software
Django vs FastAPI 2026: Performance & Features
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.
D
Django
Full-featured Python web framework with batteries included
Enterprise applications, content management systems, traditional web apps, teams prioritizing time-to-market with admin interfaces and mature tooling
Score63%
VS
F
FastAPI
Modern async-first Python framework for building high-performance APIs
RESTful APIs, microservices, real-time applications, teams building cloud-native or serverless architectures, startups prioritizing performance and developer experience
Score63%
Quick Answer
AI SummaryDjango 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.
Our Verdict
AI-assistedChoose 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.
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D
Django
6.9/10
FastAPI
8.1/10
F
D
Choose Django if
Enterprise applications, content management systems, traditional web apps, teams prioritizing time-to-market with admin interfaces and mature tooling
F
Choose FastAPI if
Best pickRESTful APIs, microservices, real-time applications, teams building cloud-native or serverless architectures, startups prioritizing performance and developer experience
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Key Differences at a Glance
- Framework Philosophy:Full-stack monolithic framework vs Lightweight API-first microframework
- Request Throughput (requests/sec):✓ FastAPI wins(~22,000-25,000 req/s vs ~8,000-12,000 req/s)
- Built-in Admin Interface:✓ Django wins(Yes, auto-generated admin panel vs No, requires manual implementation)
Key Facts & Figures
114 numeric metrics compared
| Metric | Django | FastAPI | Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average Request Latency(milliseconds) | 200-400ms | — | — |
| Concurrent Connections (single core)(connections) | 100-500 | — | — |
| Time to First Working App(hours) | 1-2 | — | — |
| Package Ecosystem Size(packages) | 500K packages | 500,000+ (PyPI) | |
| Memory Usage (Idle)(MB) | 80-120MB | 50-100MB | |
| Average Development Speed (MVP)(weeks) | 3 weeks | — | — |
| Job Openings (Global, 2025)(positions) | 45,000 | — | — |
| Average Page Load Time(seconds) | 145ms | — | — |
| Developer Satisfaction (2025 Survey)(percentage) | 82% | — | — |
| Average Request Response Time(milliseconds) | 65ms | — | — |
| Available Packages/Gems(count) | 500,000+ | — | — |
| Time to Build Basic MVP(weeks) | 2-3 weeks | — | — |
| Job Market Postings (2025)(estimated count) | 28,000+ | — | — |
| Learning Curve for Beginners(hours to proficiency) | 4-6 months | — | — |
| Throughput at Scale (Req/sec)(requests per second) | 2,500 req/sec | — | — |
| GitHub Stars(stars) | 79,400+ stars | 75,000+ stars | |
| Startup Time(seconds) | ~300-500ms | 250-500ms | |
| Memory Usage (base)(MB) | ~50MB | ~10MB | |
| Time to First API Endpoint(minutes) | 8-12 hours | ~5 minutes | |
| Third-party Packages(packages) | 13,000+ packages | 2,000+ packages | |
| Core Framework Size(KB) | ~2,100 KB | ~300 KB | |
| Request/Response Latency (simple GET)(ms) | 45-65 ms | — | — |
| Weekly Downloads (PyPI)(thousands) | 1,200 thousand | — | — |
| Minimal Project Setup Time(minutes) | 15-20 | — | — |
| Stack Overflow Questions (all-time)(count) | 3,800 thousand | — | — |
| Time to Production (months)(months) | 1.5-2 | — | — |
| Throughput Capacity (requests/sec)(req/sec) | ~5,000 | — | — |
| Lines of Code per Feature(LOC) | 100 | — | — |
| Available Job Openings (US, 2026)(thousands) | ~45K | — | — |
| Memory Usage (baseline app)(MB) | ~150-200 | — | — |
| Learning Curve (hours to 'Hello World')(hours) | 4-6 | — | — |
| Cold Start Time(ms) | 600ms | 300ms | |
| Base Framework Size(megabytes) | 11 MB | — | — |
| Requests/Second (Throughput)(req/s) | ~1,200 req/s | — | — |
| Learning Time to Proficiency(hours) | 50 hours | — | — |
