Is Django a Good Framework to Develop a RESTful Python API?

If you are only interested in building a REST API backend, Django is an overkill

When it comes to building Python REST APIs, frameworks play a crucial role as they provide various facilities to streamline the application development processes across the client and server-side sub-systems of the application. Since REST APIs are just like Web APIs, most frameworks are targeted for building web applications, consisting of Web APIs. Typically a web framework consists of many different components. Django is a full-featured, full-stack web framework in Python. It is one of the oldest and the most popular web frameworks, with nearly 50k stars on GitHub. The Django framework is loaded with many features for building fully capable web applications. Beyond the essential HTTP and application middleware, its capabilities include MVC pattern and data views, database handling, forms, templates, security, caching, and much more.

If you are only interested in building a REST API backend, Django is an overkill. However, you can use the Django REST framework, which is a community-funded project by Encode. It uses Django as the underlying engine by providing a more straightforward interface that is specific to REST API development.

The Role of Django in Web Development

Among Python frameworks, Django is often regarded as the best framework for web application development. It was even included in the list of most loved frameworks in the 2018 Stack Overflow Developer Survey. According to the Django Software Foundation, Django was "invented to meet fast-moving newsroom deadlines, while satisfying the tough requirements of experienced web developers." The framework was invented by Adrian Holovaty and Simon Willison, developers who worked at the news website World Online. At the time, Adrian and Simon were writing in PHP. But since the World Online website required quick updating, it became hard to meet deadlines. Adrian and Simon needed something so they could build the website quickly. That was when they decided to move to Python. Later on, they started working on Django to make coding even simpler and more effective. In 2005, Django was already publicly released as an open-source project.

Over the years, Django has carved a niche space for itself in the industry, and rightly so. More and more companies are betting on Django thanks to its simplicity, reliability, scalability, and flexibility. In fact, Django is the secret ingredient behind many successful apps, including Instagram, Spotify, YouTube, Disqus, Bitbucket, Dropbox, Mozilla, Eventbrite, and Prezi. This is why there is a high demand for Python Django web developers in the market.

Benefits of Using Django:

Backward compatible

Django offers the provision of working with its older versions and makes use of its older formats and features. Additionally, it has a comprehensible guide that walks you through all the information that you might need to know about the changes and trends of the Django framework, especially when the new changes become incompatible with the former ones.

REST framework

REST stands for Representational State Transfer framework which is a renowned toolkit for creating web APIs. This is an added benefit of 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.

Versatile

Django can be (and has been) used to build almost any type of website — from content management systems and wikis, to social networks and news sites. It can work with any client-side framework and can deliver content in almost any format (including HTML, RSS feeds, JSON, and XML).

Internally, while it provides choices for almost any functionality you might want (e.g. several popular databases, templating engines, etc.), it can also be extended to use other components if needed.

Works on Python

As mentioned earlier, Django is a web framework that is written in Python. As a result, it brings with it 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.

Endless resources

Python can boast a large library that can be used for building large-scale applications. It suggests lots of capabilities, together with the fantastic functionality of necessary applications. No One will spend a lot of time finding resources for updating.

Secure

Django helps developers avoid many common security mistakes by providing a framework that has been engineered to "do the right things" to protect the website automatically. For example, Django provides a secure way to manage user accounts and passwords, avoiding common mistakes like putting session information in cookies where it is vulnerable (instead cookies just contain a key, and the actual data is stored in the database) or directly storing passwords rather than a password hash.

Active community

Django community assists, in order to decrease application development prices significantly. Moreover, it deals with the active community of experts. Every member of the Django community constantly updates fresh plug-ins and code snippets, in order to make the process of development easier. Specialists are able to push web application development, thanks to resources that have been uploaded by community members.

Portable

Django is written in Python, which runs on many platforms. That means that you are not tied to any particular server platform, and can run your applications on many flavors of Linux, Windows, and macOS. Furthermore, Django is well-supported by many web hosting providers, who often provide specific infrastructure and documentation for hosting Django sites.