Are you wondering which framework to choose when starting web development? If you want to build web services with Python, you’ve probably heard of Django. Used by global services like Instagram, Spotify, and Pinterest, Django remains a powerful choice even after 20 years.

In this post, we’ll explore what Django is, why developers still choose it today, and how you can actually get started. I’ll explain everything step by step so that even beginners can easily understand.

 

 

 

1. What is Django? – A Python-Based Full-Stack Framework

Django is a Python-based open-source web framework first released in 2005. Its official tagline, “The web framework for perfectionists with deadlines,” is quite interesting. It embodies a philosophy of developing quickly without compromising on quality.

The name Django comes from the famous jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt. It was originally developed for a newspaper website in Kansas, USA, and was so well-made that it was released as open source under the BSD license.

What’s the Latest Version?

As of September 2025, Django’s latest stable version is 5.2.6 (LTS – Long Term Support). The LTS version provides security updates for three years, making it suitable for production projects. Additionally, Django 6.0 Alpha was released in September 2025, with the official version coming soon.

Django official download page: https://www.djangoproject.com/download/

 

 

2. Who Uses Django? – A Proven Framework

“Is Django still being used?” is a question I often hear, and the answer is clear: Not only is it still used, it’s more popular than ever! Looking at the companies using it explains why.

Global Companies

• Instagram – The world’s largest Django website. They’re also a platinum sponsor, donating over $30,000 annually to the Django Software Foundation
• Spotify – Uses Django for its music streaming service backend
• Pinterest – Built with Django from the initial development stage
• Disqus – A comment platform processing millions of comments daily
• Mozilla – Various web applications from Mozilla, known for the Firefox browser
• National Geographic – Content management system
• NASA – Several internal web applications
• The Washington Post – News platform infrastructure
• Bitbucket – Git repository hosting service

Django-powered sites: https://www.djangoproject.com/start/overview/

 

 

3. Core Features of Django – Why Is It So Popular?

“Batteries Included” Philosophy

Django’s biggest feature is that almost everything needed for web development is included by default. Unlike other frameworks, you don’t need to hunt for libraries and assemble them.

Built-in features:

• ORM (Object-Relational Mapping) – Database manipulation without writing SQL
• Admin Interface – Automatically generated data management UI
• Authentication System – User registration and login functionality
• Forms – Input validation and processing
• Security Features – Protection against SQL injection, CSRF, and XSS attacks
• Internationalization (i18n) – Multi-language support
• Template Engine – HTML rendering
• URL Routing – URL mapping system
• Session Management – User state management
• Migrations – Database schema change management

 

 

4. Understanding the MVT Pattern – Django’s Design Philosophy

Django uses the MVT (Model-View-Template) pattern. It’s similar to the well-known MVC (Model-View-Controller) pattern but slightly different. Let me explain what each component does using a restaurant analogy.

Component	Role	Analogy
Model	Defines database and data structures	Restaurant’s ingredient storage
View	Handles business logic, fetches data	Chef (cooking according to recipes)
Template	Generates HTML to show users	Plating and serving the dish
URL Dispatcher	Connects URLs to Views	Waiter taking orders

How It Works

1. User requests a URL from the web browser
2. URL Dispatcher receives the request and forwards it to the appropriate View
3. View fetches necessary data from the Model
4. View passes data to the Template
5. Template renders HTML
6. Completed HTML is returned to the user

# Model example - models.py
from django.db import models

class Article(models.Model):
    title = models.CharField(max_length=200)
    content = models.TextField()
    created_at = models.DateTimeField(auto_now_add=True)
    
    def __str__(self):
        return self.title

# View example - views.py
from django.shortcuts import render
from .models import Article

def article_list(request):
    articles = Article.objects.all()
    return render(request, 'article_list.html', {'articles': articles})

# URL configuration - urls.py
from django.urls import path
from . import views

urlpatterns = [
    path('articles/', views.article_list, name='article_list'),
]

MVT pattern official documentation: https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/5.2/faq/general/

 

 

5. Django ORM – Database Management Without SQL

Django’s ORM (Object-Relational Mapping) is truly powerful. You can manipulate databases with just Python code, making web development possible even without knowing SQL.

