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Django vs Node.js vs Spring: What are the differences?
Introduction
In this section, we will discuss the key differences between Django, Node.js, and Spring, highlighting the unique characteristics of each framework.
Scalability and Performance: Django is a high-level Python web framework that follows the Model-View-Controller (MVC) architectural pattern. It offers excellent scalability and performance, making it suitable for handling large and complex applications with high traffic loads. Node.js, on the other hand, is a runtime environment that runs JavaScript on the server-side, which allows for a non-blocking, event-driven architecture. This makes it highly scalable and efficient in handling concurrent requests. Spring, a Java-based framework, is known for its scalability, allowing the development of enterprise-level applications that can handle heavy workloads with ease.
Language and Learning Curve: Django uses Python as its primary programming language. Python is known for its readability, simplicity, and vast community support. This makes Django relatively easy to learn and maintain. In contrast, Node.js utilizes JavaScript, a widely adopted language known for its versatile use across the web development stack. The learning curve for Node.js and JavaScript may be steeper, especially for developers who are new to JavaScript. Spring, being Java-based, requires knowledge of Java. Java has a larger learning curve compared to Python or JavaScript, but it offers robust support, extensive libraries, and a mature ecosystem.
Concurrency Model: Django utilizes a synchronous blocking model by default, which means it processes each request sequentially. While this simplifies development, it limits the concurrency and may not be suitable for highly concurrent applications. Node.js, on the other hand, follows an asynchronous, non-blocking model, which allows it to handle multiple requests concurrently. This makes it well-suited for real-time web applications or systems with high concurrency requirements. Spring supports both synchronous and asynchronous processing, providing flexibility for developers to choose the appropriate concurrency model based on their application's needs.
Ecosystem and Libraries: Django has a rich ecosystem with a vast collection of reusable components, extensions, and packages available through its package management system, pip. This enables developers to quickly build and expand Django applications with ease. Node.js has a vibrant and rapidly growing ecosystem with a wide range of libraries and modules available through its package manager, npm. This extensive ecosystem allows developers to leverage existing tools and frameworks to enhance productivity. Spring, being a Java-based framework, benefits from the vast Java ecosystem with numerous libraries, frameworks, and tools available. It provides a mature ecosystem with robust support for enterprise-level applications.
Application Type: Django is well-suited for developing content-focused applications and complex websites. It provides a robust administrative interface and built-in content management features, making it an excellent choice for content-driven projects. Node.js is commonly used for real-time applications, such as chat applications, collaborative tools, or applications requiring frequent data updates. Its event-driven architecture allows for efficient handling of multiple connections and real-time communication. Spring, with its Java background, excels in developing enterprise-level applications, including large-scale web applications, financial systems, or systems requiring extensive integrations.
Community Support and Popularity: Django has a strong community with active contributors, extensive documentation, and a large number of developer communities and forums. It is widely adopted and has been used in numerous high-profile projects. Node.js has gained significant popularity in recent years, with a rapidly growing community and a range of online resources. It is widely used in building scalable web applications and real-time systems. Spring has a long history and a strong community built around the Java ecosystem. It is extensively used in enterprise development and has a wide range of resources and community support.
In summary, Django is known for its scalability and performance, with a focus on content-driven applications, while Node.js excels in real-time applications with its event-driven architecture. Spring shines in building enterprise-level applications with its extensive Java ecosystem and support. The choice between these frameworks depends on the specific requirements of the project and the expertise of the development team.
What will be better Laravel or Node.js to handle a logistics portal which displays thousands (20-50k) of delivery data information in an interactive table (searchable, filterable), live delivery tracking, basic user management, and report creation?
Data comes usually in CSV (manually uploaded or via API from courier companies). Live tracking uses checks tracking numbers on the courier page using API.
My question for you is: "Which one are you familiar with?" Following your needs, both could do it, but think about it. Now talking about Node.js, in my opinion, if you use JavaScript, there are lots of packages to support your entire project, including native ones for testing TDD and others for BDD. Also the best support on AWS (Amazon Web Services) and GCP (Google Cloud Platform).
