vulnerabilities are discovered, the Django team has an excellent security policy and fixes are released quickly.
Security
No built-in protection. Must be handled by developers themselves or by using 3rd party extensions.

Templating Library

Templating Library
Uses its own templating engine. You could configure Django to use Jinja2 if you like.
Templating Library
Doesn't come with a built-in templating language or package. Developers can use Jinja2, Mako. See full list here

Web Forms

Web Forms
Ships with built-in ModelForms which provides complete support for web forms including input validation, CSRF, XSS, and SQL injection.
Web Forms
No built-in support. Developers can use formencode or any other solution.

Authentication

Authentication
Built-in authentication, authorization, account management and support for sessions.
Authentication
Built-in implementation of HTTP Basic Access Authentication.

Testing

Testing
Built-in support using Python's unittest framework.
Testing
Using WebTest and Nose.

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