Considering what tech to use for your next web application or digital product? Looking for a blend of flexibility, speed, and scalability. Something robust, something secure, something proven.
Django is Flowmoco's framework tool of choice for all the above.
It's very robust, secure, and proven — it's been powering complex content managed applications for SME's and C-Corps for almost twenty years. It's flexible, fast, and in our experience eminently scalable — with some of the best developers in the world choosing, using, and growing it on a daily basis. And it's built on top of Python — a language that powers multiple vital systems for NASA.
Fun fact: Django has 79.9k stars on Github, and 1.8m developers actively using it.
Here’s some reasons why we think Django is a great choice and how it can add value to your business:
Low-risk Foundation for Development and Delivery
Django provides a stable and standardised foundation for developers. The framework’s “batteries-included” philosophy means it comes pre-packaged with all the essentials needed to build a full-featured application—authentication, ORM (Object-Relational Mapping) and seamless database integration, form validation, URL routing, etc. Anything standard you'll need is already included. And augmenting the core functionality is easy through the vibrant and exceptionally maintained ecosystem of packages and libraries.
All this translates to a low-risk approach to delivery of business critical systems.
Performance at Scale
Django's performance credentials are well-established through its use by major tech companies. Instagram, for instance, handles billions of daily interactions using Django as its web framework foundation. The framework's ability to handle high-traffic loads is complemented by robust caching mechanisms and database optimisation tools that come built-in.
Django includes robust tools for optimising performance, such as:
- A flexible caching framework that supports multiple common caching strategies
- Database query optimisation tools and a powerful ORM (more on Django's ORM here.)
- Memory optimisation
- Built-in template caching for faster page rendering
All this makes for a very flexible framework that allows businesses to build applications that perform very well under high load.
Efficient Development and Strong Standards
Django’s design philosophy focuses on rapid development and deployment, helping businesses get their products to market quickly. As an “opinionated” framework, Django promotes best practices by default, simplifying the amount of decisions developers need to make. By providing so much in the way of typical web application functionality, Django greatly reduces the need for developers to spend time on low level or non business-specific code.
Again the TLDR, is faster development times and reduced risk.
Flexible, Secure, and Community Backed
Django is known as the “Swiss Army knife” of web frameworks. While being opinionated has it's trade offs, Django is still more than flexible enough to suit a huge variety of application needs. It can handle high-traffic volumes and complex data processing with ease. Remember, it's Python underneath there!
Security is a cornerstone of Django’s architecture. It has built-in protections against common vulnerabilities such as SQL injection, cross-site scripting, and cross-site request forgery. It offers a secure foundation for handling sensitive data and user interactions.
The Django community is well known for its commitment to security, and frequently releases updates to keep the framework aligned with the latest best practices and threat vectors.
A Thriving Community and Robust Ecosystem
Speaking of community, Django boasts a mature and extensive ecosystem. Which includes a vast array of plugins, libraries, and tools that extend the framework’s capabilities. This vibrant community provides access to pre-built components and integrations, covering nearly any need you might have.
As a testament to this there's many commercial + open source partnerships that are invested in the ongoing health and growth of the Django community. Just one example is Fidelity International's sponsorship of DjangoCMS.
Making the Transition
If your organisation is considering Django, there's a variety of ways the transition process can be managed incrementally:
- Starting with smaller, non-critical projects to build team expertise
- Utilise Django's REST framework for creating APIs that bridge legacy systems
- Get familiar with Django's ORM, and map out data relationships for a given project
- Take a TDD approach and leverage Django robust testing framework (built on Python's standard unittest library) to create comprehensive test suites for your application.
The framework's maturity means you're not betting on unproven technology, but steps like these will allow you to validate and gain confidence in Django's benefits; whilst minimising disruption to existing operations.
Why a Development Partner is a Good Idea
Django is a great framework, and in this article we've barely skimmed the surface of what it can do. As with everything, experience and expertise is needed to get the most out of it. So partnering with a trusted technology firm is a good idea.
We know Django inside and out. We know Python (the underlying language) similarly, and we've tried, tested, implemented, and used most of the big Django libraries out there — like Wagtail CMS, the leading open-source Python based content management solution. So we know our way around, and can greatly speed up your adoption and/or development of this versatile tech.
We also have a wealth of deep expertise in EVERYTHING else that needs to support a Django project, from initial planning all the way to headache free deployment and hosting.
At the end of the day, the tech is the tech — it's your business objectives that are paramount to your success. Let us help you get there quicker, cheaper, and in the best way possible.