I’ve been using both Flask and Django for several years now, and I have to say, Django is really a nice framework. At the same time I also find it a bit annoying in the way it’s packaged and structured (it’s a lot of overhead).

In fact I’ve always found Flask with its small size and flexibility to be superior to Django in many aspects. That said, many people will disagree with me about this, but regardless of your module choice, you can get started easily.

You can deploy both Python web frameworks with one click

What is Django?

Django is a high-level Python Web framework that encourages rapid development and clean, pragmatic design. Built by experienced developers, it takes care of much of the hassle of Web development, so you can focus on writing your app without needing to reinvent the wheel. It’s free and open source.

With Django, you can build high-performing, beautiful Web applications quickly.
Django’s primary goal is to ease the creation of complex, database-driven websites.

As such, Django emphasizes usability and a “batteries-included” approach. What batteries?

A bunch of batteries: an object-relational mapper, a dynamic HTML template system, an extensible authentication and authorization framework, a Web request/response-related layer, and more.

Django’s key features are:

  • The code is very easy to read and write; the syntax is concise, simple, and consistent.

  • The framework follows the latest best practices built up over the years of experience of Web development.

  • A large and active community that provides support and training resources for both users and developers.

To put it simply, Django can help you quickly write the code for your Web applications, so you can focus on innovating instead of reinventing the wheel.

django app

What is Flask?

Flask is a micro framework for Python based on Werkzeug, Jinja 2 and good intentions. Flask is intended for getting started very quickly and was developed with best intentions in mind. It is a very simple and extremely flexible micro-framework that will suit your needs.

Flask is intended for getting started very quickly and was developed with best intentions in mind. If you need fine control, you should consider one of the larger frameworks like Django.

Flask’s codebase is small and easy to understand which makes it great for learning. The documentation is detailed and extensive so that you will never get stuck during your first development.

It lets you quickly launch new small apps, for example the hello world code is just a few lines of code:

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from flask import Flask

app = Flask(__name__)

@app.route('/')
def index():
    return 'Web App with Python Flask!'

app.run(host='0.0.0.0', port=81)

Which then outputs something like this:

flask hello world

Flask provides an optional integrated development environment, Flask-DebugToolbar, as well as extensions such as Flask-Paranoid that prevent XSS and CSRF in your applications by default.

Flask is the underdog . Flask is not the latest, hottest framework. The Python community is not obsessed with it (yet). Everyone else is not using it. This means your company or project will stand out if you use Flask.

You can learn a lot from Flask . Flask exposes you to all the basics of a Python web application. This will make it easier to learn other frameworks, like Django or Pyramid, in the future.

Related course: Python Flask: Create Web Apps with Flask

Comparing the Differences Between Flask and Django?

Great question! There’s many reasons to use Django over Flask, and vice versa, but the main differences are listed below.

Django is more than just a web framework. Django is a set of best practices that have been refined over the last 12 years.

It includes the ORM (Object Relatonal Manager, maps objects to database), template language, and many other useful applications that make it easier to build complex web applications. Django is mature. This means that there aren’t large pieces of the framework which are changing dramatically from year to year.

Django has a team of people backing it with documentation, training, and support. Django is free and open source.

Flask is younger than Django and doesn’t have as many widespread use cases. Flask also doesn’t have a rich ecosystem of libraries like Django does. Flask is mainly used for small web apps, where as Django is used for larger web sites like Instagram, Pinterest, ABitbucket, etc.

The key differences are:

  • Django has an ORM

Flask does not have an ORM nor a default models system. You have to use an external module for this with Flask

django orm

  • Django uses a directory-based structure

Flask uses a modular structure, you can setup your own directory-structure as you please.

  • Django has a very large community compared to Flask.

This means it’s easier to get support and developers for Django. Whenever you stumble upon problems, there’s also a high chance someone had the same problem before.

  • Many packages are included with Django

Flask is a micro-framework. Flask let’s you do everything yourself. By default it doesn’t even come with database support, you have to use another Python module for that like SQLAlchemy.

  • Django is intended for large projects

Flask is more suited for small and mid-sized projects.

Conclusion

Django is a framework designed from the ground up for the Web. Flask, on the other hand, was designed to be as generic as possible, making it ideal for anything from a simple API wrapper to a complex full-stack web application.

This makes sense when comparing the features of the two frameworks: Django has add-ons for user accounts and permissions, templating and error handling that are simply not present in Flask. Flask is leaner and only includes the features it needs for web applications.

You can deploy both Python web frameworks with one click