Fastapi over Django for app developers

Hi👋, as an app developer looking to build your own backend with python, FastAPI is an excellent choice, especially if you prioritize speed, simplicity, and modern features. While Django is a powerful and mature framework, FastAPI has several advantages that make it a better fit for developers who want to quickly build efficient and scalable backends. Here's why FastAPI might be the right choice for you:

Why FastAPI is a Great Choice for App Developers

1. Performance:

   • FastAPI is built on ASGI (Asynchronous Server Gateway Interface), which makes it much faster than Django (which uses WSGI).
   • It’s one of the fastest Python web frameworks, comparable to Node.js and Go.

2. Asynchronous Support:

   • FastAPI natively supports async/await, making it ideal for handling high-concurrency tasks (e.g., real-time apps, APIs with multiple requests).
   • Django has added async support, but it’s not as seamless or performant as FastAPI.

3. Ease of Use:

   • FastAPI is designed to be simple and intuitive. It uses Python type hints, which make your code cleaner and easier to understand.
   • Automatic validation, serialization, and documentation (via Swagger UI and ReDoc) save you a lot of time.

4. Modern Features:

   • FastAPI is built with modern web development in mind. It supports:
     • OpenAPI and JSON Schema for automatic API documentation.
     • WebSockets for real-time communication.
     • GraphQL (with third-party libraries).

5. Lightweight and Flexible:

   • FastAPI is minimalistic and doesn’t come with the "batteries-included" approach of Django. This gives you more flexibility to choose the tools and libraries you need.

6. Great for APIs:

   • If your app’s backend is primarily an API (e.g., for a mobile app or SPA), FastAPI is a perfect fit. It’s designed specifically for building APIs quickly and efficiently.

When to Choose Django Instead

While FastAPI is great, Django might be a better choice in certain scenarios:

1. Full-Stack Web Applications:
   • If you’re building a traditional web app with server-side rendering, Django’s built-in templating engine and admin panel can save you time.
2. Batteries-Included Framework:
   • Django comes with everything you need out of the box (ORM, authentication, admin panel, etc.), which can be helpful if you don’t want to configure third-party libraries.
3. Large Ecosystem:
   • Django has been around for much longer and has a larger community and ecosystem of plugins.

Key Differences Between FastAPI and Django

How to Get Started with FastAPI

If you decide to go with FastAPI, here’s a roadmap to get started:

1. Learn the Basics

• Install FastAPI: pip install fastapi
• Install an ASGI server: pip install uvicorn

• Create a simple "Hello World" API:
  

   from fastapi import FastAPI
  
   app = FastAPI()
  
   @app.get("/")
   def read_root():
       return {"message": "Hello, World!"}
  

• Run the server: uvicorn main:app --reload

2. Learn Key Features

• Path Parameters and Query Parameters:
  

   @app.get("/items/{item_id}")
   def read_item(item_id: int, q: str = None):
       return {"item_id": item_id, "q": q}
  

• Request Body (using Pydantic models):
  

   from pydantic import BaseModel
  
   class Item(BaseModel):
       name: str
       price: float
  
   @app.post("/items/")
   def create_item(item: Item):
       return item
  

• Error Handling:
  

   from fastapi import HTTPException
  
   @app.get("/items/{item_id}")
   def read_item(item_id: int):
       if item_id == 0:
           raise HTTPException(status_code=404, detail="Item not found")
       return {"item_id": item_id}
  

3. Integrate a Database

• Use an ORM like SQLAlchemy or Tortoise ORM.

• Example with SQLAlchemy:
  

   from sqlalchemy import create_engine, Column, Integer, String
   from sqlalchemy.ext.declarative import declarative_base
   from sqlalchemy.orm import sessionmaker
  
   SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URL = "sqlite:///./test.db"
   engine = create_engine(SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URL)
   SessionLocal = sessionmaker(autocommit=False, autoflush=False, bind=engine)
   Base = declarative_base()
  
   class Item(Base):
       __tablename__ = "items"
       id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True, index=True)
       name = Column(String, index=True)
       price = Column(Integer)
  
   Base.metadata.create_all(bind=engine)
  

4. Add Authentication

• Use OAuth2 with JWT tokens for secure authentication.

• Example:
  

   from fastapi.security import OAuth2PasswordBearer
  
   oauth2_scheme = OAuth2PasswordBearer(tokenUrl="token")
  
   @app.get("/users/me")
   def read_current_user(token: str = Depends(oauth2_scheme)):
       return {"token": token}
  

5. Deploy Your Backend

• Use platforms like Heroku, Render, or AWS to deploy your FastAPI app.

Best of luck 🤞. What do you think about this?