I am starting a new project to build a simple ERP system for small businesses, where the owners can also manage orders on their phones.
I have decided to use JavaScript & React on the front-end and MySQL for the database. But I am really struggling to pick a backend language. I'm familiar with Node.js, but when I search for ERP (CRM & order mgt) projects on Youtube, I see that most build with Python (Django). Many also recommend Java.
So I'm a little confused. Please advice.
There is no problem to keep using node.js for your backend. Keep in mind that you already have expertise in it, so you could focus on development instead of to learn a new syntax/framework. There are good libraries in node.js that could help you in the development (services, validations, integrations, etc) also keeps you with a single language to the whole system. Django, as far as I know, it will provide a solid base for you, but it could be too much for your purpose, also could be more complex than you could need. Java provides to you many frameworks to simplify your integrations also could achieve a good performance. Anyway, I recommend you to follow using node.js, since you already know the syntax/platform.
Django is best suited for your requirement and has a very good community base to reach out for any queries. I have myself built and seen a lot of stuffs which match your requirement.
Hello, Node.js is simply a better option than python if you wish to make your application real-time operations. Also Node.js is a better choice than python for server side development.
But let's get your problem now. For most ERP projects, Node.js is a better choice. Also, since you are already familiar with Node.js, continue with it. Personally, I think Node.js is way better than Django mainly because JS is the god of ERP projects. Java is a good counterpart though.
I personally suggest NodeJs as you are also familiar with it. Even nodeJS has its own strong frameworks such as NestJS, Loopback etc. And the community is pretty much strong though. If you are looking for a faster development , then always you can go for NodeJS. And its pretty fast though.
Will you build it from scratch? There are some open source ERP/CRM solutions that you can use as a base for your solution. SugarCrm is an example. By looking at those, you can then decide which language you'll use for the backend.
I can recommend you a flexible constructor for this purpose. To create a system, you only need sql, and you can connect to any database without any problems. Please see the introductory article about the features, and if you are interested, I can provide access to the test site. My contacts for communication are on the site page https://falconspace.site/docs/vvedenie-v-falcon-space--c-chego-nachat https://falconspace.site/for-it
Hey if you are allready familar with nodejs then just go with it. There are some very nice frameworks out there that can be hold with the big ones.
Examples: AdonisJS or SailsJS
AdonisJS is even very similar like django.
Go with Node.js and use a framework. I can recommend NestJS or Fastifiy as a Backend Framework. They both have a strong community and Fastify is the successor of Express but much faster.
I prefer to use Node.js because you have experainse in it and also you can do anything for this language.
Is learning Spring and Spring Boot for web apps back-end development is still relevant in 2021? Feel free to share your views with comparison to Django/Node.js/ ExpressJS or other frameworks.
Please share some good beginner resources to start learning about spring/spring boot framework to build the web apps.
Java in general, in my opinion, is somewhat outdated in 2021. C# is a better language, and therefore, I think ASP.NET (Core/.NET 5) should be used over it. Node.js isn't bad if you are getting started, or if you need to prototype an app. I use Node in production because of TypeScript, but .NET is a really good framework that has excellent performance.
I am looking to make a website builder web app, where users can publish built websites with a custom or subdomain (much like Wix, Weebly, Squarespace, etc.), and I was wondering about any advice on which web framework to build it on? I currently know Node.js, but I would be excited to learn Laravel or Django if those would be better options. Any advice would be much appreciated!
The tools you mentioned are all backend focused frameworks. I will say, you can choose one of them as you may prefer (maybe Laravel and Django will be better since it's more organized than Node.js). But no matter what, if you will create a website builder application, today you'll need a frontend framework like Vue.js, React or Angular - or maybe Ember.js, Svelte and Meteor.
If you use Nodejs, you should use one more frontend language like reactjs or angularjs. Laravel is the better option. They are more power for rendering.
