Django is a full-featured, batteries-included framework best for complex applications with built-in ORM and admin panels, while FastAPI is a modern, lightweight framework optimized for building fast APIs with automatic documentation and async support by default.
Django vs FastAPI — Side-by-side comparison on A Versus B
Choose Django if you're building complex web applications with database-heavy requirements, need an admin interface, or prefer a battle-tested ecosystem with extensive third-party support. Choose FastAPI if you're building modern APIs, need maximum performance with async operations, value developer experience with auto-generated OpenAPI documentation, or are starting a microservices architecture.
Python web framework emphasizing rapid development, clean code, and batteries-included features with built-in admin.
Modern async-first Python framework for building high-performance APIs
Structured comparison data for Django vs FastAPI with 166 attributes.
Development Speed (Median Project Timeline)
Request Throughput (req/sec, hello-world)
Production Applications (market estimate)
Production Readiness Without External Server
Django vs FastAPI — Attribute Category Vocabulary
Taxonomy of attribute categories used to classify comparison data for Django vs FastAPI.
FastAPI is 2.3-2.8x faster, handling 22,000-25,000 requests/second compared to Django's 8,000-12,000 req/s, primarily due to native async support and minimal overhead. However, real-world performance depends on database queries and business logic complexity.
Django added partial async support starting with version 3.1 (released 2020), but it wasn't designed for async-first development. Views and middleware require explicit async keyword, and the ORM still has sync constraints. FastAPI's async support is more comprehensive and natural.
Django's auto-generated admin interface is production-ready for managing database records, user accounts, and permissions without custom code. FastAPI has no built-in admin; you'll need to build one manually, use third-party tools like SQLAdmin, or manage data through external tools.
FastAPI is better suited for microservices due to its lightweight nature, async efficiency, and stateless API design. Django's monolithic structure and tight coupling make it harder to extract individual services, though it can work with proper architecture planning.
Django has more security features out-of-the-box (CSRF protection, SQL injection prevention, password hashing, authentication), making it safer for teams unfamiliar with security. FastAPI requires developers to explicitly add security dependencies like python-jose and passlib, but is not inherently less secure.