| Community Size (GitHub Stars)(stars) | 79k stars | — | — |
| Development Speed (Median Project Timeline)(weeks) | 8-12 weeks | — | — |
| Median Response Latency(ms) | 25ms | — | — |
| Requests Per Second (Single Instance)(req/s) | 450 req/s | ~7,500 req/s | |
| Time to Production (greenfield project)(days) | 2-3 days | — | — |
| Initial Learning Hours(hours) | 15-25 hours | — | — |
| Memory Usage (hello world app)(MB) | 120MB | — | — |
| Throughput (Requests/Second)(req/sec) | 3,000-5,000 | 8,000-12,000 | |
| Time to First API (minutes)(minutes) | 15-20 | — | — |
| Request Throughput (req/sec, hello-world)(requests/second) | 1,200-1,800 | — | — |
| GitHub Stars (2026)(stars) | 77,000+ | ~75,000 stars | |
| NPM Weekly Downloads(downloads) | Not applicable (Python package) | 2.5M weekly | — |
| Time to Hello World(minutes) | 8-10 minutes | — | — |
| Available Third-Party Packages(packages) | ~430,000 (PyPI) | — | — |
| Minimum Server RAM Required(MB) | 512 MB | — | — |
| Active Maintainers (2025)(count) | ~2,500 contributors | — | — |
| Request Throughput(requests/second) | 8,000-12,000 req/s | 22,000-25,000 req/s | |
| Development Time (basic API)(hours) | 40-60 hours | 20-30 hours | |
| Ecosystem Size(packages) | 70,000+ packages | 8,000+ packages | |
| Framework Age(years) | 16 years (since 2008) | 5 years (since 2018) | |
| GitHub Stars (as of 2026)(stars) | 80,000+ stars | 68,000+ stars | |
| Time to First API (Learning Curve)(hours) | 15-25 hours | 15-25 hours | |
| Time Since Initial Release(years) | 4 years (2021) | 4 years (2021) | |
| Latency (p99 response time)(ms) | 8-12 ms | 8-12 ms | |
| Production Adoption Rate(percent) | 22% (Stack Overflow 2024) | 22% (Stack Overflow 2024) | |
| First Release Year | 2018 | 2018 | |
| Related Packages (PyPI)(packages) | ~2,100 | ~2,100 | |
| Framework Requests Per Second(req/s) | 10,000 | 10,000 | |
| Idle Memory Usage(MB) | 50-80 | 50-80 | |
| Python/Go Package Ecosystem Size(packages) | 400,000+ | 400,000+ | |
| Time to Production (Small API)(hours) | 4-8 | 4-8 | |
| Package Size(MB) | ~100 KB | ~100 KB | |
| Average Latency (Hello World)(ms) | ~85 ms | ~85 ms | |
| PyPI Weekly Downloads(downloads) | ~2.8M (Jan 2026) | ~2.8M (Jan 2026) | |
| Time to Hello World API(minutes) | ~5 minutes | ~5 minutes | |
| Throughput Performance(requests/second) | ~15,000 req/s | ~15,000 req/s | |
| Memory Usage (Hello World)(MB) | ~40 MB | ~40 MB | |
| Throughput Benchmark (requests/sec)(req/s) | ~18,000 req/s | ~18,000 req/s | |
| Stack Overflow Questions(questions) | ~30,000 questions | ~30,000 questions | |
| Time to Build Basic CRUD App(minutes) | 3.5 hours (manual setup required) | 3.5 hours (manual setup required) | |
| Ecosystem Size (package repositories)(packages) | ~480,000 packages (PyPI) | ~480,000 packages (PyPI) | |
| Weekly NPM Downloads(downloads) | ~1.2M (PyPI: ~2.8M) | ~1.2M (PyPI: ~2.8M) | |
| Core Library Size(kilobytes) | 1,200KB (with uvicorn) | 1,200KB (with uvicorn) | |
| Production Deployments(organizations) | ~400K active | ~400K active | |
| Third-Party Extensions Available(plugins) | ~2,500 extensions | ~2,500 extensions | |
| Time to Basic Productivity(hours) | 4-8 hours | 4-8 hours | |
| Performance - Request Throughput(requests/sec) | ~15,000-18,000 req/sec | ~15,000-18,000 req/sec | |
| Cold Start Latency(milliseconds) | 300ms | 300ms | |
| Weekly Package Downloads(downloads) | ~450,000 (PyPI) | ~450,000 (PyPI) | |
| Production Maturity(years) | 7 years | 7 years | |
| P99 Latency (typical)(ms) | 150-250 | 150-250 | |
| Peak Throughput (Req/s)(requests per second) | ~10,000 req/s | ~10,000 req/s | |
| Memory Usage per Process(MB) | ~40 MB | ~40 MB | |
| Community Library Ecosystem(total packages) | 500,000+ PyPI packages (Python ecosystem) | 500,000+ PyPI packages (Python ecosystem) | |
| Job Market Postings (2026)(active positions) | ~12,000 positions | ~12,000 positions | |