I am provided with the opportunity to learn one of these technologies during my training. I have prior experience with Spring and found it tough and still haven't figured out when to use what annotations among the thousands of annotations provided. On the other hand, I am very proficient in Java data structures and algorithms (custom comparators, etc.)
I have used Node.js and found it interesting, but I am wondering If I am taking the risk of choosing a framework that has a comparatively lesser scope in the future. One advantage I see with the node.js is the number of tutorials available and the ease with which I can code.
Please recommend which path to take. Is Spring learnable, or should I spend my energy on learning Node.js instead?
I do not know Spring or your company/specialty. Of course it must be learnable and I won't tell you to give up on anything. Java is and will remain valuable.
Regardless, I don't think "lesser scope" is a valid strike against Node.js here. Node.js fulfills JavaScript's original vision of an everywhere language and can run anywhere that Java can. It serves webpages, communicates with hardware, powers command line tools, and builds desktop applications. A huge complexity-saver for teams running many environments (my biggest regret is that it cannot run a microcontroller).
Node.js' biggest practical weakness is that JavaScript is less structured than Java. Luckily, the large influx of Java developers has been helping with this: gaps like constants and private properties are gradually filling in, and TypeScript firms up the types to the point where JavaScript looks a lot like Java.
Probably more potential competition from the larger pool of JS developers, but the compensation is allegedly similar so I guess there is a similar supply/demand situation.
hi this depends where you want to advance . If you want to work for an big aged company with a lot of legacy go the spring way (banks, insurances netflix etc ) if you want to go the new agile fast cloud way learn node js it is much more suited for cloud and micro service even spring cloud can do that as well but it is much more heavier
Hi. We are planning to develop web, desktop, and mobile app for procurement, logistics, and contracts. Procure to Pay and Source to pay, spend management, supplier management, catalog management. ( similar to SAP Ariba, gap.com, coupa.com, ivalua.com vroozi.com, procurify.com
We got stuck when deciding which technology stack is good for the future. We look forward to your kind guidance that will help us.
We want to integrate with multiple databases with seamless bidirectional integration. What APIs and middleware available are best to achieve this? SAP HANA, Oracle, MySQL, MongoDB...
ASP.NET / Node.js / Laravel. ......?
Please guide us
i recommended .NET because the library so rich, you can integrated any sources to computed , compiling, integrating, your apps to high complexity, easy to communicated with SAP BAPI. used Oracle DB, Cheers.
I would like to share my stack in Web/Mobile application Development for Mid Sized Applications.
Project-1 : Laravel + jQuery + Android Java + IOS Swift
Project-2 : Node.js + React + React Native + Electron.
This is my current Stack, Can you comment on my selection and add your thoughts if my choice is a perfect match? Thanks
I would say go for Node.js since you probably would only build a REST API that would talk to the frontend and some communication with the database.
On the other hand, Laravel is a much heavier framework that follows MVC pattern. Since you don't need the V in the MVC of Laravel. You can go for a straight Express that just handles the API request and return a response.
Hello Varun S,
Project-1 : If the Laravel part is an API, you should check Flutter or Quasar Framework for your frontend in order to reduce the development time and process.
Hi
I’ve been using Django for the last year on and off to do my backend API. I’m getting a bit frustrated with the Django REST framework with the setup of the serializers and Django for the lack of web sockets. I’m considering either Spring or .NET Core. I’m familiar with Kotlin and C# but I’ve not built any substantial projects with them. I like OOP, building a desktop app, web API, and also the potential to get a job in the future or building a tool at work to manage my documents, dashboard and processes point cloud data.
I’m familiar with c/cpp, TypeScript.
I would love your insights on where I should go.
Spring Boot is the lightweight of the Spring framework. I used the Spring framework before, and I fall in love with the Spring Boot. I also use .NET core, but still, I like Spring boot the best. If you have time then you should experience both. You are more than halfway in gaining experience. My suggestion is always to try to learn many things as you can.
