Django vs Laravel for Rest API

A framework dispenses with the need of reinventing the wheel. It is a ‘skeleton’ on which the designers and developers build unique applications with desired features. You can also call it an abstract tool that would help you develop applications and reuse code. It will contain the common codes, a pre-template structure. Frameworks help you skip the hassle of developing the low-level infrastructure and get right to the business logic of your application which results in a neater and more professional application.

So, here we are going to discuss the two of major web development frameworks that most developers use today  -  Django and Laravel, and look at a fair comparison of these two.

Let's get started -

Laravel

Laravel is an open source framework for web development which is written in PHP programming language. It was created and developed by Taylor Otwell. Laravel was licensed by MIT License. It was initially released in the year 2011. The architecture pattern followed is Model View Controller (MVC) in Laravel. Laravel provides a rich set of functionalities similar to that of Ruby on Rails. Laravel needs basic or advanced knowledge of PHP. Laravel can be used to develop a Content Management System (CMS) applications.

Django

Django is an open source framework for web development which is written in the Python programming language. Django framework was developed by the Django Software Foundation. Django was initially released in the year 2005. The architecture pattern followed is Model View Template (MVT) in Django. The Django framework is used to develop complex web applications. Django was licensed by 3-clause BSD (Berkeley Software Distribution) license.

Django vs Laravel

• Django is a high-level server-side web framework. It enables programmers to add functionality to the web application and perform common web development tasks without writing additional code.

• Laravel comes with features to simplify both client-side and server-side web development. As Laravel takes care of common web development tasks, it becomes easier for programmers to accelerate custom web application development.

• While using Django, developers can take advantage of the user interface to perform administration tasks and manage website content. Laravel, on the other hand, allows users to choose from a graphical user interface (GUI) and a command line interface (CLI). Also, it allows developers to create custom commands according to their precise needs.

• Laravel currently supports four widely used databases by default – MySQL, SQLite, SQL Server, and PostgreSQL. On the other hand,  Django also supports MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, and Oracle. Django developers also have the option to work with NoSQL databases through third-party projects and forks.

• Laravel is a web application framework with an expressive, elegant syntax. We believe development must be an enjoyable, creative experience to be truly fulfilling.

• Django is a high-level Python Web framework that encourages rapid development and clean, pragmatic design.

• Laravel framework has its own lightweight templates that help you to create an amazing layout using dynamic content seeding. You can create it by using a different layout and distinctive sections.

• Django was designed with the intention to help developers travel from a concept to a finished project as quickly as possible. When speaking about speed one has to consider performance. Django partakes in lower memory consumption and fewer demands on the database/network, becoming much less of a burden than many other frameworks out there.

• The beautiful thing about Laravel is that it comes with built-in support for API building, as the queries return JSON by default. Django doesn’t come with this built-in feature and you’d have to use a library to work around it and implement the same feature.

• Django takes security quite seriously and helps developers avoid the common mistakes of web development and implement some security best measures. While Laravel does also cover the basics of security it doesn’t live up to Django’s security level. That’s why, for example, NASA uses Django for their website.

• Laravel provides many built-in libraries, such as An Authentication library which is easy to implement and has many advanced features such as Bcrypt hashing, password reset, and encryption.

• Django user authentication system provides a safe way to manage user accounts and passwords alongside ensuring developers stray away from making common mistakes such as cross-site scripting, cross-site request, clickjacking, and forgery.

• Laravel allows writing application login inside the controllers or in routes. Laravel provides inbuilt authentication that can be easily integrated with your application with artisan command.

• Laravel has a service container which is a powerful tool for managing class dependencies and performing dependency injection in the application.

• Laravel’s code is quite intuitive. And Django’s code, on the other hand, seems rather complex, that’s because it uses regular expressions in its routing process.

• If you’re comfortable with Python’s syntax to a good measure, then Django should be fairly easy to pick up. It’s supposed to be developer-friendly and should not take long to learn. On the other side, Laravel is said to have a steep learning curve, but with tools like Laracasts and the good documentation, it should not be hard at all to pick up the framework and master the PHP language right along.

• In 2018 for JSON serialization and since python’s quite a speedy language it won by a landslide difference. Django performed 69k JSON responses/second while Laravel was at a humble 8k responses/second. In terms of speed, Laravel doesn’t compare with Django.

• Laravel is one of the most famous languages of the web. It’s also a powerful framework used by 9GAG, UNION, Toyota Hall of fame.

• Django quite a powerful framework and it’s used by some of the greatest enterprises in the world as their back-end infrastructure. These companies include Pinterest, Udemy, NASA, and Instagram.

Both of the frameworks are one of the most advanced frameworks available in the market-place across the globe. These frameworks support big websites, so there’s no wrong choice to make. It all depends on the software requirements you have and your design.

Let us know - What do you think about these two frameworks. You can share your experiences with us in the comment section. Thank you!