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Django REST framework vs Firebase: What are the differences?

Introduction:

Django REST framework and Firebase are both popular platforms used for building web applications. While they serve similar purposes, there are key differences between the two.

  1. Integration with Existing Infrastructure: Django REST framework is a versatile tool that can be easily integrated with existing Django projects. It provides extensive support for database migrations, user authentication, and other Django features. On the other hand, Firebase is a standalone backend-as-a-service platform that provides a complete infrastructure for developing web and mobile applications. It offers real-time database, user authentication, storage, and other services, making it a convenient all-in-one solution.

  2. Scalability: When it comes to scaling applications, Firebase offers more flexibility and scalability compared to Django REST framework. Firebase provides horizontal scalability out-of-the-box, allowing applications to automatically handle increased traffic and load. Django REST framework, on the other hand, requires additional configuration and scaling techniques to handle high volumes of requests.

  3. Real-time Features: Firebase is known for its real-time capabilities, which enable developers to build applications with live and synchronized data updates. Firebase's real-time database and real-time cloud messaging services make it ideal for applications that require instant updates and notifications. In contrast, Django REST framework does not natively support real-time features. Developers would need to use additional technologies like WebSockets or third-party libraries to implement real-time functionality.

  4. Community Support: Django REST framework has a vibrant and active community with a wide range of resources, including tutorials, documentation, and third-party packages. The framework has been around for a longer time, making it a mature and stable option for building RESTful APIs. Firebase also has a growing community but may not have as extensive resources as Django REST framework. However, Firebase's official documentation is comprehensive and provides a good starting point for developers.

  5. Authentication and Authorization: Django REST framework provides robust authentication and authorization mechanisms out-of-the-box. It supports various authentication methods and allows developers to define fine-grained permission rules for accessing API endpoints. Firebase also offers user authentication but follows a different approach. It provides pre-built authentication methods like email/password, social media login, and anonymous authentication. Firebase's authentication is tightly integrated with its other services, making it easy for developers to handle user authentication and authorization.

  6. Development Flexibility: Django REST framework allows developers to have more control over the development process. It provides a highly customizable framework with support for advanced features like custom middleware, serializers, and renderers. Developers have the freedom to choose their preferred tools and libraries to enhance the development experience. Firebase, on the other hand, offers a more opinionated and streamlined approach. It provides a set of predefined features and services that simplify and speed up the development process. While this can be beneficial for rapid prototyping, it may limit the flexibility for advanced customization.

In summary, Django REST framework is a flexible and customizable framework that integrates well with existing Django projects, while Firebase is a complete backend-as-a-service platform offering scalability, real-time features, and a simplified development experience. The choice between the two depends on specific project needs, existing infrastructure, and development preferences.

Advice on Django REST framework and Firebase
kristan-dev
Senior Solutions Analyst · | 8 upvotes · 339.9K views

My journey to developing REST APIs started with Flask Restful, and I've found it to be enough for the needs of my project back then. Now that I've started investing more time on personal projects, I've yet to decide if I should move to use Django for writing REST APIs. I often see job posts looking for Python+Django developers, but it's usually for full-stack developers. I'm primarily interested in Data Engineering, so most of my web projects are back end.

Should I continue with what I know (Flask) or move on to Django?

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Replies (1)
Rafael Torres
Technical Lead at 4Agile · | 9 upvotes · 330.3K views

If you want to be a Web developer with knowledge in another frontend and NoSql technology, maybe continue with Flask. However, if you want to create very fast solutions to grow up with a new business and merge these with data analysis and other tools, Django is the answer. Basically read more about the service architecture where you feel more comfortable, Microservice or Monolithic, but please will not married with any because they solve issues to different contexts.

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Needs advice
on
ApolloApolloFirebaseFirebase
and
Socket.IOSocket.IO

We are starting to work on a web-based platform aiming to connect artists (clients) and professional freelancers (service providers). In-app, timeline-based, real-time communication between users (& storing it), file transfers, and push notifications are essential core features. We are considering using Node.js, ExpressJS, React, MongoDB stack with Socket.IO & Apollo, or maybe using Real-Time Database and functionalities of Firebase.

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Replies (3)
Timothy Malstead
Junior Full Stack Developer at Freelance · | 7 upvotes · 459.8K views
Recommends
on
FirebaseFirebase

I would recommend looking hard into Firebase for this project, especially if you do not have dedicated full-stack or backend members on your team.

The real time database, as you mentioned, is a great option, but I would also look into Firestore. Similar to RTDB, it adds more functions and some cool methods as well. Also, another great thing about Firebase is you have easy access to storage and dead simple auth as well.

Node.js Express MongoDB Socket.IO and Apollo are great technologies as well, and may be the better option if you do not wish to cede as much control to third parties in your application.

Overall, I say if you wish to focus more time developing your React application instead of other parts of your stack, Firebase is a great way to do that.

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Recommends
on
AblyAbly

Hello Noam 👋,

I suggest taking a look at Ably, it has all the realtime features you need and the platform is designed to guarantee critical functionality at scale.

