Developers continually search for ways to work faster and still meet high-quality standards. Meet Django.
Calvin Hendryx-Parker, co-founder and CTO of software company Six Feet Up, co-founder of IndyPy, the largest Python meetup in Indiana, and founder of IndyAWS, Indiana’s fastest-growing cloud meetup, comments, “Django likes to call itself the web framework ‘for perfectionists with deadlines.’ I think that captures what makes it so useful.”
He cites Stack Overflow’s 2020 report that states Django is one of the seven “most loved” web frameworks, ranking slightly ahead of Flask. “Because data scientists can build fast APIs around the framework, it has a lot of utility. Projects as diverse as AirFlow and Instagram rely on the Django web framework,” Hendryx-Parker explains.
The Benefits of the Django Framework, Explained
When you visit the Django Project’s website, you’ll find a list of benefits front and center, including speed, security, and scalability. Django was designed to help developers deploy web applications as fast as possible. Additionally, like other open-source software, Django is secure. “It’s more secure than off-the-shelf proprietary software because the open-source community builds upon the core of the software, and there are simply more qualified eyes on the code,” Hendryx-Parker explains. “Groups of contributors can commission independent audits since the code is all open. It’s simply too much of a hassle for corporations to test their products as rigorously as a dedicated community can test and strengthen software like Django.”
He adds that Django participates in the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP). “Django is committed to defending against OWASP’s top ten security threats, which include broken authentication, sensitive data exposure and security misconfiguration,” he says.
Regarding scalability, Hendryx-Parker says, “The architecture of Django makes it suited to build applications that can scale horizontally. It really depends on the workload, but Django was originally developed to handle the demands of a busy newsroom and to deliver content quickly to readers.”
“Not only can Django scale from a low-traffic application to support high traffic, but it’s also capable of supporting the largest user bases on the internet,” he says.
Hendryx-Parker adds two more benefits. “First, unlike some other frameworks, Django has a strong opinion about how you use it,” he says. “There are vast libraries and templates that can help developers work quickly and efficiently. That “batteries included” element is great for people working on a diverse range of projects.”
Second, Hendryx-Parker says the Django community provides a great deal of support for add-ons. “Django Channels, for instance, you can leverage WebSockets for real-time interactivity. That community support and flexibility set Django apart,” he says. “
While using Django can offer a range of benefits, it isn’t the best framework for every project. “Django may not be a good fit if you have a narrow use case, and you don’t want to bring along all of the baggage of Django when you are only using a fraction of it,” Hendryx-Parker says. “Also, there might be better frameworks for your specific use case, such as using FastAPI to create an asynchronous backend API for your application.”
The Django Community
Another advantage of Django is its large and growing community. “I’ve found developers to be warm, welcoming collaborators. Culture emanates from the top, and the original contributors to Python and Django set an example to be followed,” Hendryx-Parker comments.
There are several ways to engage with this large and growing community, including reaching out via a Slack community or attending conferences such as DjangoCon and DjangoCon Europe. “The Django team is approachable at these events,” he says.
Developers are also welcomed as participants. “We’re always looking for people to triage, find bugs in codes, moderate forums and facilitate conferences. These are all productive means of helping the community without even writing code. Anyone enthusiastic about open-source software is welcome to help,” he says. “On the code-writing front, Django users welcome contributions to code libraries and collaboration via GitHub.”
Learn More
If you want to learn more after Hendryx-Parker explained some of the features and advantages of the Django framework, the Django Tutorial walks you through all of the core concepts and builds a real application. Invest some time to discover whether this time-saving framework is the right one for you.
