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APILayer VS Django REST framework

Compare APILayer VS Django REST framework and see what are their differences

APILayer logo APILayer

API marketplace and ready to run app backends for your mobile app and website.

Django REST framework logo Django REST framework

Django REST framework is a toolkit for building web APIs.
  • APILayer Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-07-04

APILayer is a highly curated API marketplace with a focus on reliability, scalability, and quality. It allows API developers to monetize their APIs while letting others build the next big thing easier, all with a single API key and SDK. Trusted by over 1 million developers for secure and scalable REST APIs. All APIs have a free plan. No credit card is required.

  • Django REST framework Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-09-18

APILayer features and specs

  • Wide Range of APIs
    APILayer offers a vast array of APIs for different purposes such as currency conversion, IP geolocation, weather, email validation, and more, providing users with diverse options to meet various application needs.
  • Ease of Integration
    The APIs provided by APILayer are straightforward to integrate, with comprehensive documentation and examples, making it accessible for developers to quickly implement them into their applications.
  • Scalability
    APILayer ensures scalable solutions that can handle increasing demand, making it suitable for growing businesses and applications that require robust data handling.
  • Reliable Performance
    The services are known for offering consistent and reliable API performance, reducing the likelihood of downtime and ensuring that businesses can maintain uninterrupted access to crucial functionalities.
  • Affordability
    APILayer provides various pricing tiers, including free access with limited quotas, which is beneficial for startups and small businesses looking to minimize costs while still accessing essential API functionalities.

Possible disadvantages of APILayer

  • Limited Free Tier
    While APILayer offers a free tier, it comes with limited requests and features, which might not be sufficient for larger projects or those requiring extensive data usage.
  • Potential Learning Curve
    For developers unfamiliar with API integration, there may be a learning curve involved in understanding how to effectively utilize different APIs to meet their specific needs.
  • Dependence on Third-party Data
    APILayer's APIs often rely on third-party data sources, which may occasionally experience delays or inaccuracies, affecting the reliability of the data provided to end-users.
  • Limited Customization
    Some users may find that APILayer's APIs do not offer extensive customization options, which can be a limitation for projects requiring highly tailored solutions.

Django REST framework features and specs

  • Rich Feature Set
    Django REST framework (DRF) offers a comprehensive toolkit for building Web APIs, including serialization, authentication, and viewsets, which facilitate the creation of complex RESTful services with minimal effort.
  • Integration with Django
    DRF seamlessly integrates with Django's ORM and associated components, allowing for a coherent and efficient development process that leverages all of Django’s features and tools.
  • Robust Documentation
    DRF has extensive, clear, and well-structured documentation, which helps developers understand its features, integrations, and best practices quickly.
  • Community Support
    A large and active community supports DRF, meaning developers can find plenty of resources, tutorials, third-party packages, and forums for troubleshooting and enhancing their applications.
  • Flexibility
    DRF provides a lot of flexibility through class-based views and a highly customizable architecture, allowing developers to tweak their APIs to meet specific project requirements.
  • Authentication Options
    DRF supports multiple built-in authentication methods such as token-based authentication, OAuth, and JWT, along with the ability to create custom authentication mechanisms.

Possible disadvantages of Django REST framework

  • Learning Curve
    Although DRF is powerful, it comes with a steep learning curve, especially for beginners who are not familiar with Django or RESTful concepts, which can lead to a longer onboarding process.
  • Performance Overhead
    The abstraction and additional features provided by DRF can introduce some performance overhead, making raw Django views or other minimal frameworks sometimes more suitable for highly performance-sensitive applications.
  • Complexity
    For small projects or simple APIs, DRF might be overkill due to its inherent complexity and the numerous options it provides, which can slow down initial setup and development.
  • Tight Coupling with Django
    DRF is tightly coupled with Django, meaning that it’s not a suitable choice if you are looking to use a different web framework or need more flexibility in the choice of the underlying web framework.
  • Documentation Depth
    While the documentation is generally excellent, some advanced features are not as deeply covered, which can make implementing more complex customizations challenging without diving into the source code.

APILayer videos

All You Need To Know About APILAYER!

Django REST framework videos

Django Vs Django Rest Framework 2020

More videos:

  • Review - Getting Started With Django REST Framework

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to APILayer and Django REST framework)
APIs
36 36%
64% 64
API Tools
29 29%
71% 71
Developer Tools
100 100%
0% 0
API Management
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, APILayer should be more popular than Django REST framework. It has been mentiond 5 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.

APILayer mentions (5)

  • Top 3 Rapid API Competitor Available On The Web
    API Layer stands out as a comprehensive API Marketplace, offering a curated selection of APIs to streamline development processes. With a focus on quality and reliability, API Layer enables developers to access a diverse ecosystem of APIs, ensuring compatibility and scalability. The platform emphasizes robust API management and integration solutions, fostering a community-driven approach to enhance collaboration.... Source: over 1 year ago
  • Top 3 Rapid API Alternatives In 2024
    API Layer is an API marketplace focused on providing access to high-quality APIs for developers. They curate and test APIs before listing them, ensuring their reliability and ease of use. Additionally, they offer various tools and services to support developers throughout the API integration process. Did you know that more than 1 million developers have used the APIs available in this API marketplace? In addition,... Source: over 1 year ago
  • [xGov-71] ASA Stats Point in Time - tax reporting reference for US citizens - ASA Stats
    In order to prepare data for the users coming from the countries outside of US, ASA Stats will use APILayer (https://apilayer.com/) for conversion between currencies. Source: over 1 year ago
  • How to find the best weather API for your needs
    API stands for “Application Programming Interface” and refers to the various means one company has of communicating with another company’s software internally. An API would allow a third party such as Facebook to directly access the various functions of an external application, such as ordering a product on Amazon. A company will likely release an API in order to increase its audience by enticing others to develop... Source: about 2 years ago
  • Tools to check email copy for spam words?
    Https://apilayer.com/ is an API. It offers various plans including free plan. It will work with any text such as comment, email or plain texts. Source: over 2 years ago

Django REST framework mentions (3)

  • API framework choice?
    Django Rest Framework seems like the most mature and works great with Django. But its strength, if I understand correctly, is for auto-creating all the necessary endpoints for manipulating models, which might be useful for data entry applications. I know that it's super flexible and probably my use case will be covered, but it seems that this it might get complicated. Source: almost 3 years ago
  • Django REST difference between permission classes and authentication classes
    There is one last thing I'm a little confused on with Django Rest Framework and that's the different between permission classes and authentication classes. Source: about 3 years ago
  • How to disable admin-style browsable interface of django-rest-framework?
    I am using django-rest-framework. It provides an awesome Django admin style browsable self-documenting API. But anyone can visit those pages and use the interface to add data (POST). How can I disable it? Source: over 3 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing APILayer and Django REST framework, you can also consider the following products

RapidAPI - API marketplace for finding and connecting to the world's top APIs.

Postman - The Collaboration Platform for API Development

JSONREPO - JSONREPO is an API platform created for developers seeking fast, reliable, and scalable APIs

Amazon API Gateway - Create, publish, maintain, monitor, and secure APIs at any scale

API List - A collective list of APIs. Build something.

Apigee - Intelligent and complete API platform