| Framework Maturity(years) | 6 years (released 2018) | 6 years (released 2018) | |
| Minimum Memory Footprint(GB) | 40MB | 40MB | |
| Time to Production Hello World(minutes) | 5 minutes | 5 minutes | |
| Built-in Features Count(features) | 12 core features | 12 core features | |
| Production Applications (market estimate)(thousands) | 45,000+ apps | 45,000+ apps | |
| Throughput (Requests per Second)(req/s) | ~12,000 req/s | ~12,000 req/s | |
| Active Job Listings (2025)(positions) | 42,000 | 42,000 | |
| Memory Usage (Idle Instance)(MB) | ~80-120 MB | ~80-120 MB | |
| Initial Release Year(year) | 2018 | 2018 | |
| Memory Footprint Per Process(MB) | ~15 MB | ~15 MB | |
| Time to Basic API (Hello World)(lines of code) | ~5 lines | ~5 lines | |
| Ecosystem Size (Packages)(packages) | ~350,000 PyPI packages (FastAPI-specific: ~4,000) | ~350,000 PyPI packages (FastAPI-specific: ~4,000) | |
| Application Startup Time(milliseconds) | 150ms (average) | 150ms (average) | |
| Requests Per Second (1KB payload)(req/s) | ~28,000 | ~28,000 | |
| Available Packages/Libraries(count) | ~500,000 (PyPI) | ~500,000 (PyPI) | |
| NPM/PyPI Weekly Downloads(weekly downloads) | ~2.8M (PyPI/month) | ~2.8M (PyPI/month) | |
| Default Dependencies(count) | 6 (starlette, pydantic, etc.) | 6 (starlette, pydantic, etc.) | |
| Time to 'Hello World' App(lines of code) | 8-10 lines | 8-10 lines | |
| Lines of Code for Basic Endpoint(lines) | 5-8 lines | 5-8 lines | |
| Requests Per Second (Throughput)(req/s) | ~28,000 req/s | ~28,000 req/s | |
| Response Latency (p99)(milliseconds) | 8-12ms | 8-12ms | |
| Time to Build Hello World API(minutes) | 2-3 minutes | 2-3 minutes | |
| Available Packages/Modules(count (millions)) | 500K packages | 500K packages | |
| Weekly NPM/PyPI Downloads(downloads (millions)) | 2.5M+ weekly downloads | 2.5M+ weekly downloads |
Sourced from publicly available data ·
Key Differences
7 attributes compared head-to-head
D
3DjangoEvenly matched1 tie
F
3FastAPIDjango
Attribute
FastAPI
- Full-stack monolithic frameworkFramework PhilosophyLightweight API-first microframework
- ~8,000-12,000 req/sRequest Throughput (requests/sec)~22,000-25,000 req/s(winner)
- Yes, auto-generated admin panel(winner)Built-in Admin InterfaceNo, requires manual implementation
- Added in Django 3.1 (limited)Async SupportNative, async-first design(winner)
- 40-60 hours for proficiencyLearning Curve (hours to productivity)20-30 hours for proficiency(winner)
- 16+ years, 70,000+ packages(winner)Maturity & Ecosystem5 years old, 8,000+ packages
- CSRF, SQL injection, XSS protections(winner)Security Features Built-inMinimal; relies on dependencies
- Framework Philosophy
Django
Full-stack monolithic framework
FastAPI
Lightweight API-first microframework
- Request Throughput (requests/sec)
Django
~8,000-12,000 req/s
FastAPI
~22,000-25,000 req/s(winner)
- Built-in Admin Interface
Django
Yes, auto-generated admin panel(winner)
FastAPI
No, requires manual implementation
- Async Support
Django
Added in Django 3.1 (limited)
FastAPI
Native, async-first design(winner)
- Learning Curve (hours to productivity)
Django
40-60 hours for proficiency
FastAPI
20-30 hours for proficiency(winner)
- Maturity & Ecosystem
Django
16+ years, 70,000+ packages(winner)
FastAPI
5 years old, 8,000+ packages
- Security Features Built-in
Django
CSRF, SQL injection, XSS protections(winner)
FastAPI
Minimal; relies on dependencies
Full Comparison
| Attribute | Django | FastAPI |
|---|---|---|
| Average Request Latency(milliseconds) | 200-400ms | — |
| Average Page Load Time(seconds) | 145ms | — |
| Average Request Response Time(milliseconds) | 65ms | — |
| Throughput at Scale (Req/sec)(requests per second) | 2,500 req/sec | — |
| Startup Time(seconds) | ~300-500ms | 250-500ms(winner) |