I see what you're going through and I extend my hands to you. I felt the same frustration after almost 1.5 years of working with Django and Node.js in the parallel. And since the last one year, I've transitioned into Spring Boot. I think its fair to say, that its quite different when you're going from Django background as a framework, but otherwise. I think it's one of the robust ones out there. Scalability is seamless and you get most of the things out of the box or easily supported by dev dependencies. You should definitely check it out! :)
I am a graduate student working as a software engineer in a company. For my personal development, I want to learn web development. I have some experience in Springboot while I was in university. So I want to continue with spring-boot, but I heard about Django. I'm reaching out to the experts here to help me choose a future proof framework. Django or Spring Boot?
Thanks in Advance
Kamrul Hasan, Don't choose dying technologies with small communities. How many startups do you think use Spring and Django? Use Google Trends to compare technologies. Study the StackOverflow developer survey and job websites to see what technologies are wanted. Few teams can afford to train you to get up to their level so be a life-long learner. Embrace the dawn of a new industry and become an expert.
I recommend you stick to Java Spring as you already have experience with the technology, i suggest you master this technology and then if Django seam to be very interesting to you, django is a framework you can easily pickup as python is also easy, you have to probably be able to manage the context switching between a static typed language like Java to dynamic language like python
It depends on what you want. Spring is Java-based whereas Django is Python-based. The question rather is Java vs Python. I personally recommend Python as it's shorter and easy to learn. But Java has advantages in really big systems.
Hi Kamrul,
It really depends on the kind of project and whether you feel more comfortable with Java or Python. Both are excellent frameworks, with a huge community and learning material. I've been working with Spring Boot since I started coding almost and I can assure you it's the perfect combination for Java. The learning curve may be harder that Django, but once you know the basics you're good to go. I can't tell you much about Django but you must now by now that it has a great reputation with Python users. In any case I don't think you can go wrong with any of these two. My advice is, if you are already familiar with the Spring framework, give Spring Boot a try, because you're going to find out that it just makes the whole Spring experience so much easier. Let us know what you chose!
Both are in active development and had huge community support. It really depends on you what you are comfortable with. Both are married to their respective languages. I choose Python over Java because of its simplicity and readability. To develop in java you need to write a lot of code. That's how java is. The best part I love with Django is its synchronization with Databases.
Hi there, I'm deciding the technology to use in my project.
I need to build software that has:
- Login
- Register
- Main View (access to a user account, News, General Info, Business hours, software, and parts section).
- Account Preferences.
- Web Shop for Parts (Support, Download Sections, Ticket System).
The most critical functionality is a WebSocket that connects between a car that sends real-time data through serial communication, and a server performs diagnosis on the car and sends the results back to the user.
You can use NestJs with microservice architecture.where you can also use socket.io for web socket. you can use MongoDB (For real-time data) & MySQL for customer management.if you don't want to implement websocket.you can use firebase.it gives realtime database & firestore.which can handle millions of connections and scale it up.
I would also go with NestJS. I would say Java is unnecessarily complicated and limited. And Python is not typed. TypeScript is powerful and typed and goes well with NestJS, especially using RxJS.
Django does not enforce backend-frontend separation, which probably was a good thing back in the days, but not anymore. But on the other hand enforces the project structure to you, which I don't like.
Just a simple Node.JS app with templating engine for UI can be sufficient for what you want to achieve.
Spring boot with Spring Security[JWT], Websocket, Thymeleaf or Mustache, and styling with Bootstrap.
We choose Next.js for our React framework because it's very minimal and has a very organized file structure. Also, it offers key features like zero setups, automatic server rendering and code splitting, typescript support. Our app requires some loading time to process the video, server-side rendering will allow our website to display faster than client-side rending.
We’re a new startup so we need to be able to deliver quick changes as we find our product market fit. We’ve also got to ensure that we’re moving money safely, and keeping perfect records. The technologies we’ve chosen mix mature but well maintained frameworks like Django, with modern web-first and api-first front ends like GraphQL, NextJS, and Chakra. We use a little Golang sparingly in our backend to ensure that when we interact with financial services, we do so with statically compiled, strongly typed, and strictly limited and reviewed code.
