Django vs flask vs pyramid: Which Python Framework Suits your Needs

Almost a decade ago, Java was ruling the roost as it was not only the developer's preferred platform for development, but also because of its versatility and flexibility. Things have changed in the technology world, with Python walking out of the shadows and progressing ahead of Java as an interpreted, and high-level dynamic programming language that offers flexibility, reusability of code, and high levels compatibility.

Several frameworks have been written in Python, of which Django, Flask and Pyramid are quite popular, and used in developing web applications for enterprises. They are all incredible, and help meet your enterprise goals. The battle is on between the three frameworks, and choosing one among them is proving to be difficult for developers.

Django, Flask and Pyramid are literally fighting for developer's mindshare tooth and nail.

As a developer, you either have a favorite or, you struggle to choose one among these three. Let's get an overview of these three frameworks before digging deeper. Flask is a micro web framework, as it does not need tools or libraries, and has no database abstraction layer either. If you want to add features to this web framework, you will need to use extensions. Flask is basically aimed at smaller applications that require simple components.

Django and Pyramid are both open source frameworks developed using Python, and meant for larger applications. These two majorly differ in their techniques, and the way they handle application extensibility and adaptability. In case of Pyramid the developer will need to mix and match components to build the application as in the developer will need to select the URL structure, templating style, database and other related components to build the application. On the other hand, with Django, you will find that everything is in-built, and you will just need to install the framework and start working on the coding and development part. You won't need to fetch the components or mix-n-match them to your framework. Django consists of the object-relational mapping (ORM) that connects the data models with the relational database to store, save and retrieve the data from the web framework. Flask and Pyramid give the developers the flexibility to choose the method for saving and retrieving data. Preferred ORM for Flask and Pyramid would be DynamoDB or MongoDB as well as regular SQLite.

Now that you have gained an overview into the three frameworks, let's start comparing the three so as to make choosing the right framework easy for the developers.

When you talk of an open-source framework, you cannot stop from commenting about the community that supports them. Django has the most active community that contains close to 80,000 StackOverflow questions. There are some incredible blogs from the Django developers as well as the users to help develop using this framework.

On the otherhand, both Flask and Pyramid cannot take pride in their community strength, as there are fewer members in them compared to Django. But as far as the mailing lists and IRC activities go, they both have made excellent contribution in here. Of course, the StackOverflow questions for Flask is only 5000, which is lot less than what Django has established. Both star almost equally on Github. You will need a BSD-derived permissive license if you want to use either of these frameworks.

So, when you talk about community and support, you know Django wins hands down.

Bootstrapping is when you can get started with building the application without any external input. When you compare the three frameworks for their bootstrapping capabilities, you will realize the Django and Pyramid both come with in-built bootstrapping tools, while Flask has nothing in-built. You will need to depend on extensions to build the application, as this framework is directed towards small applications alone.

The Flask coding is pretty simple, and easy. So, the learning curve is low, which is also a reason why bootstrapping is not needed for this framework. Flask uses blueprints, in case there is an application that needs more separation among the components.

Pyramid and Django work for bigger projects, which is also the reason why the bootstrapping is required. For Django a project is made of individual applications, and the bootstrapping for Django is created in that manner. Flask and Pyramid treat a project as an entire application. The learning curve for Django is slightly difficult as there are fewer example codes available for this framework.

This will be the final comparison point for all three frameworks. What most developers relate to is an application that can easily and quickly respond to the HTTP requests, while users are interested in using the curl to communicate with the web app.

All three frameworks offer excellent response to HTTP, and offer simple ways to fill in the HTML. With this templating, developers can easily inject information to the web page without using AJAX requires, thus offering exquisite user experience. What happens here is that you just make one round trip to the page and its dynamic data to retrieve results, which is what mobile sites require, as they need load faster for the user to remain put on the application.

Of the three frameworks, Pyramid is the most flexible as it can be used to build both small and large applications. A lot of open source communities trust Pyramid for event-based applications. The only issue with this framework is that it offers many alternatives that can get the developer confused.

Django is pretty popular, and has been used to develop applications such as Pinterest, Instagram etc. For common requirements, Django uses the default practices, and is quite a choice for mid to large segments.

If you want to develop a small application and get it launched quickly, then you must use Flask. It can build simple interfaces over existing APIs and create excellent experience.