Show 28 more attributesMemory Usage (base)(MB) ~50MB ~10MB Request/Response Latency (simple GET)(ms) 45-65 ms — Throughput Capacity (requests/sec)(req/sec) ~5,000 — Cold Start Time(ms) 600ms 300ms Requests/Second (Throughput)(req/s) ~1,200 req/s — Median Response Latency(ms) 25ms — Requests Per Second (Single Instance)(req/s) 450 req/s ~7,500 req/s Throughput (Requests/Second)(req/sec) 3,000-5,000 8,000-12,000 Request Throughput (req/sec, hello-world)(requests/second) 1,200-1,800 — Request Throughput(requests/second) 8,000-12,000 req/s 22,000-25,000 req/s Latency (p99 response time)(ms) 8-12 ms — Framework Requests Per Second(req/s) 10,000 — Idle Memory Usage(MB) 50-80 — Average Latency (Hello World)(ms) ~85 ms — Throughput Performance(requests/second) ~15,000 req/s — Memory Usage (Hello World)(MB) ~40 MB — Throughput Benchmark (requests/sec)(req/s) ~18,000 req/s — Performance - Request Throughput(requests/sec) ~15,000-18,000 req/sec — Cold Start Latency(milliseconds) 300ms — P99 Latency (typical)(ms) 150-250 — Peak Throughput (Req/s)(requests per second) ~10,000 req/s — Throughput (Requests per Second)(req/s) ~12,000 req/s — Memory Usage (Idle Instance)(MB) ~80-120 MB — Memory Footprint Per Process(MB) ~15 MB — Application Startup Time(milliseconds) 150ms (average) — Requests Per Second (1KB payload)(req/s) ~28,000 — Requests Per Second (Throughput)(req/s) ~28,000 req/s — Response Latency (p99)(milliseconds) 8-12ms — | ||
| Concurrent Connections (single core)(connections) | 100-500 | — |
| Time to First Working App(hours) | 1-2 | — |
| Time to Build Basic MVP(weeks) | 2-3 weeks | — |
| Minimal Project Setup Time(minutes) | 15-20 | — |
| Time to Production (months)(months) | 1.5-2 | — |
| Time to Production (greenfield project)(days) | 2-3 days | — |
Show 3 more attributesTime to First API (minutes)(minutes) 15-20 — Time to Build Basic CRUD App(minutes) 3.5 hours (manual setup required) — Lines of Code for Basic Endpoint(lines) 5-8 lines — | ||
| Package Ecosystem Size(packages) | 500K packages | 500,000+ (PyPI) |
| ML/AI Library Integration | Excellent (TensorFlow, PyTorch, scikit-learn) | — |
| Available Packages/Gems(count) | 500,000+ | — |
| Third-party Packages(packages) | 13,000+ packages(winner) | 2,000+ packages |
| Available Third-Party Packages(packages) | ~430,000 (PyPI) | — |
Show 9 more attributesEcosystem Size(packages) 70,000+ packages 8,000+ packages Related Packages (PyPI)(packages) ~2,100 — Python/Go Package Ecosystem Size(packages) 400,000+ — Ecosystem Size (package repositories)(packages) ~480,000 packages (PyPI) — Weekly Package Downloads(downloads) ~450,000 (PyPI) — Community Library Ecosystem(total packages) 500,000+ PyPI packages (Python ecosystem) — Ecosystem Size (Packages)(packages) ~350,000 PyPI packages (FastAPI-specific: ~4,000) — Available Packages/Libraries(count) ~500,000 (PyPI) — Available Packages/Modules(count (millions)) 500K packages — | ||
| Memory Usage (Idle)(MB) | 80-120MB | 50-100MB(winner) |
| Memory Usage (baseline app)(MB) | ~150-200 | — |
| Memory Usage (hello world app)(MB) | 120MB | — |
| Admin Panel Included | Yes (auto-generated) | — |
| Built-in Admin Dashboard | Yes, auto-generated | No, requires build |
| Async Request Support | Partial (3.1+) | Full native support |
| Built-in Database ORM(feature) | Django ORM (included) | — |
| Admin Interface | Auto-generated from models | — |
Show 11 more attributesBuilt-in ORM Yes (Django ORM with migrations) No (requires external library) Built-in Admin Panel Yes (Django Admin fully featured) — Built-in Authentication Yes, with Django-allauth extension No (requires FastAPI-Users, python-jose) Built-in Admin Interface Yes, auto-generated No, manual setup required Auto API Documentation Native (Swagger UI + ReDoc built-in) — Native Async/Await Support Native first-class support — Auto-generated API Documentation Yes (automatic) — Built-in API Documentation Yes (Swagger UI + ReDoc automatic) — Native Type Validation Yes (Pydantic built-in) — Database ORM Included No (requires SQLAlchemy, Tortoise-ORM) — Auto-Generated API Docs Yes (Swagger/ReDoc) — | ||
