Compare Django and Falcon

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.

Falcon is a minimalist WSGI library for building web APIs, app backends and microservices. Compared to Django and Flask, it is fast, extensible, reliable, and encourages RESTful style. It doesn't come with batteries included and is ideal for applications that require a high level of customization. The fminimalist design allows developers to select the best strategies and 3rd-party packages from the Python ecosystem.

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

Django

Falcon

Overall

Type

Type
Python all-inclusive, megaframework for building web application.
Type
The minimalist REST and app backend framework for Python with a focus on reliability, correctness, and performance at scale.

Author

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

Release Date

Release Date
2005
Release Date
2012

License

Website

Adoption and Ease of Use

Popularity [?]

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

Used by

Used by
Instagram, Pinterest, Coursera, Udemy.
Used by
LinkedIn, Leadpages, Wargaming, and Rackspace.

Jobs [?]

Jobs [?]
5 Stars
2074 job openings which list Django as a requirement.
Jobs [?]
1.5 Stars
100 job openings which list Falcon as a requirement.

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, even when compared to microframeworks like Flask. See the benchmarks. *Caution* - The benchmarks are from the vendor itself.

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. Ideal for applications that require a high degree of customization and performance tuning.

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
Has a slight learning curve but there are some great online resources, courses tutorials and YouTube videos.
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
Built-in Support
Built-in
Doesn't ship with one but developers can use the database library of their choice 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
Doesn't come with built-in libraries but makes it easy for developers to use library of their choice such as MongoEngine to interact with MongoDB.
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
Does not ship with a web-based admin.

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
Encourages the REST architectural style by design. Resource classes implement HTTP method handlers that resolve requests and perform state transitions.

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 but minimal attack surface for writing secure APIs

Templating Library

Templating Library
Uses its own templating engine. You could configure Django to use Jinja2 if you like.
Templating Library
Doesn't ship with one but developers can use Jinja2 or Mako.

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
Falcon features easy and efficient access to submitted multipart forms by using falcon.media.MultipartFormHandler.

Authentication

Authentication
Built-in authentication, authorization, account management and support for sessions.
Authentication
Not built-in but can be easily extended using authentication middlewares like falcon-auth2.

Testing

Testing
Built-in support using Python's unittest framework.
Testing
Support using unittest and pytest. Read more here.

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