You can read all about it in our linked blog post.
This website was originally written in Yii as PHP was my main language back then. After learning Django, I realized just how quickly you could build a web app with less lines. So I migrated my website to Django in a week or two and managed to cut down the lines of code by half. Some of the lines saving came from the models, the views, and the expressiveness of Python. Django requires like config for the models and they provide many generic views that abstracts away common patterns.
I am planning to develop project management system SAAS based. Can any one help me with selection of platforms from Django or Laravel and for database MongoDB or Firebase/Firestore or MySql? On front end I am going to use Quasar Framework (VueJS). Note : project will be Webapp, Mobile app and desktop app.
We will use Django
to set up our backend and Django REST Framework
(DRF) for our API creation. The easiness of performing development tasks (eg. user authentication, URL routing, and schema migration) attracts our attention. Also, Django with PostgreSQL provides many benefits:
1. Some data types in Django will only work with PostgreSQL;
2. Django offers django.contrib.postgres to operate on PostgreSQL;
3. Django supports many features of PostgreSQL.
Moreover, Django is compatible with Redis.
I have used both the tools . Both of them are super awesome , very reliable and their learning curve is also super easy. But, the reason I choose Ruby on Rails over Django is the fact that the dependency injection is super easy in Rails than Django. What I mean is the fact that, Django requires a lot of import statement to do a lot of work, which remembering is not so easy and even after that you may need to write a lot of code. But Ruby on Rails uses gem to add addition feature or dependency in the project. Which requires just copying the gem statement from github and pasting it in the Gemfile, then running bundle install(these days just bundle works super fine). And there you are with the new feature in your app. You can see this with the example of Authentication, where in Django you require several steps like adding class based views and many more, but in rails it's just as easy as installing the 'devise' gem . And if you want to make it beautiful use bootstrap_template gem to make it look prettier. Now with Rails 6 , Rails is a total developer's fervent friend because it has come up with features like Action Mail and Action Text.
We actually initially wrote a lot of networking code in Kotlin but the complexities involved prompted us to try and compile NodeJS for Android and port over all the networking logic to Node and communicate with node over the Java Native Interface.
This turned out to be a great decision considering our battery usage fell by 40% and rate of development increased by a factor of 2.
i find python quite resourceful. given the bulk of libraries that python has and the trends of the tech i find django which runs on python to be the framework of choice to the upcoming web services and application. Laravel on the other hand which is powered by PHP is also quite resourceful and great for startups and common web applications.
Since I came from python I had two choices: #django or #flask. It felt like it was a better idea to go for #django considering I was building a blogging platform, this is kind of what #django was made for. On the other hand, #rails seems to be a fantastic framework to get things done. Although I do not regret any of my time spent on developing with #django I want to give #rails a try some day in the future for the sake of curiosity.
Decided to change all my stack to microsoft technologies for they behave just great together. It is very easy to set up and deploy projects using visual studio and azure. Visual studio is also an amazing IDE, if not the best, when used for C#, it allows you to work in every aspect of your software.
Visual studio templates for ASP.NET MVC are the best I've found compared to django, rails, laravel, and others.