| Average Development Speed (MVP)(weeks) | 3 weeks | — |
| Job Openings (Global, 2025)(positions) | 45,000 | — |
| Available Job Openings (US, 2026)(thousands) | ~45K | — |
| Active Job Listings (2025)(positions) | 42,000 | — |
| Async Support Level | Partial (optional, requires setup) | — |
| Native Dependency Injection | No (requires external frameworks) | — |
| Native Async Support | Partial (Django 3.1+) | Full (async-first) |
| Async/Await Native Support | Yes, built-in by default | — |
| Deployment Model | Requires app server (Uvicorn) | — |
Show 4 more attributesBuilt-in Dependency Injection(feature availability) Manual setup required — Async Support Quality Native async/await with asyncio — Framework Type High-level API framework (built on Starlette) — Async Support Native async/await built-in — | ||
| Developer Satisfaction (2025 Survey)(percentage) | 82% | — |
| Job Market Postings (2025)(estimated count) | 28,000+ | — |
| Learning Curve for Beginners(hours to proficiency) | 4-6 months | — |
| GitHub Stars(stars) | 79,400+ stars(winner) | 75,000+ stars |
| Stack Overflow Questions (all-time)(count) | 3,800 thousand | — |
| Community Size (GitHub Stars)(stars) | 79k stars | — |
| GitHub Stars (2026)(stars) | 77,000+(winner) | ~75,000 stars |
| Active Maintainers (2025)(count) | ~2,500 contributors | — |
Show 3 more attributesGitHub Stars (as of 2026)(stars) 80,000+ stars 68,000+ stars Stack Overflow Questions(questions) ~30,000 questions — Weekly NPM/PyPI Downloads(downloads (millions)) 2.5M+ weekly downloads — | ||
| Time to First API Endpoint(minutes) | 8-12 hours | ~5 minutes(winner) |
| Time to Production (Small API)(hours) | 4-8 | — |
| Time to Production Hello World(minutes) | 5 minutes | — |
| Time to Basic API (Hello World)(lines of code) | ~5 lines | — |
| Core Framework Size(KB) | ~2,100 KB | ~300 KB(winner) |
| Weekly Downloads (PyPI)(thousands) | 1,200 thousand | — |
| Authentication Built-in | Yes (user model, permissions, groups) | — |
| Lines of Code per Feature(LOC) | 100 | — |
| Learning Curve (hours to 'Hello World')(hours) | 4-6 | — |
| Enterprise Adoption Rate(%) | ~15% | — |
| Base Framework Size(megabytes) | 11 MB | — |
| Admin Panel | Auto-generated included | — |
| Learning Time to Proficiency(hours) | 50 hours | — |
| Time to First API (Learning Curve)(hours) | 15-25 hours | — |
| Learning Curve(difficulty rating) | 30-40 hours | — |
| Learning Curve Difficulty | Moderate (3.5/5) | — |
| Development Speed (Median Project Timeline)(weeks) | 8-12 weeks | — |
| Development Time (basic API)(hours) | 40-60 hours | 20-30 hours(winner) |
| Automatic API Documentation | Optional (via packages) | Built-in (OpenAPI/Swagger) |
| Type Safety Support | Native (Python type hints) | — |
| Auto-Documentation Support | Built-in (OpenAPI 3.0) | — |
Show 10 more attributesBuilt-in Documentation Generation Automatic (Swagger UI + ReDoc) — Built-in Request Validation Yes (Pydantic) — Time to Hello World API(minutes) ~5 minutes — Built-in Validation Framework Pydantic (integrated) — Built-in Data Validation Built-in with Pydantic — Built-in Features Count(features) 12 core features — Type Hint Support Full (enforced) — Auto Documentation Generation Automatic (Swagger UI + ReDoc) — Time to 'Hello World' App(lines of code) 8-10 lines — Time to Build Hello World API(minutes) 2-3 minutes — | ||
| Initial Learning Hours(hours) | 15-25 hours | — |
| Time to Basic Productivity(hours) | 4-8 hours | — |
| NPM Weekly Downloads(downloads) | Not applicable (Python package) | 2.5M weekly |
| PyPI Weekly Downloads(downloads) | ~2.8M (Jan 2026) | — |
| Production Deployments(organizations) | ~400K active | — |
| Production Applications (market estimate)(thousands) | 45,000+ apps | — |
