Fastapi over Django for app developers

Hi👋, as an app developer looking to build your own backend with python, FastAPI is an excellent choice, especially if you prioritize speed, simplicity, and modern features. While Django is a powerful and mature framework, FastAPI has several advantages that make it a better fit for developers who want to quickly build efficient and scalable backends. Here's why FastAPI might be the right choice for you:

Why FastAPI is a Great Choice for App Developers

1. Performance:

   • FastAPI is built on ASGI (Asynchronous Server Gateway Interface), which makes it much faster than Django (which uses WSGI).
   • It’s one of the fastest Python web frameworks, comparable to Node.js and Go.

2. Asynchronous Support:

   • FastAPI natively supports async/await, making it ideal for handling high-concurrency tasks (e.g., real-time apps, APIs with multiple requests).
   • Django has added async support, but it’s not as seamless or performant as FastAPI.

3. Ease of Use:

   • FastAPI is designed to be simple and intuitive. It uses Python type hints, which make your code cleaner and easier to understand.
   • Automatic validation, serialization, and documentation (via Swagger UI and ReDoc) save you a lot of time.

4. Modern Features:

   • FastAPI is built with modern web development in mind. It supports:
     • OpenAPI and JSON Schema for automatic API documentation.
     • WebSockets for real-time communication.
     • GraphQL (with third-party libraries).

5. Lightweight and Flexible:

   • FastAPI is minimalistic and doesn’t come with the "batteries-included" approach of Django. This gives you more flexibility to choose the tools and libraries you need.

6. Great for APIs:

   • If your app’s backend is primarily an API (e.g., for a mobile app or SPA), FastAPI is a perfect fit. It’s designed specifically for building APIs quickly and efficiently.

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When to Choose Django Instead

While FastAPI is great, Django might be a better choice in certain scenarios:

1. Full-Stack Web Applications:
   • If you’re building a traditional web app with server-side rendering, Django’s built-in templating engine and admin panel can save you time.
2. Batteries-Included Framework:
   • Django comes with everything you need out of the box (ORM, authentication, admin panel, etc.), which can be helpful if you don’t want to configure third-party libraries.
3. Large Ecosystem:
   • Django has been around for much longer and has a larger community and ecosystem of plugins.

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Key Differences Between FastAPI and Django

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How to Get Started with FastAPI

If you decide to go with FastAPI, here’s a roadmap to get started:

1. Learn the Basics

• Install FastAPI: pip install fastapi
• Install an ASGI server: pip install uvicorn

• Create a simple "Hello World" API:
  

   from fastapi import FastAPI app = FastAPI() @app.get("/") def read_root(): return {"message": "Hello, World!"} 

• Run the server: uvicorn main:app --reload

2. Learn Key Features

• Path Parameters and Query Parameters:
  

   @app.get("/items/{item_id}") def read_item(item_id: int, q: str = None): return {"item_id": item_id, "q": q} 

• Request Body (using Pydantic models):
  

   from pydantic import BaseModel class Item(BaseModel): name: str price: float @app.post("/items/") def create_item(item: Item): return item 

• Error Handling:
  

   from fastapi import HTTPException @app.get("/items/{item_id}") def read_item(item_id: int): if item_id == 0: raise HTTPException(status_code=404, detail="Item not found") return {"item_id": item_id} 

3. Integrate a Database

• Use an ORM like SQLAlchemy or Tortoise ORM.

• Example with SQLAlchemy:
  

   from sqlalchemy import create_engine, Column, Integer, String from sqlalchemy.ext.declarative import declarative_base from sqlalchemy.orm import sessionmaker SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URL = "sqlite:///./test.db" engine = create_engine(SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URL) SessionLocal = sessionmaker(autocommit=False, autoflush=False, bind=engine) Base = declarative_base() class Item(Base): __tablename__ = "items" id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True, index=True) name = Column(String, index=True) price = Column(Integer) Base.metadata.create_all(bind=engine) 

4. Add Authentication

• Use OAuth2 with JWT tokens for secure authentication.

• Example:
  

   from fastapi.security import OAuth2PasswordBearer oauth2_scheme = OAuth2PasswordBearer(tokenUrl="token") @app.get("/users/me") def read_current_user(token: str = Depends(oauth2_scheme)): return {"token": token} 

5. Deploy Your Backend

• Use platforms like Heroku, Render, or AWS to deploy your FastAPI app.

Best of luck 🤞. What do you think about this?