Pros of Django
- Rapid development673
- Open source487
- Great community425
- Easy to learn379
- Mvc277
- Beautiful code232
- Elegant223
- Free207
- Great packages203
- Great libraries194
- Comes with auth and crud admin panel80
- Restful79
- Powerful78
- Great documentation76
- Great for web72
- Python57
- Great orm43
- Great for api41
- All included32
- Fast29
- Web Apps25
- Clean23
- Easy setup23
- Used by top startups21
- Sexy19
- ORM19
- The Django community15
- Allows for very rapid development with great libraries14
- Convention over configuration14
- King of backend world11
- Full stack10
- Great MVC and templating engine10
- Mvt8
- Fast prototyping8
- Its elegant and practical7
- Easy to develop end to end AI Models7
- Batteries included7
- Have not found anything that it can't do6
- Very quick to get something up and running6
- Cross-Platform6
- Zero code burden to change databases5
- Great peformance5
- Python community5
- Easy Structure , useful inbuilt library5
- Easy to use4
- Map4
- Easy to change database manager4
- Full-Text Search4
- Just the right level of abstraction4
- Many libraries4
- Modular4
- Easy4
- Scaffold3
- Node js1
- Built in common security1
- Great default admin panel1
- Scalable1
- Cons1
- Gigante ta1
- Fastapi1
- Rails0
Pros of Node.js
- Npm1.4K
- Javascript1.3K
- Great libraries1.1K
- High-performance1K
- Open source805
- Great for apis486
- Asynchronous477
- Great community424
- Great for realtime apps390
- Great for command line utilities296
- Websockets85
- Node Modules83
- Uber Simple69
- Great modularity59
- Allows us to reuse code in the frontend58
- Easy to start42
- Great for Data Streaming35
- Realtime32
- Awesome28
- Non blocking IO25
- Can be used as a proxy18
- High performance, open source, scalable17
- Non-blocking and modular16
- Easy and Fun15
- Easy and powerful14
- Future of BackEnd13
- Same lang as AngularJS13
- Fullstack12
- Fast11
- Scalability10
- Cross platform10
- Simple9
- Mean Stack8
- Great for webapps7
- Easy concurrency7
- Typescript6
- Fast, simple code and async6
- React6
- Friendly6
- Control everything5
- Its amazingly fast and scalable5
- Easy to use and fast and goes well with JSONdb's5
- Scalable5
- Great speed5
- Fast development5
- It's fast4
- Easy to use4
- Isomorphic coolness4
- Great community3
- Not Python3
- Sooper easy for the Backend connectivity3
- TypeScript Support3
- Blazing fast3
- Performant and fast prototyping3
- Easy to learn3
- Easy3
- Scales, fast, simple, great community, npm, express3
- One language, end-to-end3
- Less boilerplate code3
- Npm i ape-updating2
- Event Driven2
- Lovely2
- Creat for apis1
- Node0
Pros of Spring
- Java230
- Open source157
- Great community136
- Very powerful123
- Enterprise114
- Lot of great subprojects64
- Easy setup60
- Convention , configuration, done44
- Standard40
- Love the logic31
- Good documentation13
- Dependency injection11
- Stability11
- MVC9
- Easy6
- Makes the hard stuff fun & the easy stuff automatic3
- Strong typing3
- Code maintenance2
- Best practices2
- Maven2
- Great Desgin2
- Easy Integration with Spring Security2
- Integrations with most other Java frameworks2
- Java has more support and more libraries1
- Supports vast databases1
- Large ecosystem with seamless integration1
- OracleDb integration1
- Live project1
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Cons of Django
- Underpowered templating26
- Autoreload restarts whole server22
- Underpowered ORM22
- URL dispatcher ignores HTTP method15
- Internal subcomponents coupling10
- Not nodejs8
- Configuration hell8
- Admin7
- Not as clean and nice documentation like Laravel5
- Python4
- Not typed3
- Bloated admin panel included3
- Overwhelming folder structure2
- InEffective Multithreading2
- Not type safe1
Cons of Node.js
- Bound to a single CPU46
- New framework every day45
- Lots of terrible examples on the internet40
- Asynchronous programming is the worst33
- Callback24
- Javascript19
- Dependency hell11
- Dependency based on GitHub11
- Low computational power10
- Very very Slow7
- Can block whole server easily7
- Callback functions may not fire on expected sequence7
- Breaking updates4
- Unstable4
- Unneeded over complication3
- No standard approach3
- Bad transitive dependency management1
- Can't read server session1
Cons of Spring
- Draws you into its own ecosystem and bloat15
- Verbose configuration3
- Poor documentation3
- Java3
- Java is more verbose language in compare to python2