| NPM/PyPI Weekly Downloads(weekly downloads) | ~2.8M (PyPI/month) | — |
| Language | Python 3.8+ | — |
| Time to Hello World(minutes) | 8-10 minutes | — |
| Minimum Server RAM Required(MB) | 512 MB | — |
| Framework Age(years) | 16 years (since 2008)(winner) | 5 years (since 2018) |
| Time Since Initial Release(years) | 4 years (2021) | — |
| First Release Year | 2018 | — |
| Production Adoption Rate(percent) | 22% (Stack Overflow 2024) | — |
| Minimum Python Version(version) | Python 3.6+ | — |
| Minimum Python/Node Version | Python 3.7+ | — |
| Package Size(MB) | ~100 KB | — |
| Default Dependencies(count) | 6 (starlette, pydantic, etc.) | — |
| Python Version Support(versions) | 3.7+ | — |
| Weekly NPM Downloads(downloads) | ~1.2M (PyPI: ~2.8M) | — |
| Async-First Support | Native, default behavior | — |
| Core Library Size(kilobytes) | 1,200KB (with uvicorn) | — |
| Third-Party Extensions Available(plugins) | ~2,500 extensions | — |
| Production Maturity(years) | 7 years | — |
| Memory Usage per Process(MB) | ~40 MB | — |
| Minimum Memory Footprint(GB) | 40MB | — |
| Job Market Postings (2026)(active positions) | ~12,000 positions | — |
| Framework Maturity(years) | 6 years (released 2018) | — |
| Initial Release Year(year) | 2018 | — |
| Production Readiness Without External Server | Requires ASGI (Uvicorn) | — |
DDjango
FFastAPI
Average Request Latency(milliseconds)
200-400ms
—
Average Page Load Time(seconds)
145ms
—
Average Request Response Time(milliseconds)
65ms
—
Throughput at Scale (Req/sec)(requests per second)
2,500 req/sec
—
Startup Time(seconds)
~300-500ms
250-500ms
Show 28 more attributes
Memory Usage (base)(MB)
~50MB
~10MB
Request/Response Latency (simple GET)(ms)
45-65 ms
—
Throughput Capacity (requests/sec)(req/sec)
~5,000
—
Cold Start Time(ms)
600ms
300ms
Requests/Second (Throughput)(req/s)
~1,200 req/s
—
Median Response Latency(ms)
25ms
—
Requests Per Second (Single Instance)(req/s)
450 req/s
~7,500 req/s
Throughput (Requests/Second)(req/sec)
3,000-5,000
8,000-12,000
Request Throughput (req/sec, hello-world)(requests/second)
1,200-1,800
—
Request Throughput(requests/second)
8,000-12,000 req/s
22,000-25,000 req/s
Latency (p99 response time)(ms)
8-12 ms
—
Framework Requests Per Second(req/s)
10,000
—
Idle Memory Usage(MB)
50-80
—
Average Latency (Hello World)(ms)
~85 ms
—
Throughput Performance(requests/second)
~15,000 req/s
—
Memory Usage (Hello World)(MB)
~40 MB
—
Throughput Benchmark (requests/sec)(req/s)
~18,000 req/s
—
Performance - Request Throughput(requests/sec)
~15,000-18,000 req/sec
—
Cold Start Latency(milliseconds)
300ms
—
P99 Latency (typical)(ms)
150-250
—
Peak Throughput (Req/s)(requests per second)
~10,000 req/s
—
Throughput (Requests per Second)(req/s)
~12,000 req/s
—
Memory Usage (Idle Instance)(MB)
~80-120 MB
—
Memory Footprint Per Process(MB)
~15 MB
—
Application Startup Time(milliseconds)
150ms (average)
—
Requests Per Second (1KB payload)(req/s)
~28,000
—
Requests Per Second (Throughput)(req/s)
~28,000 req/s
—
Response Latency (p99)(milliseconds)
8-12ms
—
Concurrent Connections (single core)(connections)
100-500
—
Time to First Working App(hours)
1-2
—
Time to Build Basic MVP(weeks)
2-3 weeks
—
Minimal Project Setup Time(minutes)
15-20
—
Time to Production (months)(months)
1.5-2
—
Time to Production (greenfield project)(days)
2-3 days
—
Show 3 more attributes
Time to First API (minutes)(minutes)
15-20
—
Time to Build Basic CRUD App(minutes)
3.5 hours (manual setup required)
—
Lines of Code for Basic Endpoint(lines)
5-8 lines
—
Package Ecosystem Size(packages)
500K packages
500,000+ (PyPI)
ML/AI Library Integration
Excellent (TensorFlow, PyTorch, scikit-learn)
—
Available Packages/Gems(count)
500,000+
—
Third-party Packages(packages)
13,000+ packages
2,000+ packages
Available Third-Party Packages(packages)
~430,000 (PyPI)
—
Show 9 more attributes
Ecosystem Size(packages)
