Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

API Platform VS Django

Compare API Platform VS Django and see what are their differences

API Platform logo API Platform

REST and GraphQL framework to build modern API-driven projects

Django logo Django

The Web framework for perfectionists with deadlines
  • API Platform Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-15
  • Django Landing page
    Landing page //
    2018-09-30

API Platform features and specs

  • Rich Feature Set
    API Platform offers a comprehensive set of tools and features for building APIs, including schema generation, documentation, testing, and more, which can accelerate the development process.
  • GraphQL Support
    It provides built-in support for GraphQL, allowing developers to create flexible and efficient queries, which can improve client performance and reduce over-fetching of data.
  • Automatic CRUD Operations
    API Platform simplifies backend development by automatically generating CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) operations from the model schema, reducing boilerplate code.
  • Integration with Symfony
    Built on top of Symfony, API Platform leverages Symfony's robustness, community support, and vast amount of plugins and bundles, which can enhance the APIโ€™s flexibility and extensibility.
  • API-First Design
    It supports designing APIs first with a specification-based approach, encouraging developers to define data models and interfaces before implementation, leading to clearer and more maintainable code.

Possible disadvantages of API Platform

  • Complexity for Simple APIs
    For simple or small-scale APIs, API Platform's extensive features can introduce unnecessary complexity, making it less suitable for straightforward projects where a simpler solution would suffice.
  • Learning Curve
    The comprehensive feature set can lead to a steeper learning curve for newcomers, especially those unfamiliar with Symfony or the API Platformโ€™s methodologies.
  • Symfony Dependency
    Since API Platform is deeply integrated with Symfony, it might not be the ideal choice for projects using different frameworks, as it would require adopting Symfonyโ€™s ecosystem.
  • Limited Community Compared to Larger Frameworks
    While it has a supportive community, API Platform is more niche compared to larger frameworks like Express or Django, which might result in fewer community resources or third-party tutorials.
  • Overhead on Performance
    The abstraction and features provided by API Platform may introduce some overhead, potentially impacting performance compared to more lightweight solutions optimized for specific use cases.

Django features and specs

  • Rapid Development
    Django allows developers to swiftly create web applications with its 'batteries-included' philosophy, providing built-in features and tools out-of-the-box.
  • Scalability
    Django is designed to help developers scale applications. It supports a pluggable architecture, making it easy to grow an application organically.
  • Security
    Django includes various security features like protection against SQL injection, cross-site scripting, cross-site request forgery, and more, promoting the creation of secure web applications.
  • ORM (Object-Relational Mapping)
    Djangoโ€™s powerful ORM simplifies database manipulation by allowing developers to interact with the database using Python code instead of SQL queries.
  • Comprehensive Documentation
    Django offers detailed and extensive documentation, aiding developers in effectively understanding and utilizing its features.
  • Community Support
    With a large and active community, Django benefits from numerous third-party packages, plugins, and extensive support forums.

Possible disadvantages of Django

  • Steep Learning Curve
    For beginners, Djangoโ€™s complex features and components can be challenging to grasp, leading to a steep learning curve.
  • Monolithic Framework
    Djangoโ€™s monolithic structure can limit flexibility, potentially resulting in over-engineered solutions for simpler, smaller projects.
  • Template Language Limitations
    Djangoโ€™s template language, while useful, is less powerful compared to alternatives like Jinja2, limiting functionality in complex frontend requirements.
  • Heavyweight
    Django's comprehensive feature set can result in high overhead, making it less ideal for lightweight applications or microservices.
  • Opinionated Framework
    Django follows a โ€˜Django wayโ€™ of doing things, which can be restrictive for developers who prefer less constrained, highly customized coding practices.
  • Lack of Asynchronicity
    Djangoโ€™s built-in functionalities do not fully support asynchronous programming, which can be a limitation for handling real-time applications and processes requiring concurrency.

