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Django REST framework VS Restlet

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

Django REST framework logo Django REST framework

Django REST framework is a toolkit for building web APIs.

Restlet logo Restlet

Restlet provides an API PaaS for API design, API testing, API management and hosting.
  • Django REST framework Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-09-18
  • Restlet Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-09-13

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.

Restlet features and specs

  • User-Friendly Interface
    Restlet provides an intuitive and easy-to-use interface, which makes it accessible for developers to design and manage APIs without steep learning curves.
  • Comprehensive API Design
    Restlet offers robust tools for designing, documenting, and testing APIs, which helps ensure that APIs meet both functional and business requirements.
  • Integrated Environment
    Restlet integrates with popular development environments and platforms, enhancing the workflow by allowing seamless transitions between design, testing, and deployment phases.
  • Collaboration Features
    The platform supports collaboration among team members, allowing for version control, real-time feedback, and sharing of API designs, which improves team productivity.

Possible disadvantages of Restlet

  • Limited Offline Capabilities
    Restlet may have limited functionality when offline, which can be a drawback for developers needing to work in environments with unreliable internet access.
  • Performance Concerns
    For larger projects or those requiring high throughput, Restlet might present performance issues compared to more robust, enterprise-grade API management solutions.
  • Learning Curve for Advanced Features
    While the basic functionality is user-friendly, mastering the more advanced features of Restlet might require additional time and training.
  • Pricing Structure
    Depending on usage and required features, Restlet's pricing can become a concern for small teams or individual developers, potentially limiting its accessibility.

Analysis of Django REST framework

Overall verdict

  • Yes, Django REST Framework is considered a good choice for building APIs, especially if you are already using Django for your web application. It offers a well-designed, comprehensive toolkit that streamlines the process of API development.

Why this product is good

  • Django REST Framework (DRF) is widely appreciated for its ease of use, extensive documentation, and flexibility. It integrates seamlessly with Django, a popular web framework, offering powerful features such as authentication, serialization, and viewsets. DRF also supports RESTful API architecture, which is a standard in web development, allowing developers to build robust APIs efficiently. Its strong community support and numerous plugins extend its capabilities, making it a solid choice for both small and large projects.

Recommended for

  • Developers familiar with Django who want to build APIs.
  • Projects that require a robust and scalable API solution.
  • Teams seeking a well-documented and community-supported framework.
  • Use cases where integration with Django's authentication and ORM features is beneficial.

Django REST framework videos

Django Vs Django Rest Framework 2020

More videos:

  • Review - Getting Started With Django REST Framework

Restlet videos

No Restlet videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

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Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Django REST framework and Restlet)
API Tools
79 79%
21% 21
APIs
76 76%
24% 24
API Management
73 73%
27% 27
Web Service Automation
76 76%
24% 24

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Django REST framework seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 3 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.

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: about 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

Restlet mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of Restlet yet. Tracking of Restlet recommendations started around Mar 2021.

What are some alternatives?

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

Postman - The Collaboration Platform for API Development

Apigee - Intelligent and complete API platform

Apiary - Collaborative design, instant API mock, generated documentation, integrated code samples, debugging and automated testing

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

Gravitee.io - Gravitee.io is a flexible, lightweight and an open source API management solution.

RapidAPI for Mac - Paw is a REST client for Mac.