Without ORM?

-- Have to write SQL directly
SELECT * FROM users WHERE age > 18 AND status = 'active';

With Django ORM?

# Simply with Python code
User.objects.filter(age__gt=18, status='active')

ORM Advantages

1. Increased Productivity – Faster code writing
2. Database Independence – Easy switching between PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQLite, etc.
3. SQL Injection Protection – Automatic security handling
4. Readability – Easy to read Python code
5. Easy Maintenance – Structured code

Automatic Migrations

Django’s migration system is incredibly convenient. When database schema changes are needed:

# After model changes
python manage.py makemigrations  # Create migration files
python manage.py migrate         # Apply to database

Just two commands automatically update your database structure!

 

 

6. Getting Started with Django – From Installation to First Project

Let’s go through how to actually start with Django step by step. I’ll explain slowly so beginners can follow along.

Prerequisites

Django 5.2 supports Python 3.10, 3.11, and 3.12. If you don’t have Python installed, install it first.

Python official site: https://www.python.org/downloads/

# Check Python version
python --version
# or
python3 --version

Step 1: Create a Virtual Environment

Using a virtual environment allows you to create an independent Python environment for each project.

# Create and navigate to project folder
mkdir my_django_project
cd my_django_project

# Create virtual environment
python -m venv venv

# Activate virtual environment
# Windows
venv\Scripts\activate

# Mac/Linux
source venv/bin/activate

Step 2: Install Django

# Install Django with pip (latest version)
pip install django

# To install a specific version
pip install django==5.2.6

# Verify installation
django-admin --version

Step 3: Create Django Project

# Create project
django-admin startproject mysite

# Created folder structure
mysite/
    manage.py
    mysite/
        __init__.py
        settings.py
        urls.py
        asgi.py
        wsgi.py

Step 4: Run Development Server

# Navigate to project folder
cd mysite

# Start development server
python manage.py runserver

Visit http://127.0.0.1:8000/ in your browser to see the Django welcome page!

Step 5: Create Your First App

In Django, you can create multiple apps within a project.

# Create app
python manage.py startapp blog

# Register app in settings.py
INSTALLED_APPS = [
    'django.contrib.admin',
    'django.contrib.auth',
    'django.contrib.contenttypes',
    'django.contrib.sessions',
    'django.contrib.messages',
    'django.contrib.staticfiles',
    'blog',  # Newly added
]

Django official tutorial: https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/5.2/intro/tutorial01/

 

 

7. Django vs Flask vs FastAPI – Which Should You Choose?

These are the three most commonly compared Python web frameworks. Here’s a table summarizing each one’s characteristics.

Feature	Django	Flask	FastAPI
Release Year	2005	2010	2018
Philosophy	Batteries Included	Minimalism	High-Performance API
Learning Curve	Medium~High	Low	Medium
Speed	Medium	Medium	Very Fast
Built-in Features	Very Many	Minimal	Medium
ORM	Built-in	Separate installation	Separate installation
Admin Panel	Auto-generated	None	None
Async Support	Partial	Limited	Full
Suitable For	Large-scale full-stack web apps	Small web apps, APIs	High-performance APIs, microservices

Choose Django When

• You want to quickly build a complete web service
• You need an admin panel
• Working on database-heavy websites
• Building CMS (Content Management Systems), e-commerce, social networks, etc.
• Security is critical

Choose Flask When

• Working on small-scale projects or prototypes
• High degree of customization is needed
• Starting web development for learning purposes
• Building a small service within microservices

Choose FastAPI When

• High-performance REST API is needed
• Asynchronous processing is important
• Serving machine learning models
• Real-time data processing API
• Automatic API documentation is needed

Framework comparison reference: https://blog.jetbrains.com/pycharm/2025/02/django-flask-fastapi/

 

 

8. Django’s Pros and Cons – Honestly

Advantages

1. Rapid Development Necessary features are already implemented, significantly reducing development time. It’s a framework that practices the principle of “don’t reinvent the wheel.”

2. Security Built-in protection against major security vulnerabilities like SQL injection, Cross-Site Scripting (XSS), and Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF).