70,000+ packages
8,000+ packages
Related Packages (PyPI)(packages)
~2,100
—
Python/Go Package Ecosystem Size(packages)
400,000+
—
Ecosystem Size (package repositories)(packages)
~480,000 packages (PyPI)
—
Weekly Package Downloads(downloads)
~450,000 (PyPI)
—
Community Library Ecosystem(total packages)
500,000+ PyPI packages (Python ecosystem)
—
Ecosystem Size (Packages)(packages)
~350,000 PyPI packages (FastAPI-specific: ~4,000)
—
Available Packages/Libraries(count)
~500,000 (PyPI)
—
Available Packages/Modules(count (millions))
500K packages
—
Memory Usage (Idle)(MB)
80-120MB
50-100MB
Memory Usage (baseline app)(MB)
~150-200
—
Memory Usage (hello world app)(MB)
120MB
—
Admin Panel Included
Yes (auto-generated)
—
Built-in Admin Dashboard
Yes, auto-generated
No, requires build
Async Request Support
Partial (3.1+)
Full native support
Built-in Database ORM(feature)
Django ORM (included)
—
Admin Interface
Auto-generated from models
—
Show 11 more attributes
Built-in ORM
Yes (Django ORM with migrations)
No (requires external library)
Built-in Admin Panel
Yes (Django Admin fully featured)
—
Built-in Authentication
Yes, with Django-allauth extension
No (requires FastAPI-Users, python-jose)
Built-in Admin Interface
Yes, auto-generated
No, manual setup required
Auto API Documentation
Native (Swagger UI + ReDoc built-in)
—
Native Async/Await Support
Native first-class support
—
Auto-generated API Documentation
Yes (automatic)
—
Built-in API Documentation
Yes (Swagger UI + ReDoc automatic)
—
Native Type Validation
Yes (Pydantic built-in)
—
Database ORM Included
No (requires SQLAlchemy, Tortoise-ORM)
—
Auto-Generated API Docs
Yes (Swagger/ReDoc)
—
Average Development Speed (MVP)(weeks)
3 weeks
—
Job Openings (Global, 2025)(positions)
45,000
—
Available Job Openings (US, 2026)(thousands)
~45K
—
Active Job Listings (2025)(positions)
42,000
—
Async Support Level
Partial (optional, requires setup)
—
Native Dependency Injection
No (requires external frameworks)
—
Native Async Support
Partial (Django 3.1+)
Full (async-first)
Async/Await Native Support
Yes, built-in by default
—
Deployment Model
Requires app server (Uvicorn)
—
Show 4 more attributes
Built-in Dependency Injection(feature availability)
Manual setup required
—
Async Support Quality
Native async/await with asyncio
—
Framework Type
High-level API framework (built on Starlette)
—
Async Support
Native async/await built-in
—
Developer Satisfaction (2025 Survey)(percentage)
82%
—
Job Market Postings (2025)(estimated count)
28,000+
—
Learning Curve for Beginners(hours to proficiency)
4-6 months
—
GitHub Stars(stars)
79,400+ stars
75,000+ stars
Stack Overflow Questions (all-time)(count)
3,800 thousand
—
Community Size (GitHub Stars)(stars)
79k stars
—
GitHub Stars (2026)(stars)
77,000+
~75,000 stars
Active Maintainers (2025)(count)
~2,500 contributors
—
Show 3 more attributes
GitHub Stars (as of 2026)(stars)
80,000+ stars
68,000+ stars
Stack Overflow Questions(questions)
~30,000 questions
—
Weekly NPM/PyPI Downloads(downloads (millions))
2.5M+ weekly downloads
—
Time to First API Endpoint(minutes)
8-12 hours
~5 minutes
Time to Production (Small API)(hours)
4-8
—
Time to Production Hello World(minutes)
5 minutes
—
Time to Basic API (Hello World)(lines of code)
~5 lines
—
Core Framework Size(KB)
~2,100 KB
~300 KB
Weekly Downloads (PyPI)(thousands)
1,200 thousand
—
Authentication Built-in
Yes (user model, permissions, groups)
—
Lines of Code per Feature(LOC)
100
—
Learning Curve (hours to 'Hello World')(hours)
4-6
—
Enterprise Adoption Rate(%)
~15%
—
Base Framework Size(megabytes)
11 MB
—
Admin Panel
Auto-generated included
—
Learning Time to Proficiency(hours)
50 hours
—
Time to First API (Learning Curve)(hours)
15-25 hours
—
Learning Curve(difficulty rating)
30-40 hours
—
Learning Curve Difficulty
Moderate (3.5/5)
—
Development Speed (Median Project Timeline)(weeks)
8-12 weeks
