Opting for an appropriate web development framework is quite a hefty task. A lot of frameworks are present in the market designed specifically according to the project's needs. Every developer looks for three things while choosing a framework which is: the language used, the tools present in the framework, and the reputation that it has in the market. Django passes all the parameters with flying colors, as it is the best in the class. For many businesses and organizations, Django is an easy choice. Django boasts the label of one of the most popular web development tools today.
Django is a free, python-based, open-source web development framework that facilitates clean and rational designing of websites driven by databases. It reduces a lot of hassles that a developer has to face during the development of a website. It is used to develop minimal yet smart web applications. Simultaneously, Django enables developers to create web applications as required by fluctuating business prerequisites. Since it is developed by professional developers, it takes care of all the hassle involved in web development, so you can focus on making the application rather than digging into the basics.
Pros of Using Django Framework for Web Development
Here are a few reasons why Django is the first choice for web development.
1. Backward-compatible
Django offers the provision of working with its older versions and uses its older formats and features. Additionally, it has a comprehensible guide that walks you through all the information you might need about the changes and trends of the Django framework, especially when the new changes become incompatible with the former ones.
2. Community Support
Django enjoys the support of a huge and very professional community of developers who have inside-out knowledge of Django and are always ready to help. Having a large community has benefits of its own. It makes finding answers to problems much easier as there’s a great probability that the problem you face now has occurred to someone else, too, and now probably has an answer to it on one or the other forums. The community is very quick in answering the issues and fixing the bugs of fellow developers.
3. DevOps Compatible
DevOps is the blend of cultural philosophies, tools, and practices that increases an organization’s ability to deliver services and applications quickly: evolving and upgrading products faster than organizations using conventional software development and infrastructure management processes. Incorporating DevOps in Django is great as it fixes issues faster with enhanced operational support. It uses the continuous delivery methodology to increase the system's efficiency.
4. DRY and KISS-compliant
Django religiously follows the ‘KISS’ principle, which is “Keep It Short and Simple”. In Django, it simply means that the code must be brief and easily understandable, and methods should not exceed more than 50-60 lines. Similarly, ’DRY’ stands for “Don’t Repeat Yourself”, which means that the software patterns that occur quite often can be replaced with abstractions. In this manner, issues related to the code and repetition can be avoided. Additionally, reusing the code simplifies the development process, decreasing production time.
5. Infrastructure
Django is independent and a complete set in itself. It means that it does not require any other external solution. It is everything, from an ORM to a web server. This enables it to use various databases and switch them accordingly.
6. REST framework
REST stands for Representational State Transfer framework, a renowned toolkit for creating web APIs. This is an added benefit to Django as it is powerful enough to build a full-fledged API in just two or three lines of code. An additional benefit to it is that REST is immensely flexible. Therefore, data is not bound to any protocol and can return various data formats and manage several types of calls.
7. Secure & up-to-date
Django is constantly kept up to an elevated standard, following the most recent site development and security patterns. That addresses the inquiry, "Is Django useful for web development?" — Security is a 'number one' on any to-do list. Django is customarily updated with security fixes, and regardless of whether you're utilizing an older rendition of the system, its security is as intact as the new one. It's no big surprise, as Django has an LTS (Long-term Support) variant.
8. Simple
Django's documentation is excellent. It was introduced with excellent documentation, and they are kept intact similarly, making it simple to utilize. Also, one of Django's principal reasons for existing is to disentangle the development procedure: it covers the fundamentals so that you can concentrate on the details of your project.
9. Suits any kind of project
Unlike C# or Java, Django is no business solution. Still, it is appropriate for all kinds of projects regardless of size. A Django application can be a social media application with enormous traffic and heavy volumes of data, or it could be a simple web application for handling logbooks. It can build anything as it has everything required to build every type of application. Additionally, Django is cross-platform and compatible with most databases, making it highly versatile.
10. Time-effective
Django is ridiculously fast. It was built to blink the applications from imagination to reality. Django applications are both economic and efficient. Thus, it is the right choice for developers with major stakes on the due dates.
11. Time-tested
Django has been in the picture for years, and in that tenure, it has emerged as the choice of many businesses for their web applications. This confirms that Django has already made an impression in the market and is here to stay for a long time. A few examples of applications built on Django are Disqus, Spotify, Instagram, and NASA.
12. Useful additional features
Django comes with everything inbuilt. It has all the features required to build a web application from scratch. There’s no need to spend hours forming a frame since everything is already in the framework. It also has tools packages to help go hands-on with pioneering technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Data Analysis, and Machine Learning.
13. Versatile
Django is the master of all trades. It is capable of doing everything, from content management to managing scientific computing platforms; everything falls under the umbrella of Django.
14. Works on Python
As mentioned earlier, Django is a web framework written in Python. As a result, it brings with itself the simplicity of utilizing the syntax structure of Python and enables developers to build meaningful and viable web applications effortlessly. In this way, developers can easily reduce the development time required for building these web applications.
Limitations of Django Framework
There are many limitations of the Django framework, as mentioned below:
- Django is not recommended for smaller projects.
- There are glitches while handling multiple requests simultaneously.
- Can often result in hampering the fast speed of the website.
- Django is too vast, and sometimes it's difficult to understand a few aspects.
Django doesn’t come with any conventions that can disappoint some developers. Somewhere it becomes a factor of slow progress too.
Summary
To summarize, Django aids developers in composing custom web applications in Python by offering several features, modules, and features. Simultaneously, high-traffic websites like Google, YouTube, Pinterest, Spotify, and Instagram rehearse Django. However, Django, like other web systems, has its very own pros and cons. Therefore, the developers must recollect each venture's precise requirements while evaluating Django's advantages and disadvantages to choosing the best Python framework.
Gaurav has 19+ years of experience building and managing scalable web and mobile apps end-to-end, including product design, frontend/backend development, deployment, server management, uptime, performance, and reliability.
