Why You Should Be Using Django
Embrace the power of Python web development.
Choosing the right framework for web development can be a tricky task, considering the many great alternatives available in the market. But at BairesDev, our Python developers frequently turn to Django to tackle all kinds of projects. There are several reasons to choose the Python-based framework over other popular options like Angular, Rails, Laravel, or Flask (and we’ll get to those reasons soon). But, to us, Django often feels like an easy choice.
Perhaps that feeling comes from familiarity — we’ve been using Django for more than a decade, after all. Maybe the fact that renowned organizations like Instagram, Spotify, Dropbox, Mozilla, or the freaking NASA trust it gives us some reassurance. It’s more probable, though, that we choose Django because we know the benefits it can bring us, which you can find below and see why you should be using it too.
But First — What is Django?
Django is a Python-based free and open-source web development framework that focuses on simplicity, flexibility, reliability, and scalability. It offers a series of features and components that try to provide you with all that, including a very simple syntax, MVC core architecture, an Object Relational Mapper (ORM), HTTP libraries, and even a unit test framework.
Django comes with “batteries included”, a philosophy directly inherited from Python. It basically means that Django users can access a set of extra tools that can help them solve common web-development problems. This relieves you from having to go out of your way to figure how to solve them or from having to look elsewhere for a solution.
All of that makes it a perfect framework to use in web development projects that involve handling large amounts of media files, text content, and high traffic as well as data-intensive web-based systems (such as CRMs, shopping platforms, and financial platforms).
In fact, Django is so powerful that it can tackle pretty much any web idea you have in mind. That doesn’t mean is perfect for all projects, mind you. We’ll get to that later on. Let’s now see why we use Django.
5 Reasons Why You Should Choose Django
That brief feature list and the possible uses should already make a strong case for Django. But in case you’re still not convinced or need more than just mentions of big brands that use it, here are some of the things we love about Django in BairesDev.
#1 It’s Fast and Easy to Use
When you’re tangled in a development project, the last thing you want is to face complex syntaxes or repeated tasks. That’s why Django feels so good. As a Python development framework, it follows the same principles and philosophy that make that language so simple and fast.
On one hand, Django follows the principle of rapid development, which means that you’ll be able to create and scale applications fast without having to struggle with complicated syntax or without the need of tackling iterations one at a time. On the other hand, the “Don’t Repeat Yourself” principle is also present here, meaning that you’ll be able to reuse code when you need it, streamlining the whole code while having the time to focus on the code that’s unique to your project.
#2 It Has Reusable Apps and a Wide Ecosystem
One of the keys to Python’s success is how large and varied its ecosystem is. Through third-party packages, you can take the language’s already wide capabilities and multiply them. The same goes for Django. You can split the different features you create in any web development project and save them as “reusable apps” for later use.
This awesome possibility has led to the creation of multiple reusable apps you can search on the web to use in your projects. What’s more — you can contribute your own to help others in the Django community. Want proof of how great reusable apps can be? Check Django imagekit for image processing or Django rest framework, a powerful toolkit to build web APIs.
#3 It has the ORM
Ok, we’ll get a little bit technical here, but Django’s Object Relational Mapper is so powerful that it’s impossible not to mention it as one of the framework’s most amazing features. Basically, the ORM is sort of a layer between your web app and the database. It provides you with the API that lets you define, access, and maintain data through Python code.
The ORM is backend agnostic, which means that you can use it with all major database management systems (either through the ORM’s built-in support or through third-party packages). What’s more — you’ll be able to work with a schema defined in Python classes, which relieves you from having to deal with SQL-like statements. In other words, you’ll be able to handle complex queries in your databases without having to write SQL.
#4 It’s Secure
Security has always been a major concern for web development projects, but its importance might be at an all-time high. That’s why Django is such a great choice, mainly because it has a robust security system right out of the box. In other words, you can enjoy some of the strongest security features in web development without having to install any additional packages.
Thus, Django lets you deal with some of the most common and problematic security issues today — things like SQL injections, cross-site scripting, and clickjacking. The best thing is that Django has regular updates for its security components, which means that you’ll always have access to the latest security features right in the framework.
#5 It Has A Lot of Support
Any programming language, framework, or tool is as strong as its community (well, at least that’s how I feel about it). So it’s great to learn that Django has a highly supportive community spread through dedicated websites, forums, and specialized channels. That means you’ll always have the possibility to find someone that can help you with any problem you might encounter when working with this framework.
That’s not all. The community also takes care of keeping all the documentation updated with the newest information about functions and fixes. It might not feel as much, but having a properly documented tool can be life-saving. (Trust us, once you check Django’s documentation you’ll want that all other frameworks follow its example).
A Framework For (Almost) Everything
As you can see, I gave Django a lot of (highly deserved) compliments throughout this article. All that leads to a simple conclusion: if you’re about to tackle a web development project, you definitely need to consider Django as your main framework. It can certainly help you get things done easily and quickly, and you’ll always enjoy the support of a thriving community.
Does that mean that should ditch all other web frameworks and just keep Django? Heck, no. There are certain projects in which Django isn’t a good fit, including web apps that are huge and have more than a single codebase, apps that are too basic, or in the case you can’t count with Python development services helping you through development.
In any other case, Django is worth checking out because of all the reasons listed above and for many more that you’ll surely find out about once you give this framework a chance.
