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.
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.
Used by 367,000 projects.
Used by
Instagram, Pinterest, Coursera, Udemy.
Used by
LinkedIn, Leadpages, Wargaming, and Rackspace.
2074 job openings which list Django as a requirement.
100 job openings which list Falcon as a requirement.
Not as fast as compared to bare-bones Flask or other microframeworks, but for many real-world use cases, the difference is negligible.
Very fast, even when compared to microframeworks like Flask. See the
benchmarks. *Caution* - The benchmarks are from the vendor itself.
Flexibility
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
Very flexible. Ideal for applications that require a high degree of customization and performance tuning.
Ease of Learning
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
Has a slight learning curve but there are some great online resources, courses tutorials and YouTube videos.
RDBMS Support
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
Doesn't ship with one but developers can use the database library of their choice such as SQLAlchemy.
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.
Admin Dashboard
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
Does not ship with a web-based admin.
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
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
Doesn't ship with one but developers can use Jinja2 or Mako.
Web Forms
Ships with built-in
ModelForms which provides complete support for web forms including input validation, CSRF, XSS, and SQL injection.
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
Built-in support using Python's
unittest framework.
Testing
Support using unittest and pytest. Read more
here.
How is performance rating determined?
Performance rating is determined using reputable online benchmarks listed below.
Where is job data coming from?
Job data is collected from Indeed, Google Jobs and Stack Overflow jobs.
How is popularity calculated?
Popularity is calculated using a formula which looks at weighted score on the following publicly available data points:
- Popularity per Google Trends
- Number of GitHub Users
- Number of GitHub Stars
How is this calculated?
Ease of learning is calculated using the following data:
- Number of features and depth of tool.
- Number of online resources: articles, blogs, tutorials and YouTube videos.
- Number of courses
- Freshness of online material
For example, a microframework may not have a lot of online resources but still get a high-rating because it's minamalistic and easy to learn just by following official documentation.
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