Compare FastAPI and Falcon

Fast API is a high-performance web framework for building web applications with Python 3.6+ based on standard Python type hints. It is designed to be high performance and easy to learn.

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 FastAPI and Falcon compare on various factors and features and which to choose when.

FastAPI

Falcon

Overall

Type

Type
Minimalistic framework based on starlette and pydantic for building fast web applications using async IO.
Type
The minimalist REST and app backend framework for Python with a focus on reliability, correctness, and performance at scale.

Author

Release Date

Release Date
2018
Release Date
2012

License

License
MIT License

Website

Adoption and Ease of Use

Popularity [?]

Popularity [?]
New addition to the Python web frameworks family but its popularity is on the rise.
Popularity [?]
1 Star
Used by 5,000 projects.

Used by

Used by
Uber (internal use,) Explosion AI, Microsoft (internal use)
Used by
LinkedIn, Leadpages, Wargaming, and Rackspace.

Jobs [?]

Jobs [?]
1.5 Stars
100 job openings which list Fast API as a requirement.
Jobs [?]
1.5 Stars
100 job openings which list Falcon as a requirement.

Performance [?]

Performance [?]
5 Stars
High performance.
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
5 Stars
Fast API is flexible to code and doesn't restrict users to a particular project or code layout.
Flexibility
5 Stars
Very flexible. Ideal for applications that require a high degree of customization and performance tuning.

Ease of Learning

Ease of Learning
4.5 Stars
Easy to learn especially for people who are new to web development. However, it doesn't have a large number of online resources, courses and tutorials.
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
Through Plugins or Extensions
Through Plugins or Extensions
FastAPI doesn't come with built in ORM, however is compatible with SQLAlchemy, Pydantic ORM mode.
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
Fast API supports many NoSQL databases like MongoDb, ElasticSearch, Cassandra, CouchDB and ArangoDB. Read more here.
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
Yes, uses Swagger as an API documentation web user interface.
Admin Dashboard
Through Plugins or Extensions
Through Plugins or Extensions
Does not ship with a web-based admin.

REST Support

REST Support
Yes, allows developers to build REST APIs quickly.
REST Support
Encourages the REST architectural style by design. Resource classes implement HTTP method handlers that resolve requests and perform state transitions.

Security

Security
FastAPI provides several tools for many security schemes in the fastapi.security module. Not enough data.
Security
No built-in protection but minimal attack surface for writing secure APIs

Templating Library

Templating Library
FastAPI supports Jinja2 for templating and also supports aiofiles for serving static files
Templating Library
Doesn't ship with one but developers can use Jinja2 or Mako.

Web Forms

Web Forms
Ships with it's own Forms, with basic features.
Web Forms
Falcon features easy and efficient access to submitted multipart forms by using falcon.media.MultipartFormHandler.

Authentication

Authentication
Fast API supports OAuth2, JWT and simple HTTP authentiation.
Authentication
Not built-in but can be easily extended using authentication middlewares like falcon-auth2.

Testing

Testing
Using Starlette and pytest.
Testing
Support using unittest and pytest. Read more here.

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