Flask vs Django: An Impartial Comparison
Welcome to another round of our infamous comparisons that aim to shed friendly light on the most popular tech products or frameworks. Today, we'll be comparing Flask vs Django, two of the most eminent web development frameworks utilized in the world of Python.
Flask
Flask is a web application framework written in Python, designed to make the creation of web applications in Python simple and easy to follow. It is a lightweight framework, perfect for developing small web applications, especially those with limited functionality. Flask does not come with a built-in ORM like Django, which means developers need to incorporate an ORM and other plugins to manage database interactions. Flask's most significant benefit is that it is small, adaptable, and contains no boilerplate.
Django
Django is a full-stack web application development framework also written in Python, which means it benefits from the language's ecosystem. Django includes many features, including an ORM, authentication, admin panel design, and URL routing. It is perfect for developing intricate web applications with numerous functionalities, including e-commerce websites, membership platforms, and social media networks. Django's out-of-the-box implementation goals to reduce the amount of boilerplate code required in web application development.
Flask vs Django
To compare Flask vs Django, we will be comparing them in terms of popularity, learning curve, scalability, and performance.
Popularity
Django is undoubtedly more popular than Flask, with over 72,000 stars on Github as shown in the table below:
| Framework | Github Stars |
|---|---|
| Flask | 60k |
| Django | 72k |
Learning Curve
Compared to Django, Flask is a lot simpler to grasp and more beginner-friendly. Flask provides greater flexibility and allows developers to work with their stack of tools, while Django's framework can be restricting until the developer becomes familiar with it.
Scalability
When it comes to scaling, both Flask and Django are fundamentally equal since Python is one of the most preferred languages to scale up after a project takes off. Flask allows users to modify every aspect of the application since it has fewer constraints, whereas Django has its limitations.
Performance
The performance of the two frameworks is an important factor when making a decision. Flask performs better with regard to requests per second than Django. When serving small content, this difference is not much, but as the content grows, Flask demonstrates significantly higher efficiency.
Conclusion
Both Flask and Django are excellent frameworks for Python developers, with different strengths and weaknesses. Flask is a lightweight, simple-to-learn framework that is ideal for small web applications, whereas Django is a full-stack framework suitable for large-scale projects with numerous functionalities. However, when it comes to performance, Flask edges out Django. It all depends on your specific needs and the scope of your development project.
Thank you for reading, and we hope this comparison of Flask vs Django has been helpful in understanding the strengths of each framework.