FastAPI vs. Django: Which to Use and When?

FastAPI and Django are two of the most popular Python web frameworks out there. They both provide excellent features for developers to create robust web applications.

But when it comes to deciding between FastAPI vs. Django, there is no one-size-fits-all answer. Each framework is unique and may have its pros and cons based on factors like project requirements, architecture choices, and development experience.

In this article, we’ve put together a comprehensive guide that examines FastAPI vs Django with examples to help you decide the best one for your project.

Django

Django is the older and more established web framework with a larger and more established community. It comes with an ORM, a templating engine, an administrative interface, forms, and many other features. With Django, you can build a web application end-to-end using Python.

FastAPI

FastAPI is a new, Python-based micro-framework for implementing APIs. It’s lightweight and focuses on high performance.

Compared to Django, FastAPI has a focus on API development. It’s minimalistic and requires the developer to choose third-party modules based on their preference. For example, you need to choose which ORM you are going to use with FastAPI.

Besides, if you are building a web application, you may need to select the frontend framework as well.

Django vs. FastAPI

Let’s compare and contrast the major differences between these frameworks.

Security

Django has multiple built-in security features to prevent issues like cross-site scripting, cross-site request forgery, SQL injections, and clickjacking. Since it’s a complete web framework, it provides support for configuring HTTPS, SSL certificates, host header validations, etc.

FastAPI is minimalistic even when it comes to its core security features. It provides a separate security module for API security supporting OAuth2, OpenID Connect, and OpenAPI. However, if you are building a web application, you may need additional measures to establish security with FastAPI.

Therefore, when it comes to web applications, Django provides a complete end-to-end solution. With FastAPI you need to take additional measures to enforce security.

Performance

Django has multiple built-in caching options to improve application performance. You can choose database caching, file system caching, local memory caching, or dummy caching as required.

For example, if you are implementing database caching, you need to update the settings.py file with the below code and run python manage.py createcachetable command.