If you've asked for a quote on a Python application, you've heard both names. Django and FastAPI. They're friends, but they do slightly different things — and you know what? For most companies, the choice is simpler than it seems.
In short
- Django — "batteries included" framework: admin, authentication, ORM, forms, sessions. You build complete apps without reinventing anything.
- FastAPI — minimalist and very fast framework for APIs. Excellent when you want to serve data to other systems (mobile, separate frontend, other services).
When to pick Django
Django is the answer when:
- You need an admin panel auto-generated from models.
- You build an app with users, roles, permissions — Django already has it all.
- You want stability and a huge community (used by Instagram, Pinterest, Mozilla).
- The app serves HTML pages directly to users (not just JSON to someone else).
When to pick FastAPI
FastAPI shines when:
- You want a fast API consumed by a mobile app, an SPA frontend or another service.
- Performance matters (FastAPI is among the fastest Python frameworks — native async concurrency).
- You're building microservices — each service small, focused, with one purpose.
- You want Swagger / OpenAPI documentation auto-generated from code.
Our simple rule: if "what the user sees" is an HTML page — Django. If it's a mobile app or a React dashboard — FastAPI.
The combo that works
On larger projects we use them together:
- Django for the admin panel (complex models, relations, permissions).
- FastAPI for the public API consumed by the mobile app.
Common database (PostgreSQL), two separate services, each good at what it does.
What doesn't matter
If you have 50 users, you don't look at benchmarks of 10,000 requests per second. Both Django and FastAPI handle that volume calmly. The real difference shows up in maintenance and development speed — not in microseconds.
Not sure which one fits your project? Send us the idea via the contact form or use the quote calculator — we tell you what stack makes sense and why.