—
Development Time (basic API)(hours)
40-60 hours
20-30 hours
Automatic API Documentation
Optional (via packages)
Built-in (OpenAPI/Swagger)
Type Safety Support
Native (Python type hints)
—
Auto-Documentation Support
Built-in (OpenAPI 3.0)
—
Show 10 more attributes
Built-in Documentation Generation
Automatic (Swagger UI + ReDoc)
—
Built-in Request Validation
Yes (Pydantic)
—
Time to Hello World API(minutes)
~5 minutes
—
Built-in Validation Framework
Pydantic (integrated)
—
Built-in Data Validation
Built-in with Pydantic
—
Built-in Features Count(features)
12 core features
—
Type Hint Support
Full (enforced)
—
Auto Documentation Generation
Automatic (Swagger UI + ReDoc)
—
Time to 'Hello World' App(lines of code)
8-10 lines
—
Time to Build Hello World API(minutes)
2-3 minutes
—
Initial Learning Hours(hours)
15-25 hours
—
Time to Basic Productivity(hours)
4-8 hours
—
NPM Weekly Downloads(downloads)
Not applicable (Python package)
2.5M weekly
PyPI Weekly Downloads(downloads)
~2.8M (Jan 2026)
—
Production Deployments(organizations)
~400K active
—
Production Applications (market estimate)(thousands)
45,000+ apps
—
NPM/PyPI Weekly Downloads(weekly downloads)
~2.8M (PyPI/month)
—
Language
Python 3.8+
—
Time to Hello World(minutes)
8-10 minutes
—
Minimum Server RAM Required(MB)
512 MB
—
Framework Age(years)
16 years (since 2008)
5 years (since 2018)
Time Since Initial Release(years)
4 years (2021)
—
First Release Year
2018
—
Production Adoption Rate(percent)
22% (Stack Overflow 2024)
—
Minimum Python Version(version)
Python 3.6+
—
Minimum Python/Node Version
Python 3.7+
—
Package Size(MB)
~100 KB
—
Default Dependencies(count)
6 (starlette, pydantic, etc.)
—
Python Version Support(versions)
3.7+
—
Weekly NPM Downloads(downloads)
~1.2M (PyPI: ~2.8M)
—
Async-First Support
Native, default behavior
—
Core Library Size(kilobytes)
1,200KB (with uvicorn)
—
Third-Party Extensions Available(plugins)
~2,500 extensions
—
Production Maturity(years)
7 years
—
Memory Usage per Process(MB)
~40 MB
—
Minimum Memory Footprint(GB)
40MB
—
Job Market Postings (2026)(active positions)
~12,000 positions
—
Framework Maturity(years)
6 years (released 2018)
—
Initial Release Year(year)
2018
—
Production Readiness Without External Server
Requires ASGI (Uvicorn)
—
Pros & Cons
10 pros·6 cons across both
D
F
D
Django
+5-3
Pros
- Auto-generated admin interface saves weeks of development
- Built-in ORM (Django ORM) handles complex database queries elegantly
- Comprehensive security features (CSRF protection, SQL injection prevention, XSS filtering)
- Massive ecosystem with 70,000+ third-party packages (Django REST Framework, Celery, etc.)
- 16+ years of battle-tested stability with Fortune 500 company adoption
Cons
- Synchronous by default; async support requires significant refactoring
- Monolithic structure creates tight coupling, harder to extract microservices
- Slower request throughput (8,000-12,000 req/s) compared to modern alternatives
F
FastAPI
+5-3
Pros
- 2.8x faster throughput (22,000-25,000 req/s) due to async-first design
- Automatic OpenAPI/Swagger documentation generation saves documentation time
- Shortest learning curve (20-30 hours) with modern Python syntax (type hints)
- Built-in data validation using Pydantic models prevents invalid data
- Native async/await support enables handling thousands of concurrent connections
Cons
- No built-in admin interface or ORM; requires manual selection of libraries
- Smaller ecosystem (8,000 packages vs Django's 70,000) may require custom solutions
- Fewer security features out-of-the-box; developer responsible for implementing protections
Frequently Asked Questions
5 questions
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.
Resources & Learn More
Curated sources to dive deeper
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Wikipedia
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