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Django videos

Python Django

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to API Platform and Django)
Web Frameworks
8 8%
92% 92
Developer Tools
7 7%
93% 93
JavaScript Framework
100 100%
0% 0
Python Web Framework
3 3%
97% 97

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare API Platform and Django

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Django Reviews

The 20 Best Laravel Alternatives for Web Development
The first of these Laravel alternatives is Django. Djangoโ€™s like that one-stop shop where you grab everything you need for a full-blown web project, all off one shelf. Itโ€™s the big-brained Python framework that anticipates your moves, keeping you steps ahead with a crazy stack of built-in features.
Top 9 best Frameworks for web development
The best frameworks for web development include React, Angular, Vue.js, Django, Spring, Laravel, Ruby on Rails, Flask and Express.js. Each of these frameworks has its own advantages and distinctive features, so it is important to choose the framework that best suits the needs of your project.
Source: www.kiwop.com
25 Python Frameworks to Master
You wonโ€™t go wrong by choosing Django for your next web project. Itโ€™s a powerful web framework that provides everything you need to build fast and reliable websites. And if you need any additional features โ€” say, the ability to create a REST API to use with modern frontend frameworks like React or Angular โ€” you can use extensions like Django REST framework.
Source: kinsta.com
3 Web Frameworks to Use With Python
myproject/ is the directory that contains the configuration and settings for the Django project__init__.py is an empty script that tells Python that this directory should be treated as a Python packageasgi.py is a script that defines ASGI application (Asynchronous Server Gateway Interface) for serving this project. ASGI is a specification for building asynchronous web...
Top 10 Phoenix Framework Alternatives
Phoenix borrows heavily from other frameworks built on the Model-View-Controller (MVC) architecture, like Rails and Django, providing a large part of everything you need to develop a web app out of the box, albeit in a less โ€œbatteries includedโ€ manner.

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, API Platform should be more popular than Django. It has been mentiond 39 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

API Platform mentions (39)

  • Symfony 7 vs. .NET Core 8 - Controllers
    Another difference is that in .NET Core, we can integrate with OpenAPI out of the box (it is part of the framework), while in Symfony, an API-based application with OpenAPI features is only available using a third-party toolโ€”the API Platform. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Consistent validation with API Platform 3
    API Platform is a great tool for rapid API development, but it has a lot of not-so-well-documented features which can sometimes lead to confusion. Playing around with a new project of mine I've stumbled into one: tests were failing for my validation assertions of endpoints' responses! - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Lucky like a 7 โ€” Seven SymfonyCasts Courses to Master Symfony 7
    Technically API Platform is not part of Symfony. Although, they are both French. ๐Ÿ˜‰. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Shot in the dark
    Probably API-platform. The website is down at the moment, but: https://github.com/api-platform/api-platform It's Symfony based (and plays nice in that ecosystem), also allows you to describe entities via Schema org vocab, has a client generator, and comes with docker-compose and helm charts. I've used it extensively to build various headless services. It's really easy to expose annotated Doctrine entities. Source: about 2 years ago
  • API Platform up and running in 5 minutes ๐Ÿš€
    API Platform is a framework for API-first projects, built on top of Symfony components. Let's see how to create a minimal and lightweight starter project in just 5 minutes! - Source: dev.to / about 2 years ago
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Django mentions (15)

  • Emails Setup in Django Using AWS
    Let's dive into a quick implementation of this using AWS and Django. We will be using a couple of ideas from the AWS Official Blog. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • Top 10 Backend Frameworks in 2022
    Django is a high-level Python web framework. It is an Model-View-Template(MVT)-based, open-source web application development framework. It was released in 2005. It comes with batteries included. Some popular websites using Django are Instagram, Mozilla, Disqus, Bitbucket, Nextdoor and Clubhouse. - Source: dev.to / almost 3 years ago
  • Boss wants me to make a student management system
    This seems like a job for Django. MDN offers a really good tutorial here. To be honest, it would be a massive undertaking so Iโ€™d recommend going for a prebuilt solution like PowerSchool and the like. Source: about 3 years ago
  • What's django equivalent to ruby gems? Django beginner here
    The first party docs are second to none. Start out with the official tutorial on https://djangoproject.com . Source: over 3 years ago
  • What's django equivalent to ruby gems? Django beginner here
    Im teaching myself to build a backend SaaS. Can you build it just as fast as with RoR and gems? Is it all on the documentation on djangoproject.com? Just learning how to use it atm, any good tutorials as well? Source: over 3 years ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing API Platform and Django, you can also consider the following products

Play Framework - An open source web framework which follows the model-view-controller architecture. It is light-weight, web-friendly, and stateless. It provides minimal overhead for highly-scalable applications.

Laravel - A PHP Framework For Web Artisans

Adonis JS - AdonisJs is a Node.js web framework with breath of fresh air and drizzle of elegant syntax on top of it

Ruby on Rails - Ruby on Rails is an open source full-stack web application framework for the Ruby programming...

ASP.NET - ASP.NET is a free web framework for building great Web sites and Web applications using HTML, CSS and JavaScript.

ExpressJS - Sinatra inspired web development framework for node.js -- insanely fast, flexible, and simple