Here is an in depth comparison between Ably and Firebase

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Recommends
on
8base8base

Hey Noam,

I would recommend you to take a look into 8base. It has features you've requested, also relation database and GraphQL API which will help you to develop rapidly.

Thanks, Ilya

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Saurav Pandit
Application Devloper at Bny Mellon · | 6 upvotes · 285.4K views

I have just started learning Python 3 weeks ago. I want to create a REST API using python. The API will be used to save form data in an Oracle database. The front end is using AngularJS 8 with Angular Material. In python, there are so many frameworks to develop REST APIs.

I am looking for some suggestions which REST framework to choose?

Here are some features I am looking for:

  • Easy integration and unit testing, like in Angular. We just want to run a command.

  • Code packaging, like in java maven project we can build and package. I am looking for something which I can push in as an artifact and deploy whole code as a package.

  • Support for swagger/ OpenAPI

  • Support for JSON Web Token

  • Support for test case coverage report

Framework can have features included or can be available by extension. Also, you can suggest a framework other than the ones I have mentioned.

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Replies (1)
Recommends
on
FlaskFlask
at

For starters flask provides a beautiful and easy way to create REST APIs. Also its supported by excellent beginner docs as well as a very active community. Another good thing with Flask is its widely available list of plugins which allow you to build as you go. Its also good in performance and can scale to a quite decent level. However, if you are sure your project is going to be fairly big, it would be better to start with Django as it provides a lot of features out of the box and is extremely stable in performance. Both these frameworks have support for Swagger, JWT, Coverage Report although you have to install plugins for them. Deploying both of these are fairly simple and there is huge documentation available. Django has one of the best documentations I have come across. I hope I was able to answer your queries.

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Pros of Django REST framework
Pros of Firebase
  • 66
    Easy to use
  • 65
    Browsable api
  • 53
    Great documentation
  • 50
    Customizable
  • 42
    Fast development
  • 9
    Easy to use, customizable, pluggable, serializer
  • 8
    Python
  • 7
    Django ORM
  • 5
    FastSerialize
  • 3
    Less code
  • 2
    Easy implementation
  • 371
    Realtime backend made easy
  • 270
    Fast and responsive
  • 242
    Easy setup
  • 215
    Real-time
  • 191
    JSON
  • 134
    Free
  • 128
    Backed by google
  • 83
    Angular adaptor
  • 68
    Reliable
  • 36
    Great customer support
  • 32
    Great documentation
  • 25
    Real-time synchronization
  • 21
    Mobile friendly
  • 18
    Rapid prototyping
  • 14
    Great security
  • 12
    Automatic scaling
  • 11
    Freakingly awesome
  • 8
    Super fast development
  • 8
    Angularfire is an amazing addition!
  • 8
    Chat
  • 6
    Built in user auth/oauth
  • 6
    Ios adaptor
  • 6
    Awesome next-gen backend
  • 6
    Firebase hosting
  • 4
    Speed of light
  • 4
    Very easy to use
  • 3
    Great
  • 3
    It's made development super fast
  • 3
    Brilliant for startups
  • 2
    The concurrent updates create a great experience
  • 2
    Push notification
  • 2
    .net
  • 2
    Cloud functions
  • 2
    Free hosting
  • 2
    Free authentication solution
  • 2
    JS Offline and Sync suport
  • 2
    Low battery consumption
  • 2
    I can quickly create static web apps with no backend
  • 2
    Great all-round functionality
  • 1
    Large
  • 1
    Easy to use
  • 1
    Free SSL
  • 1
    Faster workflow
  • 1
    Google's support
  • 1
    CDN & cache out of the box
  • 1
    Easy Reactjs integration
  • 1
    Simple and easy
  • 1
    Good Free Limits
  • 1
    Serverless

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Cons of Django REST framework
Cons of Firebase
  • 2
    Bad documentation
  • 2
    Reimplements Django functionality
  • 1
    No support for URL Namespaces
  • 0
    Bad CSRF handling
  • 31
    Can become expensive
  • 16
    No open source, you depend on external company
  • 15
    Scalability is not infinite
  • 9
    Not Flexible Enough
  • 7
    Cant filter queries
  • 3
    Very unstable server
  • 3
    No Relational Data
  • 2
    Too many errors
  • 2
    No offline sync

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What is Django REST framework?

It is a powerful and flexible toolkit that makes it easy to build Web APIs.

What is Firebase?

Firebase is a cloud service designed to power real-time, collaborative applications. Simply add the Firebase library to your application to gain access to a shared data structure; any changes you make to that data are automatically synchronized with the Firebase cloud and with other clients within milliseconds.

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What are some alternatives to Django REST framework and Firebase?
Django
Django is a high-level Python Web framework that encourages rapid development and clean, pragmatic design.
Flask
Flask is intended for getting started very quickly and was developed with best intentions in mind.
Tastypie
Tastypie is a webservice API framework for Django. It provides a convenient, yet powerful and highly customizable abstraction for creating REST-style interfaces.
Swagger UI
Swagger UI is a dependency-free collection of HTML, Javascript, and CSS assets that dynamically generate beautiful documentation and sandbox from a Swagger-compliant API
Graphene
Graphene is a Python library for building GraphQL schemas/types fast and easily.
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