3. Scalability Services like Instagram handle hundreds of millions of users with Django. It’s scalable through caching, database optimization, etc.

4. Rich Ecosystem Django Packages has thousands of reusable apps. Most features like payments, email, and social login can be solved with packages.

5. Active Community With 20 years of history, there’s extensive documentation, tutorials, and Stack Overflow answers. Most problems can be solved through search.

6. DRY Principle Don’t Repeat Yourself – A design that minimizes code duplication makes maintenance easy.

Disadvantages

1. Heavy Framework Even creating a simple API requires installing all of Django. It can be overkill.

2. Learning Curve There’s a lot to learn initially. You need to get familiar with Django’s way of doing things: MVT pattern, ORM, template language, etc.

3. Limited Flexibility You must follow Django’s way, resulting in relatively low freedom. However, this also leads to consistency and stability.

4. Async Processing While Django supports async from version 3.0, it’s not as complete as FastAPI yet.

5. Template Engine Django’s template language has limited functionality. Nowadays, the trend is to separate it from frontend frameworks like React or Vue.

 

 

9. Django 6.0’s New Features – A Glimpse into the Future

Django 6.0 Alpha released in September 2025 includes exciting new features.

Built-in Background Tasks

Now you can handle background tasks without separate tools like Celery!

from django.tasks import background

@background(schedule="5m")
def send_welcome_email(user_id):
    user = User.objects.get(pk=user_id)
    user.email_user("Welcome!", "Thank you for signing up.")

# Call from anywhere
send_welcome_email(user.id)

Stronger Async Support

Native async views, middleware, and ORM queries utilizing Python 3.12+ features.

async def async_dashboard(request):
    data = await fetch_realtime_metrics()
    return JsonResponse(data)

Enhanced Security

CSP (Content Security Policy) middleware is now built-in, making security header configuration simpler.

Django 6.0 information: https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/releases/6.0/

 

 

10. Learning Resources – Mastering Django

Official Documentation (Essential!)

Django’s official documentation is excellent. It covers everything from beginner tutorials to advanced content.

• Official Tutorial: https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/5.2/intro/tutorial01/
• Official Docs: https://docs.djangoproject.com/

Recommended Learning Path

1. Python Basics – Learn Python syntax before Django
2. Official Tutorial – Build a polling app in 7 parts
3. Practice Projects – Build a blog, bulletin board, etc.
4. Advanced Learning – ORM optimization, testing, deployment

Community

• Django Official Forum: https://forum.djangoproject.com/
• Django Discord: Real-time Q&A
• Stack Overflow: Search with django tag
• Reddit: r/django community

Additional Resources

• Real Python Django Tutorials: https://realpython.com/tutorials/django/
• Django for Beginners by William S. Vincent
• Two Scoops of Django: Best practices guide
• YouTube: Various English tutorials and courses

 

 

11. Practical Tips – Using Django in Production

Development Environment Setup

IDE Recommendations

• PyCharm – Django-specific feature support (paid but Community version is good too)
• VS Code – Install Python extension

Essential Packages

pip install django-debug-toolbar  # Debugging
pip install django-extensions     # Utilities
pip install pillow               # Image processing
pip install python-decouple      # Environment variable management

Production Deployment

Django’s development server (runserver) is not for actual production. For deployment:

• WSGI Server: Gunicorn, uWSGI
• Web Server: Nginx, Apache
• Database: PostgreSQL recommended (MySQL, MariaDB also possible)
• Cloud: AWS, Google Cloud, Heroku, PythonAnywhere

Performance Optimization

1. Query Optimization: Use select_related(), prefetch_related()
2. Caching: Use Redis, Memcached
3. Static Files: Use CDN
4. Database Indexing: Index frequently queried fields

 

 

Django is a proven framework with 20 years of history. With its rapid development speed, strong security, and rich features, it continues to be chosen by many developers.

It may seem like there’s a lot to learn at first, but once you get the hang of it, you can develop web applications very productively. Especially if you want to build a web service from start to finish by yourself, there’s no better choice than Django.

Depending on your project’s scale, team composition, and requirements, Flask or FastAPI might be better choices. However, if you need to build a “complete web application” “quickly,” I confidently recommend Django.