Django vs Django Rest Framework: Which is Better?

Django and Django REST Framework (DRF) are related but serve different purposes. Django is a full-stack web framework for building web applications, while DRF is an extension of Django specifically designed for building RESTful APIs.

1. Overview of Django & Django REST Framework

Feature	Django	Django REST Framework (DRF)
Purpose	Full-stack web framework for web apps	API framework for building RESTful services
Use Case	Traditional web apps (HTML-based)	APIs for mobile apps, SPAs, microservices
Output Format	HTML templates	JSON, XML, etc.
Authentication	User authentication system	Token-based, OAuth, JWT, etc.
Built-in Features	ORM, templating, admin panel	API views, serializers, authentication

2. When to Use Django vs. DRF

Use Django When:

✅ Building full web applications with a frontend
✅ Need an admin panel, forms, authentication
✅ HTML rendering with templates

Use DRF When:

✅ Creating REST APIs for mobile apps, SPAs (React, Angular, Vue)
✅ Exposing data for third-party services
✅ Building microservices architecture

3. Key Differences

a) Request & Response Handling

Django: Handles web requests and renders HTML pages using templates.
DRF: Converts requests & responses into JSON (or other formats) for API communication.

b) Views

Django: Uses View and TemplateView for rendering pages.
DRF: Uses APIView, ViewSets, and GenericAPIView for API endpoints.

c) Authentication

Django: Uses session-based authentication.
DRF: Supports session-based, token-based, OAuth, and JWT authentication.

d) Data Serialization

Django: Uses Django models directly.
DRF: Uses serializers to convert model data into JSON/XML.

4. Example Code Comparison

Django View (HTML Response)

pythonCopyEditfrom django.shortcuts import render
from .models import Product

def product_list(request):
    products = Product.objects.all()
    return render(request, "product_list.html", {"products": products})

Django REST Framework API View (JSON Response)

pythonCopyEditfrom rest_framework.response import Response
from rest_framework.views import APIView
from .models import Product
from .serializers import ProductSerializer

class ProductListAPIView(APIView):
    def get(self, request):
        products = Product.objects.all()
        serializer = ProductSerializer(products, many=True)
        return Response(serializer.data)

5. Final Verdict

Use Django if you’re building a traditional web app with templates and a backend.
Use DRF if you need a REST API for a frontend (React, Vue, Angular) or a mobile app.
You can use both together if your project has both web pages and APIs.

Would you like a guide on setting up Django with DRF? 🚀

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