FastAPI vs Flask: The Ultimate Showdown of Python Web Frameworks!

Romulo Gatto
5 min readMay 30, 2023

As a Python developer, I have worked with various web frameworks, but two that stand out are Flask and FastAPI. Flask is a lightweight and flexible framework that is perfect for small to medium-sized web applications, while FastAPI is a relatively new framework that was designed for building APIs with speed and ease. In this article, I will compare Flask vs FastAPI, highlighting their key differences, performance, ease of use, features, community, and use cases.

Introduction to Python web frameworks

Python is a popular programming language for building web applications. However, building web applications from scratch can be time-consuming, tedious, and error-prone. This is where web frameworks come in handy. A web framework is a collection of libraries, tools, and APIs that provide a structure for building web applications. Python has several web frameworks, including Flask and FastAPI.

What is Flask?

Flask is a lightweight and flexible web framework that was released in 2010. It is known for its simplicity, flexibility, and extensibility. Flask is a micro-framework, which means it provides only the essentials needed to build a web application, such as request handling and routing. Flask is perfect for small to medium-sized web applications that require a high degree of customization and flexibility. Flask is easy to learn and has a large community of developers.

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Romulo Gatto

Senior Software Engineer | Python | NodeJS | GoLang | AWS | GCP